Mid-19th-century poetry

My Last Duchess
Robert Browning

FERRARA

1: That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,
2: Looking as if she were alive. I call
3: That piece a wonder, now; Fra Pandolf’s hands
4: Worked busily a day, and there she stands.
5: Will’t please you sit and look at her? I said
6: “Fra Pandolf” by design, for never read
7: Strangers like you that pictured countenance,
8: The depth and passion of its earnest glance,
9: But to myself they turned (since none puts by
10: The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)
11: And seemed as they would ask me, if they durst,
12: How such a glance came there; so, not the first
13: Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir, ’twas not
14: Her husband’s presence only, called that spot
15: Of joy into the Duchess’ cheek; perhaps
16: Fra Pandolf chanced to say, “Her mantle laps
17: Over my lady’s wrist too much,” or “Paint
18: Must never hope to reproduce the faint
19: Half-flush that dies along her throat.” Such stuff
20: Was courtesy, she thought, and cause enough
21: For calling up that spot of joy. She had
22: A heart—how shall I say?— too soon made glad,
23: Too easily impressed; she liked whate’er
24: She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.
25: Sir, ’twas all one! My favour at her breast,
26: The dropping of the daylight in the West,
27: The bough of cherries some officious fool
28: Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
29: She rode with round the terrace—all and each
30: Would draw from her alike the approving speech,
31: Or blush, at least. She thanked men—good! but thanked
32: Somehow—I know not how—as if she ranked
33: My gift of a nine-hundred-years-old name
34: With anybody’s gift. Who’d stoop to blame
35: This sort of trifling? Even had you skill
36: In speech—which I have not—to make your will
37: Quite clear to such an one, and say, “Just this
38: Or that in you disgusts me; here you miss,
39: Or there exceed the mark”—and if she let
40: Herself be lessoned so, nor plainly set
41: Her wits to yours, forsooth, and made excuse—
42: E’en then would be some stooping; and I choose
43: Never to stoop. Oh, sir, she smiled, no doubt,
44: Whene’er I passed her; but who passed without
45: Much the same smile? This grew; I gave commands;
46: Then all smiles stopped together. There she stands
47: As if alive. Will’t please you rise? We’ll meet
48: The company below, then. I repeat,
49: The Count your master’s known munificence
50: Is ample warrant that no just pretense
51: Of mine for dowry will be disallowed;
52: Though his fair daughter’s self, as I avowed
53: At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll go
54: Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
55: Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
56: Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!

1842

© 2022 Poetry Foundation

Goblin Market
Christina Rossetti

1: Morning and evening
2: Maids heard the goblins cry:
3: “Come buy our orchard fruits,
4: Come buy, come buy:
5: Apples and quinces,
6: Lemons and oranges,
7: Plump unpeck’d cherries,
8: Melons and raspberries,
9: Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,
10: Swart-headed mulberries,
11: Wild free-born cranberries,
12: Crab-apples, dewberries,
13: Pine-apples, blackberries,
14: Apricots, strawberries;—
15: All ripe together
16: In summer weather,—
17: Morns that pass by,
18: Fair eves that fly;
19: Come buy, come buy:
20: Our grapes fresh from the vine,
21: Pomegranates full and fine,
22: Dates and sharp bullaces,
23: Rare pears and greengages,
24: Damsons and bilberries,
25: Taste them and try:
26: Currants and gooseberries,
27: Bright-fire-like barberries,
28: Figs to fill your mouth,
29: Citrons from the South,
30: Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;
31: Come buy, come buy.”

32: Evening by evening
33: Among the brookside rushes,
34: Laura bow’d her head to hear,
35: Lizzie veil’d her blushes:
36: Crouching close together
37: In the cooling weather,
38: With clasping arms and cautioning lips,
39: With tingling cheeks and finger tips.
40: “Lie close,” Laura said,
41: Pricking up her golden head:
42: “We must not look at goblin men,
43: We must not buy their fruits:
44: Who knows upon what soil they fed
45: Their hungry thirsty roots?”
46: “Come buy,” call the goblins
47: Hobbling down the glen.

