Blonde Hair (Symbol)
The speaker's blonde hair arises several times throughout "Cousin Kate" and comes to symbolize the speaker herself. In the earliest section of the poem, blondness is linked to her simple innocence, and is described with the word "flaxen," recalling associations of nature, domesticity, and the rustic. Later, the speaker and Kate compete to be the most "fair": Rossetti puns on the multiple meanings of this word to recall the description of her speaker's blonde hair. Later in the poem, the speaker gives birth to a light-haired child, fathered by the lord. The child's blondness serves as a link to the speaker, emphasizing both the power and the shame that motherhood carries for her.
The Cottage and the Palace (Symbol)
Rossetti juxtaposes the speaker's original cottage home with the lord's palace, making each home a symbol of the respective characters' social status and wealth. The speaker grows up in a cottage, suggesting that she is not wealthy, but also evoking images of a quaint agricultural lifestyle. The lord lives in a palace, or at least a grand home similar to one, hinting not only that he has enough money to live well but also that he enjoys a monarch-like level of power and prestige. The speaker's leaving of her own cottage and her entrance into the lord's palace therefore marks the end of her maidenhood and the start of her subjugation.
Clothing and Accessories (Motif)
One way to track the story of "Cousin Kate" is through clothing, which is invoked both literally and metaphorically. The speaker compares her own treatment by the lord to that of a glove or tie, suggesting that she is used sexually the same way that a piece of clothing is used. Kate, in contrast, is associated with a wedding ring. She is not compared to the ring, of course, but rather is given one: rather than being similar to an object, she receives one, and a highly significant one at that. Finally, the speaker ends the poem by insinuating that her son will one day wear his father's coronet and become his heir. Thus, though she may be like a piece of clothing, her own son will one day be in a position of ownership rather than in a state of objectification.
