Overall message

The poem's heroine is a 'fallen' woman; one deemed unworthy by society, usually as a result of sexual experience outside marriage. The dominant metaphor is of apples as the symbol of temptation and premature self-indulgence, a biblical allusion to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge that Eve tasted in Genesis, the temptation that resulted in the Fall of Man. Apples - it was medieval iconology that associated the apple with original sin

Structure

The poem comprises of seven quatrains with an ABAB interlocking rhyme scheme - exception in fourth quatrain. Metrical rhythm - Iambic pentameter with the last line of each Stanza Iambic tetrameter, giving the last line of each stanza extra emphasis. 1st person persona. Tone - regret and hopelessness. The speaker is a pariah, marginalised by society for her sexual misdemeanour.

Context

Composed 1857. Written shortly after Rossetti lost her first love - Collinson. Rossetti's poems are never directly confessional but this arguably had personal undertones. St Mary Magdalene Home for Fallen Women. 'Fallen Women' = the respectable term for prostitutes or women who had sex out of wedlock. The charity gave them shelter and work, seeking to rehabilitate them and steer them on to a more socially acceptable path. Rossetti volunteered here from 1859-70, where she was known as 'Sister Christina'. Her later poetry, which engages with themes of sisterhood and prohibited love, reveal the enduring influence of her firsthand experiences at Highgate/ During the 19th century prostitution was commonly referred to as 'the social evil'.

"I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple tree/ And wore them all that evening in my hair:/ Then in due season when I went to see/ I found no apples there."

Proper and appropriate time not observed 'Due Season' - persona now in their 'due season' of maturity. Not necessarily judgment rather why those who don't observe Victorian, Christian social conventions suffer. Apples have a clear biblical link to The Fall and Sin. 'I plucked pink blossoms from mine apple-tree' - plosives suggest unease, at odds with the visual sweetness of flowers. Flowers come to represent temptation. Possessive 'mine' - as if the speaker alone has experienced these blossoms and the story that will follow will be exclusively hers. 'Wore them all evening' - suggests indiscretion - she doesn't hide what we learn is her willing loss of her chastity. 'then in due season when I went to see/ I found no apples there" - an indirect, symbolic confession. Suggests her enjoyment of some sort of romantic relationship before she was ready. The short last line of the stanza gives it emphasis. Now unable to father her apples - find opportunities for romantic and marital happiness - as society stigmatises unchaste women.

"With dangling basket all along the grass/ As I had come I went the selfsame track:/ My neighbours mocked me while they saw me pass/ So empty-handed back."

Her tree produced no apples is it was plucked before it's maturity. Societal judgement. 'dangling basket' - her dispondence. She hasn't the energy or will to walk with vigour or confidence. Broken. 'emply-handed' not only in the sense of having literally no apples, but also having lost something important, more abstract. Societal ostracisation. Her 'fall' is visible to all those around her. Apples quickly come to represent societal success, acceptance and the fruit of a good marriage. These things are now denied to the speaker, all due to her decision to pick the pink flowers before the apples were ready.

"Lilians and Lilias smiled in trudging by,/ Their heaped-up basket teazed me like a jeer;/ Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky,/ Their mother's home was near."

'Lilian and Lilias' -versions of Lilly = purity 'basket teazed me like a jeer' - personification and simile - created surreal and humorous tone. Lilian and Lilias sing as they walk, under a sky coloured by the setting sun - idylic. The speaker now sees what her life could have been. Offer a foil to her - girls of her generation who deferred sexual pleasure and are reaping the benefits. They retained their virginity and therefore expect good marriages. Home = protection. trudging by as laiden with an abundance of fruit. A world in which productivity and sexual decorum matter.

"Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,/ A stronger voice than hers helped it along;/ A voice talked with her thro' the shadows cool/ More sweet to me than song."

plump Victorian girls had good marriage prospects. Alternatively, it may symbolise how she has become 'overfed' with the happiness of love and her full basket. The narrator's ex-lover is first introduced through his physicality - his name is not given until the next stanza. She still remains mesmerised by him. 'more sweet to me than song' Gertrude already having found a husband who can take care of her - she has the love and masculine protection that was so vital for Victorian women.

"Ah, Willie, Willie, was my love less worth/ Than apples with their green leaves piled above?/ I counted rosiest apples on the earth/ Of far less worth than love."

The speaker now addresses her ex-lover. But for Willie her love is 'less worth' than apples, ambiguity over her apples (virginity) or Gertrude's. If her apples then it exposes society's double standard. For the narrator the opposite applies, she values love far more than the rosiest apple 'her chastity'. Her plight - losing her chastity, her good name and her man who took it - is now clear to the reader.

"So once it was with me you stooped to talk/ Laughing and listening in this very lane: To think that by this way we used to walk/ We shall not walk again!"

Lovers Willie and Gertrude enjoying material goods rather than love - thus apples could symbolise a commodity that a woman exchanges for the security of marriage. 'stopped to talk' - physically and also symbolises her now reduced status or then lower status (did he take advantage of her?) 'laughing and listening in this very lane' - Rossetti's use of strong, musical alliteration helps illustrate the speaker's memory of her former harmony of her relationship with Willie - wistful for the past. 'We shall not walk again' - metaphor for their permanent parting.

"I ley my neighbours pass me, ones and twos/ And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,/ And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews/ Fell fast I loitered still."

We see her being rejected by her community. She remains in the orchaid as chilly night falls - surrounded by the relics of the lost virginity. Ending of the sad tale of Victorian 'morality' and double standards.