Cousin Kate

• "Why did a great lord find me out/ and praise my flaxen hair?"
• "He lured me to his palace-home [...] to lead a shameless shameful life"
• "his plaything and his love [...] he changed me like a glove"
• "he saw you at your father's gate [...] he watched your steps along the lane, /your sport among the rye: /he lifted you"
• "even so I sit and howl in dust/ you sit in gold and sing [...] you had the stronger wing"
• "my fair-haired son, my shame, my pride, /cling closer, closer [....] to wear his coronet"
• • Lived/wrote in Victorian Era (women had harsh social expectations) ---> had to be chaste, else "fallen women"
  • But, men could use prostitutes as outlet of sexual desires (even if married)
  • Rossetti thought it was unfair - protested for women's rights through her poems
  • She helped "fallen women" + volunteered St. Mary Magdalene's House of Charity in Highgate
  • Remained unmarried