'Goblin Market' begins with the Goblin men advertising their fruit to whoever would listen, in an elaborate and descriptive list. Two sisters, Lizzie and Laura, hear the goblin men and tell each other "We must not look at the goblin men / We must not buy their fruit". Despite this, Laura is curious of the goblin men's chants, and chooses to stay behind, whilst her sister Lizzie "thrust a dimpled finger / In each ear, shut eyes and ran".
Next, the Goblin men reach where Laura is, and they tempted Laura with their cries "come buy, come buy". Although Laura "longed", she had no money. Hence, the goblin men told her she could pay with "a golden curl". Laura accepted the condition and then proceeded to "[suck] their fruit", and went home alone, with only a kernel-stone.
When Laura arrived home, "Lizzie met her at the gate", telling her off for staying out so late when there are goblin men around. She tells Laura about Jeanie, a girl who met the goblin men at moonlight, ate their fruit, but then after "sought them by night and day / found them no more, but dwindled and grew grey", and then died. Laura dismisses this, telling Lizzie that tomorrow she will buy more, reminiscing about the fruit that she had ate.
The next morning comes, and Lizzie and Laura attend to their chores, both embodiments of the perfect victorian woman. As they "aired and set to rights the house", however, Laura is "absent in dream", implying she is fulfilling the prophecy about Jeanie, and pining for the goblin men.
In the evening, the sister's go to the brook to fetch water, and while Lizzie is eager to get home, Laura lingers; claiming "the bank was steep". Laura could no longer hear the goblin men's cry, and then, much to her dismay, Lizzie becomes worried: "'O Laura, come / I hear the fruit call, but I dare not look'". It was then Laura came to the realisation that she could "buy no more such dainty fruit". When they went to bed that night, Laura waited till Lizzie was asleep, "then sat up in a passionate yearning" for the fruit that she could no longer have.
"Day after day, night after night", Laura still looked out for the goblin men, but never heard nor saw them. She became a mirror of Jeanie, her hair becoming thin and grey, and she no longer did any work around the house. Laura remembers the kernel stonel, and tries to go and plant it to try the fruit again, but nothing happens and she loses all hope.
Lizzie couldn't bear to see her sister like this, and when it seemed Laura was "knocking at Death's door", she put a silver coin in her purse and for the first time she "began to listen and look".
This delighted the goblin men and Rossetti writes a very elaborate stanza on the goblin men's glee as they headed towards Lizzie in an animalistic way: "Flying, running, leaping" "Cat-like and rat-like". Lizzie interrupts the goblin men's speech about their fruit and "tossed them her penny", wanting in exchange their fruit. But the goblin men resisted, asking her to feast with them. However, Lizzie is "mindful of Jeanie" and declines the goblin men.
Lizzie's rejection infuriates the goblin men, they are "grunting and snarling", they call Lizzie "proud" and "cross-grained". They then start attacking her, they "tore her gown and soiled her stocking", trying to force their fruit into her mouth. Despite this, Lizzie stays rooted, "like a beacon left alone / In a hoary roaring sea". Although the goblin men "kicked and knocked her / maul and mocked her", Lizzie kept her mouth closed to make sure not to taste a single drop of their juices. Instead, she was glad that the juices were on her face so she could take them to her sister. The goblin men got bored of her resistance, gave back her penny and went away. Lizzie then ran home to see her sister.
She announced to Laura what she had done, implored to her to "Hug [her], kiss [her], suck [her] juices". Laura springs into action and weeps to her sister: "'Lizzie, Lizzie, have you tasted / for my sake the fruit forbidden",
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