48: “Oh,” cried Lizzie, “Laura, Laura,
49: You should not peep at goblin men.”
50: Lizzie cover’d up her eyes,
51: Cover’d close lest they should look;
52: Laura rear’d her glossy head,
53: And whisper’d like the restless brook:
54: “Look, Lizzie, look, Lizzie,
55: Down the glen tramp little men.
56: One hauls a basket,
57: One bears a plate,
58: One lugs a golden dish
59: Of many pounds weight.
60: How fair the vine must grow
61: Whose grapes are so luscious;
62: How warm the wind must blow
63: Through those fruit bushes.”
64: “No,” said Lizzie, “No, no, no;
65: Their offers should not charm us,
66: Their evil gifts would harm us.”
67: She thrust a dimpled finger
68: In each ear, shut eyes and ran:
69: Curious Laura chose to linger
70: Wondering at each merchant man.
71: One had a cat’s face,
72: One whisk’d a tail,
73: One tramp’d at a rat’s pace,
74: One crawl’d like a snail,
75: One like a wombat prowl’d obtuse and furry,
76: One like a ratel tumbled hurry skurry.
77: She heard a voice like voice of doves
78: Cooing all together:
79: They sounded kind and full of loves
80: In the pleasant weather.

81: Laura stretch’d her gleaming neck
82: Like a rush-imbedded swan,
83: Like a lily from the beck,
84: Like a moonlit poplar branch,
85: Like a vessel at the launch
86: When its last restraint is gone.

87: Backwards up the mossy glen
88: Turn’d and troop’d the goblin men,
89: With their shrill repeated cry,
90: “Come buy, come buy.”
91: When they reach’d where Laura was
92: They stood stock still upon the moss,
93: Leering at each other,
94: Brother with queer brother;
95: Signalling each other,
96: Brother with sly brother.
97: One set his basket down,
98: One rear’d his plate;
99: One began to weave a crown
100: Of tendrils, leaves, and rough nuts brown
101: (Men sell not such in any town);
102: One heav’d the golden weight
103: Of dish and fruit to offer her:
104: “Come buy, come buy,” was still their cry.
105: Laura stared but did not stir,
106: Long’d but had no money:
107: The whisk-tail’d merchant bade her taste
108: In tones as smooth as honey,
109: The cat-faced purr’d,
110: The rat-faced spoke a word
111: Of welcome, and the snail-paced even was heard;
112: One parrot-voiced and jolly
113: Cried “Pretty Goblin” still for “Pretty Polly;”—
114: One whistled like a bird.

115: But sweet-tooth Laura spoke in haste:
116: “Good folk, I have no coin;
117: To take were to purloin:
118: I have no copper in my purse,
119: I have no silver either,
120: And all my gold is on the furze
121: That shakes in windy weather
122: Above the rusty heather.”
123: “You have much gold upon your head,”
124: They answer’d all together:
125: “Buy from us with a golden curl.”
126: She clipp’d a precious golden lock,
127: She dropp’d a tear more rare than pearl,
128: Then suck’d their fruit globes fair or red:
129: Sweeter than honey from the rock,
130: Stronger than man-rejoicing wine,
131: Clearer than water flow’d that juice;
132: She never tasted such before,
133: How should it cloy with length of use?
134: She suck’d and suck’d and suck’d the more
135: Fruits which that unknown orchard bore;
136: She suck’d until her lips were sore;
137: Then flung the emptied rinds away
138: But gather’d up one kernel stone,
139: And knew not was it night or day
140: As she turn’d home alone.

