The Countryside

Rosamund is raised in the countryside – as, indeed, she historically was, by her parents in their relatively rural estate at Clifford. She describes her childhood as both idyllic and protected. It left her naive to the ways of the world, but allowed her to live in simplicity and peace. Throughout the poem, Rosamund repeatedly regrets having left the peace of the countryside, where she would have been safe from the schemings and moral temptations of the court.

The Court

The court is characterized as a place of acute temptations. Rosamund is not tempted by sex, but she is by the attention she receives as a great beauty. The court is full of suitors, of the envy of women and the attention of men, and also of valuable material goods the likes of which she has never seen. Her naivety to these pleasures makes her even more vulnerable...