Sister Maude

Who told my mother of my shame,
Who told my father of my dear?
Oh who but Maude, my sister Maude,
Who lurked to spy and peer.

Cold he lies, as cold as stone,
With his clotted curls about his face:
The comeliest corpse in all the world
And worthy of a queen's embrace.

You might have spared his soul, sister,
Have spared my soul, your own soul too:
Though I had not been born at all,
He'd never have looked at you.

My father may sleep in Paradise,
My mother at Heaven-gate:
But sister Maude shall get no sleep
Either early or late.

My father may wear a golden gown,
My mother a crown may win;
If my dear and I knocked at Heaven-gate
Perhaps they'd let us in:
But sister Maude, oh sister Maude,
Bide you with death and sin.

I don't have access to Marsh's comments on this one - I'll add them later, when I have the book in front of me. My impressions? The tone is vindictive - completely unlike the image of sisters that we see both in "Goblin Market" and in the life of the poet. By all accounts, Christina and Maria, her sister, were devoted to each other - "Goblin Market" was dedicated to Maria. This poem carries none of the "no friend like a sister" moralizing present at the problematic end of "Goblin Market." Rather the speaker curses Maude for betraying her and her lover. The implication is that jealousy is at the root of it. Maude wishes the beloved were her own, for the poet mentions that even if she (speaker) had not been born, he still would not have even looked at Maude. The poem's rhyme scheme in the first four stanzas is characteristic of a ballad (abcb) with the last stanza having the rhyme scheme abcbdb. Stanzas 1, 4, and 5 all draw comparison between Maude and the other members of the family (specifically Mother and Father), while stanzas 2 and 3 develop information about the poet, her love, and her sister's jealousy. What becomes most significant is the classifying of degrees of sin and guilt. Though never stated, an illicit relationship between the speaker and the beloved is implied by words like "shame" as well as by the fact that the speaker question whether or not she and her lover will be admitted into heaven (the fact that their sin is linked implies a sexual transgression). Maude's treachery is considered to be a more weighty sin than fornication - the poet damns her to hell. A major reason for this may be found in the implication that Maude's action directly or indirectly caused the man's premature death (Did the father kill him? Did he die of grief or shame?).

This is the sort of poem I imagine CGR being embarrassed by in later life; the human passion (eros) has yet to be sublimated by the divine passion (agape). Yet the spiritual is not far off: the attainment or loss of heavenly reward is still at stake. That CGR most often sympathized with the fallen woman in her works is apparent, but again we need to be careful not to spend too much time making assumptions about the poet's own life. It is enough to know the theme is an important one to her body of work. This theme stands out more in her early work, but is replaced by themes of religious longing as time goes by.

Personally, this poem does not resonate strongly with me. I've never been a fan of the ballad form. The almost violent nature of the speaker is interesting for CGR, but there remains something contrived about it.

What do you think, gentle readers?

A quick note: Marsh's only comment regarding this poem is to say that it was first published in 1862, but later repressed by CGR. This confirms my suspicions that she may have later regretted the tone of this piece.