141: Lizzie met her at the gate
142: Full of wise upbraidings:
143: “Dear, you should not stay so late,
144: Twilight is not good for maidens;
145: Should not loiter in the glen
146: In the haunts of goblin men.
147: Do you not remember Jeanie,
148: How she met them in the moonlight,
149: Took their gifts both choice and many,
150: Ate their fruits and wore their flowers
151: Pluck’d from bowers
152: Where summer ripens at all hours?
153: But ever in the noonlight
154: She pined and pined away;
155: Sought them by night and day,
156: Found them no more, but dwindled and grew grey;
157: Then fell with the first snow,
158: While to this day no grass will grow
159: Where she lies low:
160: I planted daisies there a year ago
161: That never blow.
162: You should not loiter so.”
163: “Nay, hush,” said Laura:
164: “Nay, hush, my sister:
165: I ate and ate my fill,
166: Yet my mouth waters still;
167: To-morrow night I will
168: Buy more;” and kiss’d her:
169: “Have done with sorrow;
170: I’ll bring you plums to-morrow
171: Fresh on their mother twigs,
172: Cherries worth getting;
173: You cannot think what figs
174: My teeth have met in,
175: What melons icy-cold
176: Piled on a dish of gold
177: Too huge for me to hold,
178: What peaches with a velvet nap,
179: Pellucid grapes without one seed:
180: Odorous indeed must be the mead
181: Whereon they grow, and pure the wave they drink
182: With lilies at the brink,
183: And sugar-sweet their sap.”

184: Golden head by golden head,
185: Like two pigeons in one nest
186: Folded in each other’s wings,
187: They lay down in their curtain’d bed:
188: Like two blossoms on one stem,
189: Like two flakes of new-fall’n snow,
190: Like two wands of ivory
191: Tipp’d with gold for awful kings.
192: Moon and stars gaz’d in at them,
193: Wind sang to them lullaby,
194: Lumbering owls forbore to fly,
195: Not a bat flapp’d to and fro
196: Round their rest:
197: Cheek to cheek and breast to breast
198: Lock’d together in one nest.

199: Early in the morning
200: When the first cock crow’d his warning,
201: Neat like bees, as sweet and busy,
202: Laura rose with Lizzie:
203: Fetch’d in honey, milk’d the cows,
204: Air’d and set to rights the house,
205: Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat,
206: Cakes for dainty mouths to eat,
207: Next churn’d butter, whipp’d up cream,
208: Fed their poultry, sat and sew’d;
209: Talk’d as modest maidens should:
210: Lizzie with an open heart,
211: Laura in an absent dream,
212: One content, one sick in part;
213: One warbling for the mere bright day’s delight,
214: One longing for the night.

215: At length slow evening came:
216: They went with pitchers to the reedy brook;
217: Lizzie most placid in her look,
218: Laura most like a leaping flame.
219: They drew the gurgling water from its deep;
220: Lizzie pluck’d purple and rich golden flags,
221: Then turning homeward said: “The sunset flushes
222: Those furthest loftiest crags;
223: Come, Laura, not another maiden lags.
224: No wilful squirrel wags,
225: The beasts and birds are fast asleep.”
226: But Laura loiter’d still among the rushes
227: And said the bank was steep.

228: And said the hour was early still
229: The dew not fall’n, the wind not chill;
230: Listening ever, but not catching
231: The customary cry,
232: “Come buy, come buy,”
233: With its iterated jingle
234: Of sugar-baited words:
235: Not for all her watching
236: Once discerning even one goblin
237: Racing, whisking, tumbling, hobbling;
238: Let alone the herds
239: That used to tramp along the glen,
240: In groups or single,
241: Of brisk fruit-merchant men.

242: Till Lizzie urged, “O Laura, come;
243: I hear the fruit-call but I dare not look:
244: You should not loiter longer at this brook:
245: Come with me home.
246: The stars rise, the moon bends her arc,
247: Each glowworm winks her spark,
248: Let us get home before the night grows dark:
249: For clouds may gather
250: Though this is summer weather,
251: Put out the lights and drench us through;
252: Then if we lost our way what should we do?”

