Keep It Short #30 Me? Listen to Audio?! #34

I can't say that I've missed my Keep It Short feature as much as I've missed My Victorian Year. But. I did manage to listen to Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market at Librivox. I haven't listened to the rest of the poems from Goblin Market and Other Poems yet. But this poem--it's about twenty minutes in length--is a gem. I LOVE this poem so much.

You may read the poem in its entirety at Poetry Foundation.   It is about two sisters, Laura and Lizzie. And, of course, it features goblins selling forbidden fruit and other goodies. One sister is tempted beyond what she can stand, and, well, you should read it for yourself!

Morning and evening

Maids heard the goblins cry:

“Come buy our orchard fruits,

Come buy, come buy:

Apples and quinces,

Lemons and oranges,

Plump unpeck’d cherries,

Melons and raspberries,

Bloom-down-cheek’d peaches,

Swart-headed mulberries,

Wild free-born cranberries,

Crab-apples, dewberries,

Pine-apples, blackberries,

Apricots, strawberries;—

All ripe together

In summer weather,—

Morns that pass by,

Fair eves that fly;

Come buy, come buy:

Our grapes fresh from the vine,

Pomegranates full and fine,

Dates and sharp bullaces,

Rare pears and greengages,

Damsons and bilberries,

Taste them and try:

Currants and gooseberries,

Bright-fire-like barberries,

Figs to fill your mouth,

Citrons from the South,

Sweet to tongue and sound to eye;

Come buy, come buy.”

I enjoyed LISTENING to this one. I think poetry benefits from being read aloud. 

© 2018 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews