An apple gathering Flashcards
what is the form/rhyme of this poem?
The poem has 7 quatrains with an ABAB interlocking rhyme scheme, resembling an old ballad—a lament over lost love.
While folk songs often have a steady meter, the irregular line lengths disrupt the rhythm, reflecting the speaker’s raw, fresh heartbreak.
what is the speaker of this poem? what language is used?
The narrator (not the poet) speaks in first person (“I”), conveying regret and hopelessness.
She is a pariah, shunned for her sexual transgression.
The dominant metaphor is apples, symbolizing temptation and premature self-indulgence—a reference to Eve’s sin in Genesis.
what is the context of this poem?
Written in 1857, published in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862).
Written after Rossetti’s breakup with James Collinson, due to religious differences.
The heroine is a “fallen woman,” rejected by society for premarital sex—a common Victorian theme in Rossetti’s poetry.
St Mary’s Penitary for fallen women]religious crisis 1854
what are the themes of this poem?
Sexism and double standards
Heartbreak and betrayal
Role of women
Innocence, virginity, religious faith
Fading love, greed?
what poem(s) could you compare this to?
goblin market, Maude clare, a birthday, the world
“I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree / and wore them all that evening in my hair”
Possession: ‘mine’—her story alone.
Plosive sounds (“p” and “b”) create tension, clashing with the sweetness of blossoms.
Pride in chastity: ‘in my hair’—not hidden.
“That evening”—a significant, memorable night.
Pink blossoms = warm flesh—possible loss of virginity/heart.
“Then in due season when I went to see / I found no apples there.”
Consequence of her past actions—an indirect confession of love before its time.
Plucking blossoms = premature romantic experience—before she was ready.
Short last stanza line = emphasis.
“Due season”—she acknowledges she acted too soon.
Apple = original sin, temptation.
Her downfall: now deprived of joy, love, or reputation.
“With dangling basket all along the grass / as I had come I went the selfsame track: / my neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass / so empty-handed back.”
Society condemns her for losing her virginity.
Empty basket = lost innocence—no other man will accept her.
Nothing left to offer (even to God/Jesus?).
“Selfsame track”—she tries to retrace her steps, but there’s no going back.
“Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by, / their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer; / sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky, / their mother’s home was near.”
Names (Lilian, Lilias) recall lilies—symbols of the Virgin Mary.
Full baskets = virtue, happiness, future rewards (good marriages).
Mother’s home = protection.
Alternatively, “trudging” = pregnancy, but they weren’t abandoned.
Sibilance (‘s’ sounds) = whispering loss of joy, love, acceptance.
“Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full, / a stronger hand than hers helped it along;”
‘Plump’ = not just physical but ‘overfed’ with happiness.
The speaker envies Gertrude’s love and security.
‘Stronger hand’ = Willie, her ex-lover—his presence first introduced through his physicality.
‘Passed me’ = both literal and symbolic—Gertrude has moved on, but the speaker has not.
“A voice talker with her through the shadows cool / more sweet to me than song.”
“Hand” and “voice” = Willie’s power over the speaker.
His name is avoided—too painful to say.
“Shadows cool” = end of the day/love, secrecy, or shame.
“Cool” = her heartbreak and jealousy.
“More sweet” = excessiveness—he gave her intimacy, love, sex, which she wasn’t allowed.
“Ah, Willie, Willie, was my love less worth / than apples with their green leaves piled above?”
Alliteration (‘w’ and ‘l’) = clinging to love and lost reputation.
Her love meant nothing to him.
Double standard: Willie faces no consequences, but she is ruined.
“I counted rosiest apples on the earth / of far less worth than love.”
Her chastity (“rosiest apple”) mattered less than love to her.
Now she has lost everything—her virginity, reputation, and Willie.
“So once it was with me you stooped to talk”
“Stooped” = literal and symbolic—he looked down on her, possibly took advantage.
“Laughing and listening in this very lane; / to think that by this way we used to walk / we shall not walk again!”
No future together.
“We shall not walk again” = metaphor for permanent separation.
Drawn-out ‘w’ and ‘l’ sounds = wailing, lamenting.
“Th” sounds = thick, choked, like her emotions.
“We shall not” (direct and final)—acceptance or defiance?
Could reflect Rossetti’s support for fallen women.
“I let my neighbours pass me, ones and twos / and groups; the latest said the night grew chill, / and hastened:”
Society rejects her, she lingers alone.
Nightfall = end of her chances for love/life.
“Chill” = pathetic fallacy—society’s coldness toward fallen women.
“I let” = acceptance of fate.
More and more people pass—her life moves on without her.
“Grew chill” = ironic—her apples didn’t grow, but the cold did.
“But I loitered, while the dews / fell fast I loitered still.”
Final sense of discomfort.
“Fell fast” = fallen woman.
Repetition of “I loitered” = she has nowhere to go.
“Dews” = life continues without her.
“Still” = she won’t move on—trapped by her past