253: Laura turn’d cold as stone
254: To find her sister heard that cry alone,
255: That goblin cry,
256: “Come buy our fruits, come buy.”
257: Must she then buy no more such dainty fruit?
258: Must she no more such succous pasture find,
259: Gone deaf and blind?
260: Her tree of life droop’d from the root:
261: She said not one word in her heart’s sore ache;
262: But peering thro’ the dimness, nought discerning,
263: Trudg’d home, her pitcher dripping all the way;
264: So crept to bed, and lay
265: Silent till Lizzie slept;
266: Then sat up in a passionate yearning,
267: And gnash’d her teeth for baulk’d desire, and wept
268: As if her heart would break.

269: Day after day, night after night,
270: Laura kept watch in vain
271: In sullen silence of exceeding pain.
272: She never caught again the goblin cry:
273: “Come buy, come buy;”—
274: She never spied the goblin men
275: Hawking their fruits along the glen:
276: But when the noon wax’d bright
277: Her hair grew thin and grey;
278: She dwindled, as the fair full moon doth turn
279: To swift decay and burn
280: Her fire away.

281: One day remembering her kernel-stone
282: She set it by a wall that faced the south;
283: Dew’d it with tears, hoped for a root,
284: Watch’d for a waxing shoot,
285: But there came none;
286: It never saw the sun,
287: It never felt the trickling moisture run:
288: While with sunk eyes and faded mouth
289: She dream’d of melons, as a traveller sees
290: False waves in desert drouth
291: With shade of leaf-crown’d trees,
292: And burns the thirstier in the sandful breeze.

293: She no more swept the house,
294: Tended the fowls or cows,
295: Fetch’d honey, kneaded cakes of wheat,
296: Brought water from the brook:
297: But sat down listless in the chimney-nook
298: And would not eat.

299: Tender Lizzie could not bear
300: To watch her sister’s cankerous care
301: Yet not to share.
302: She night and morning
303: Caught the goblins’ cry:
304: “Come buy our orchard fruits,
305: Come buy, come buy;”—
306: Beside the brook, along the glen,
307: She heard the tramp of goblin men,
308: The yoke and stir
309: Poor Laura could not hear;
310: Long’d to buy fruit to comfort her,
311: But fear’d to pay too dear.
312: She thought of Jeanie in her grave,
313: Who should have been a bride;
314: But who for joys brides hope to have
315: Fell sick and died
316: In her gay prime,
317: In earliest winter time
318: With the first glazing rime,
319: With the first snow-fall of crisp winter time.

320: Till Laura dwindling
321: Seem’d knocking at Death’s door:
322: Then Lizzie weigh’d no more
323: Better and worse;
324: But put a silver penny in her purse,
325: Kiss’d Laura, cross’d the heath with clumps of furze
326: At twilight, halted by the brook:
327: And for the first time in her life
328: Began to listen and look.

329: Laugh’d every goblin
330: When they spied her peeping:
331: Came towards her hobbling,
332: Flying, running, leaping,
333: Puffing and blowing,
334: Chuckling, clapping, crowing,
335: Clucking and gobbling,
336: Mopping and mowing,
337: Full of airs and graces,
338: Pulling wry faces,
339: Demure grimaces,
340: Cat-like and rat-like,
341: Ratel- and wombat-like,
342: Snail-paced in a hurry,
343: Parrot-voiced and whistler,
344: Helter skelter, hurry skurry,
345: Chattering like magpies,
346: Fluttering like pigeons,
347: Gliding like fishes,—
348: Hugg’d her and kiss’d her:
349: Squeez’d and caress’d her:
350: Stretch’d up their dishes,
351: Panniers, and plates:
352: “Look at our apples
353: Russet and dun,
354: Bob at our cherries,
355: Bite at our peaches,
356: Citrons and dates,
357: Grapes for the asking,
358: Pears red with basking
359: Out in the sun,
360: Plums on their twigs;
361: Pluck them and suck them,
362: Pomegranates, figs.”—

