The Cry of the Children, Essay Example

“The Cry of the Children” is a poem written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in 1842. The poem uses a ballad style to demonstrate what is happening and describes each crucial moment to tell a story about how children are suffering in coal mines and factories in Britain during the industrial revolution era; they have suffered against the laws of God and those of nature. The poem contains themes, literary devices, tone, rhyme, and meter to showcase Browning’s innovative poetics as well as her singular style. It is problematic that the speaker hear the cry of the children whom she has eloquently lamented throughout the poem. Browning wrote the poem after she had read a report on child labor in coal mines and factories (Vicinus). A master of language, Browning evokes its emotional power as she tries to engender a response of outrage in her audience. The poem is political in purpose, intentionally didactic and subject matter. The central point of the poem is an expression of Browning personal alienation and revulsion of industrial society that can be viewed via the eyes and feelings of children working in the mines and factories, showcased as innocence betrayed and used by economic as well as political interests for selfish reasons.

The speaker utilizes an accusatory tone throughout her work to express or draw out emotions and bring out a picture of how children are oppressed at the hands of the rich and selfish people. Browning accuses the system of letting the coal mines and factories to hire children when they are young. Browning says, “Do you question the young children in the sorrow, Why their tears are falling so?” (13-14) as she seeks answers as to why children are exploited. The tone of the poem can also be described as frustrated because the speaker is seen to feel sad and annoyed about how children are being treated in the factories. Children are depicted to be very stressful by their plight to the extent their shed tears every day. The speaker feels sorry for children whose “faces look pale sunken and sad every day” (25-26).They have been deprived of their childhood, so instead of playing, they are being forced to work in mines. The speaker merges themes of hopelessness and child labor with accusatory tone to point fingers towards the child labor authorities. Browning uses frustration tone shifts and sadness to invoke guilt and persuade those in authority to make a change. The speakers asks “How long,” they say, “how long, O cruel nation,” (153). How long will children endure pain and suffering when there are leaders who can address the situation?

Readers are made to experience the dreariness of the factory’s inferno by the speaker’s use of imagery. The speaker describes the traumatic and distressing reality of the “turning and droning” (77) factory wheels, which are persistently grinding the life and spirit of the working children as it molds its commodities. The speaker depicts the factory as a literal hell “perversion of nature” illustrated as a corruption of the natural world. Earth is supposed to revolve around the sun; instead, in England, the sky turns as factory wheels, equally, turn. In stanza four, the speaker utilizes imagery by depicting the death of a young girl upon the minds of the readers. The imagery is used to illustrate hardship life and cruelty endured by the young children in the workplace. The imagery also emphasizes on the heartless employers who are unconcerned of the well-being of the working children. The image of death in the poem is drawn a positive thing. Although the young girl Alice is dead, she is happier. That is because she is no longer troubled by exploitation and ordeals in the industry.

The speaker has used a rhyme scheme to highlight children’s repetitive labors. Each stanza has its rhyme scheme. For instance, the first stance rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDADA, while the second stanza has a rhyme scheme that is made up of ABABCCCCDEDE. Besides, the poem has a structure with 13 stanzas, and each stanza made up of 12 lines. The lines in each of the stanza have rhyming couplets and a, b, a, b, a, b rhyme scheme. Change of these rhyme schemes allows the speaker to control the emotions of her readers subconsciously, while keeping the uniformity of the poem. Browning also uses long stanzas to mirror the laborious tasks that children faced in coal mines and factories.

In illustrating how children are working in a pitiable condition, the speaker uses simile. The speaker says, “The reddest flower would look as pale as snow” (72 – 73) to show how children’s eyes have become red due to tiredness. Children looked sad all the time and compared them with the reddest flower that would look pale as snow during winter seasons.

Moreover, Barrett Browning utilizes repetition to reinforce her appeal and the need for a change in society. The phrase “say the children” has been repeated to make it a key element in the poem’s structure. Browning uses anaphora to create a sensation where she blends everything for the reader and creates an overwhelming sense of motion throughout the poem. The use of dialogue in stanza seven which begins with child laborers having a dialogue elicits sympathy from the readers and tries to bring them into poem narrative. The use of sound “hearts turn” their heads “pulse and burn” creates the illusion that children have blended with factory machinery. This amalgamation of machines and child laborers reflects who they are oppressed and lost their childhood as they engage in adulthood professions. Silence and word of speech have used throughout the poem “sing,” “speechless,” “ask,” “stifle,” “silent,” “hear,” “words.” She also uses irony, when she contrasts the carefree live of young animals compared to misery felt by young children. When children are faced with endless tasks in the mines, they ask God for help. Here, the speaker uses alliteration and simile as she describes God in the minds of children as “a speechless as a stone.”

In conclusion, Barrett Browning has utilized tone and language devices to ensure the readers of the poem, “The Cry of the Children,” understands poem’s message. The poem implores English authorities to end child labor, exploitation, and oppression at the expense of selfish political interests. The poem was written to respond to children’s exploitation in coal mines and factories during the emergence of the industrial revolution. With an accusatory, frustrated and sad tone, the speaker tries to persuade the authorities to end child labor at the manufacturing industries. The poem has relies heavily on language devices such as rhyme, repetition, simile, use of speech, dialogue, and imagery as the speaker seeks to strengthen the speaker’s plea.

Works Cited

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. The Collected Poems Of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Wordsworth Editions Ltd, 2015.

Vicinus, Martha. The Industrial Muse. Barnes & Noble Books, 1974.