Article Analysis
The cries of the goblin merchants give the story its haunting quality. Lizzie is more sensible than Laura, so she is more protective when it comes to heeding the cries, and she ends up protecting Laura.
Repeating Lizzie’s warnings over and over again provides an “aural lesson” for the reader, as well as for Laura.
There is some disagreement as to whether the nature of the cries is local in context or provides a larger comment about the class war. Rossetti’s poem is somewhere between the sounds of the streets around her and the literary evocations of that city that transform sounds into words. London had a reputation for being filled with a huge array of noises ...