363: “Good folk,” said Lizzie,
364: Mindful of Jeanie:
365: “Give me much and many: —
366: Held out her apron,
367: Toss’d them her penny.
368: “Nay, take a seat with us,
369: Honour and eat with us,”
370: They answer’d grinning:
371: “Our feast is but beginning.
372: Night yet is early,
373: Warm and dew-pearly,
374: Wakeful and starry:
375: Such fruits as these
376: No man can carry:
377: Half their bloom would fly,
378: Half their dew would dry,
379: Half their flavour would pass by.
380: Sit down and feast with us,
381: Be welcome guest with us,
382: Cheer you and rest with us.”—
383: “Thank you,” said Lizzie: “But one waits
384: At home alone for me:
385: So without further parleying,
386: If you will not sell me any
387: Of your fruits though much and many,
388: Give me back my silver penny
389: I toss’d you for a fee.”—
390: They began to scratch their pates,
391: No longer wagging, purring,
392: But visibly demurring,
393: Grunting and snarling.
394: One call’d her proud,
395: Cross-grain’d, uncivil;
396: Their tones wax’d loud,
397: Their looks were evil.
398: Lashing their tails
399: They trod and hustled her,
400: Elbow’d and jostled her,
401: Claw’d with their nails,
402: Barking, mewing, hissing, mocking,
403: Tore her gown and soil’d her stocking,
404: Twitch’d her hair out by the roots,
405: Stamp’d upon her tender feet,
406: Held her hands and squeez’d their fruits
407: Against her mouth to make her eat.

408: White and golden Lizzie stood,
409: Like a lily in a flood,—
410: Like a rock of blue-vein’d stone
411: Lash’d by tides obstreperously,—
412: Like a beacon left alone
413: In a hoary roaring sea,
414: Sending up a golden fire,—
415: Like a fruit-crown’d orange-tree
416: White with blossoms honey-sweet
417: Sore beset by wasp and bee,—
418: Like a royal virgin town
419: Topp’d with gilded dome and spire
420: Close beleaguer’d by a fleet
421: Mad to tug her standard down.

422: One may lead a horse to water,
423: Twenty cannot make him drink.
424: Though the goblins cuff’d and caught her,
425: Coax’d and fought her,
426: Bullied and besought her,
427: Scratch’d her, pinch’d her black as ink,
428: Kick’d and knock’d her,
429: Maul’d and mock’d her,
430: Lizzie utter’d not a word;
431: Would not open lip from lip
432: Lest they should cram a mouthful in:
433: But laugh’d in heart to feel the drip
434: Of juice that syrupp’d all her face,
435: And lodg’d in dimples of her chin,
436: And streak’d her neck which quaked like curd.
437: At last the evil people,
438: Worn out by her resistance,
439: Flung back her penny, kick’d their fruit
440: Along whichever road they took,
441: Not leaving root or stone or shoot;
442: Some writh’d into the ground,
443: Some div’d into the brook
444: With ring and ripple,
445: Some scudded on the gale without a sound,
446: Some vanish’d in the distance.

447: In a smart, ache, tingle,
448: Lizzie went her way;
449: Knew not was it night or day;
450: Sprang up the bank, tore thro’ the furze,
451: Threaded copse and dingle,
452: And heard her penny jingle
453: Bouncing in her purse,—
454: Its bounce was music to her ear.
455: She ran and ran
456: As if she fear’d some goblin man
457: Dogg’d her with gibe or curse
458: Or something worse:
459: But not one goblin scurried after,
460: Nor was she prick’d by fear;
461: The kind heart made her windy-paced
462: That urged her home quite out of breath with haste
463: And inward laughter.

