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Study
Guide Prepared by Michael J. Cummings...©
2011
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Type
of Work
......."On
a Dead Child" is a lyric poem in the form of an elegy.
Oxford University Press first published the poem in 1890 in a collection
entitled The Shorter Poems of Robert Bridges.
Background
.......Robert
Bridges was a British physician and poet who served for a time at the Great
Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London. There, he demonstrated extraordinary
compassion for his young patients, a compassion no doubt born of his remembrance
of the early deaths of four of his siblings. Out of this compassion, he
wrote "On a Dead Child."
The
Speaker and the Setting
.......Robert
Bridges does not identify the poem's speaker or mention the setting, allowing
the poem to stand as a universal commentary on the death of a child. However,
when he wrote the poem, Bridges was serving in London as a physician in
London at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. One may conclude,
then, that the scene on which poem is based took place at Great Ormond
Hospital. In the poem, the physician presents his thoughts after a child
in his care dies.
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Text of the Poem
Perfect little body, without
fault or stain on thee,
With promise of strength and manhood full and fair!
Though cold and stark and bare,
The bloom and the charm
of life doth awhile remain on thee.
Thy mother’s treasure wert
thou;—alas! no longer
To visit her heart with wondrous joy; to be
Thy father’s pride;—ah, he
Must gather his faith together,
and his strength make stronger.
To me, as I move thee now
in the last duty,
Dost thou with a turn or gesture anon1
respond;
Startling my fancy fond
With a chance attitude of
the head, a freak2
of beauty.
Thy hand clasps, as ’twas
wont, my finger, and holds it:
But the grasp is the clasp of Death, heartbreaking and stiff;
Yet feels to my hand as if
’Twas still thy will, thy
pleasure and trust that enfolds it.
So I lay thee there, thy
sunken eyelids closing,—
Go lie thou there in thy coffin, thy last little bed!—
Propping thy wise, sad head,
Thy firm, pale hands across
thy chest disposing.3
So quiet! doth the change
content thee?—Death, whither hath he taken thee?
To a world, do I think, that rights the disaster of this?
The vision of which I miss,
Who weep for the body, and
wish but to warm thee and awaken thee?
Ah! little at best can all
our hopes avail us
To lift this sorrow, or cheer us, when in the dark,
Unwilling, alone we embark,
And the things we have seen
and have known and have heard of, fail us.
Notes
1.....anon:
Immediately.
2.....freak:
Unusual or odd occurrence.
3.....disposing:
Arranging.
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Theme
.......The
theme of the poem is the grief the speaker, a physician, feels at the death
of a child in his care. Nothing he has learned can alleviate his sorrow,
he says, after he places the boy in a coffin and asks, "Death, whither
hath he taken thee?"
End
Rhyme
.......The
end rhyme in the poem is abba. In other words, in each stanza, the first
line rhymes with the fourth, and the second rhymes with the third.
Internal
Rhyme
Thy
father’s pride;—ah, he (line 6)
Must gather his faith
together, and his strength make stronger
(line 8)
To me,
as I move thee now in the last duty
(line 9)
Dost thou with a turn or
gesture anon respond
(line 10)
But the grasp
is the clasp of Death, heartbreaking
and stiff (line 14)
Meter,
Line Length, and Feet
.......The
meter, line length, and type of feet
vary throughout the poem. For example, line 1 has nine syllables and begins
with a trochee and ends with an iamb.
Line 2 contains eleven syllables
and begins with an iamb, switches to an anapest,
and finishes with three iambs.
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Figures
of Speech
.......Following
are examples of figures of speech in the poem. For definitions of figures
of speech, see Literary Terms.
Alliteration
With promise of
strength and manhood full and fair!
(line 2)
Startling my fancy
fond (line 11)
Go lie
thou there
in thy coffin, thy
last little
bed! (line 18)
So quiet!
doth the change content thee?—Death,
whither hath he
taken thee? (line 21)
Who weep
for the body, and wish
but to warm
thee and awaken thee? (line 24)
Metaphor
Thy mother’s treasure
were thou
Comparison of the child
to a treasure
Personification
Death, whither hath
he taken thee?
Comparison of death to
a human
Study
Questions and Writing Topics
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Write a two-stanza poem that
imitates the rhyme scheme (abba) of "On a Dead Child." The topic is open.
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What is the meaning of this
excerpt from the poem: "—ah, he / Must gather his faith together, and his
strength make stronger"?
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Find at least one instance of
enjambment in the poem.
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Write an essay with a thesis
built on the idea expressed in the final stanza of the poem.
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