Cousin Kate is a poem about a Cottage Maiden who was complimented and wooed by a lord to get her to have sex with him. He then saw her cousin, Kate, and abandoned the maiden to marry her. The maiden has his child and becomes an outlaw for having him out of wedlock while Kate and the Lord are looked upon as respectable and pure.

From the start of the poem we see that the speakers circumstances have changed.

I was a cottage maiden

Hardened by sun and air,

By using the past tense, was, we are immediately alerted that she is no longer a cottage maiden. The word maiden can also show she is unmarried. Throughout the poem she is not given a name, signifying a lack of importance, but also helping us relate to the poem more. As the speaker does not have a name, it...