464: She cried, “Laura,” up the garden,
465: “Did you miss me?
466: Come and kiss me.
467: Never mind my bruises,
468: Hug me, kiss me, suck my juices
469: Squeez’d from goblin fruits for you,
470: Goblin pulp and goblin dew.
471: Eat me, drink me, love me;
472: Laura, make much of me;
473: For your sake I have braved the glen
474: And had to do with goblin merchant men.”

475: Laura started from her chair,
476: Flung her arms up in the air,
477: Clutch’d her hair:
478: “Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted
479: For my sake the fruit forbidden?
480: Must your light like mine be hidden,
481: Your young life like mine be wasted,
482: Undone in mine undoing,
483: And ruin’d in my ruin,
484: Thirsty, canker’d, goblin-ridden?”—
485: She clung about her sister,
486: Kiss’d and kiss’d and kiss’d her:
487: Tears once again
488: Refresh’d her shrunken eyes,
489: Dropping like rain
490: After long sultry drouth;
491: Shaking with anguish, fear, and pain,
492: She kiss’d and kiss’d her with a hungry mouth.

493: Her lips began to scorch,
494: That juice was wormwood to her tongue,
495: She loath’d the feast:
496: Writhing as one possess’d she leap’d and sung,
497: Rent all her robe, and wrung
498: Her hands in lamentable haste,
499: And beat her breast.
500: Her locks stream’d like the torch
501: Borne by a racer at full speed,
502: Or like the mane of horses in their flight,
503: Or like an eagle when she stems the light
504: Straight toward the sun,
505: Or like a caged thing freed,
506: Or like a flying flag when armies run.

507: Swift fire spread through her veins, knock’d at her heart,
508: Met the fire smouldering there
509: And overbore its lesser flame;
510: She gorged on bitterness without a name:
511: Ah! fool, to choose such part
512: Of soul-consuming care!
513: Sense fail’d in the mortal strife:
514: Like the watch-tower of a town
515: Which an earthquake shatters down,
516: Like a lightning-stricken mast,
517: Like a wind-uprooted tree
518: Spun about,
519: Like a foam-topp’d waterspout
520: Cast down headlong in the sea,
521: She fell at last;
522: Pleasure past and anguish past,
523: Is it death or is it life?

524: Life out of death.
525: That night long Lizzie watch’d by her,
526: Counted her pulse’s flagging stir,
527: Felt for her breath,
528: Held water to her lips, and cool’d her face
529: With tears and fanning leaves:
530: But when the first birds chirp’d about their eaves,
531: And early reapers plodded to the place
532: Of golden sheaves,
533: And dew-wet grass
534: Bow’d in the morning winds so brisk to pass,
535: And new buds with new day
536: Open’d of cup-like lilies on the stream,
537: Laura awoke as from a dream,
538: Laugh’d in the innocent old way,
539: Hugg’d Lizzie but not twice or thrice;
540: Her gleaming locks show’d not one thread of grey,
541: Her breath was sweet as May
542: And light danced in her eyes.

543: Days, weeks, months, years
544: Afterwards, when both were wives
545: With children of their own;
546: Their mother-hearts beset with fears,
547: Their lives bound up in tender lives;
548: Laura would call the little ones
549: And tell them of her early prime,
550: Those pleasant days long gone
551: Of not-returning time:
552: Would talk about the haunted glen,
553: The wicked, quaint fruit-merchant men,
554: Their fruits like honey to the throat
555: But poison in the blood;
556: (Men sell not such in any town):
557: Would tell them how her sister stood
558: In deadly peril to do her good,
559: And win the fiery antidote:
560: Then joining hands to little hands
561: Would bid them cling together,
562: “For there is no friend like a sister
563: In calm or stormy weather;
564: To cheer one on the tedious way,
565: To fetch one if one goes astray,
566: To lift one if one totters down,
567: To strengthen whilst one stands.”

1859

© 2022 Poetry Foundation