Victorian Poetry:A Paper Collection by Cordelia Clark (fantasy books to read TXT) 📕

even have enough strength to breast feed: “I have scarcely strength to press thee/Wan and feeble to my breast.”
The poetic structure supports a theme of incompleteness. Procter begins a pattern which she does not complete. The poem consists of five stanzas comprised of five lines each. The fourth and fifth lines of stanzas 1-4 end with the lines “Sleep my darling, thou art weary/ God is good, but life is dreary.” This creates a sing song affect similar to a lullaby, which is supported by the title, as it refers to the poem being a “cradle song.” This poetic structure changes from the mother speaking to the child to an outsider speaking to the reader. Although Procter maintains a five line stanza for the final stanza, she stops her method of rhyming evident in the previous stanzas. For example, the last word of line 2 is “vain” which rhymes with “pain,” the last word of line 4. She continues to rhyme the last word of each even numbered line, such as “I” in line 6 with “die” in line 8, “day” in line 12 with “away” in line 14, etc. The rhyming of the repeated phrase “sleep my darling, thou art weary/God is good, but life is dreary” does not exist in the fifth stanza. The words “dreary” and “weary” have two syllables, which create a rocking sensation. The last two words of the last lines of the fifth stanza, which are lines 49 and 50 are “sings” and “wings.” These words have only one syllable each, which interrupts the rocking sensation. Thus, the sense of incompleteness in the poetic structure.
Injustice is evident in the fact that the mother, the father, and the child are forced to starve to death, and despite their own wishes to die, they continue to live. This is evident in the line where the speaker addresses the father and mother’s hopelessness: “hope has left both him and me”( 16). Longing to die is seen in lines 35-36: “Patience baby, God will help us/Death will come to thee and me.”
Injustice is also seen in the poetic structure of “The Cradle Song Of the Poor.” Looking at the last stanza, it seems as though the story inspires the hearts of “God’s children” to bring peace to the mother and her family. This is evident in the lines where the speaker names the heart as “God’s bright Angel,” and then says that the cradle song inspires “the fluttering of wings” which is the action of an individual to help the poor. Upon cross-section of the poem by reading only the odd lined lines, excluding the ones that are involved in the repeated phrase, “sleep my darling thou art weary/god is good but life is dreary,” one may find an alternate ending to the story that is told in the poem. When this is done, the odd lines that go together are “thee”(1), “thee”(3), “me” (5), “mother”(7), “fading”(11), “fever” (13), “reckless”(15), “baby”(17), “early”(21), “sorrow” (23), “spirit”(25), “careless”(27), “hunger”(31), “thee” (33), “us”(35), “heaven”(37), “early”(41), “thunder”(43), “angel”(45), and “children”(47). This may be interpreted as an alternate ending to the story. First, the mother is speaking to the baby, who she refers to as “thee” twice in lines (1) and (3). She refers to herself as the mother with the words “me” and “mother” lines (5) and (7). The baby then begins to fade due to fever and become reckless: “fading,” “fever,” “reckless,” “baby,” (11), (13), (15), (17). They learn early sorrow because of the words “early” and “sorrow” (21) and (23). The spirit then becomes careless (25, 27). The baby continues to be hungry, and both the child and mother go to heaven early: (31,33,35,37,41). Thunder strikes and an angel takes all remaining starving children to an early grave: (43,45,47).
Cosmic irony is apparent in the concept that “God is good but life is dreary,” which is a repeated phrase throughout the poem, at the end of each stanza (lines 10, 20, 30,40), excluding the final one. This is also evident in the poetic structure explained above, which presents a negative reading of the poem, at the same time that the ordinary reading of the poem presents a happy ending.
Adelaide Anne Procter also weaves the themes of incompleteness, injustice, and cosmic irony into the content and poetic structure of “Homeless.” Injustice first appears in stanzas 1 and 2, where she brings to light the irony that animals are given shelter before hungry children are because they are either pets or pack animals.
My dogs sleep warm in their baskets
Safe from darkness and from snow
All the beasts in our Christian England
Find pity where they go
(those are only the homeless children
Who are wondering to and fro) (7-12).

Injustice also appears in stanza 3, when the speaker first wonders if the shadow lurking outside her window is a criminal, but then realizes that it can only be a beggar woman because criminals are housed and fed: “Nay, our criminals all are sheltered/ They are pitied, taught and fed” (19). This theme is further exemplified by even more basic examples, such as the fact that even pedlar’s goods are sheltered from the elements, in lines 31-32: “Nay, goods in are thrifty England/Are not let to lie and grow rotten.”
There is also injustice in the fact that the homeless people feel that it is both a “sin to be living” and a “sin to be dead.” (23,24). Incompleteness is shown in “Homeless” by the fact that pedlar’s pack is sheltered without the pedlar. This is also an example of cosmic irony.
Both “Cradle Song of the Poor” and “Homeless” are similar in their poetic structure. “Homeless” repeats the pattern of rhyming the last words of even numbered lines. “Homeless” is comprised of seven stanzas of six lines each, in which three of the last words of each even numbered line rhymes. Thus, the poetic structure looks like this: “feet”(2) rhymes with “street”(4) and “sleet”(6); “snow”(8) rhymes with “go” (10) and “fro”(12), “again”(14) rhymes with “pane”(16) and “rain” (18); “fed” (20) rhymes with “bed” (22) and “dead” (24); “bare”(26) rhymes with “there”(28) and “air”(30); “rotten”(32) rhymes with “cotton” (34) and “forgotten”(36); “ill”(38) rhymes with “will”(40) and “still”(42). Also, the poetic structure of “The Cradle Song of The Poor” and “Homeless” are similar in that “The Cradle Song of the Poor” is comprised of five stanzas with ten lines each, which equals 50 lines, and ten is a multiple of 50, whereas “Homeless” is comprised of seven stanzas and 42 lines, and seven is a multiple of 42.
Similar to “The Cradle Song of the Poor,” “Homeless” can also be cross-sected using the last word of the odd numbered lines to create an alternate picture of the story being told. When this is done, the poetic structure looks like this:
“listen”(1), “lady”(3), “spaniels”(5), “blankets”(7), “England” (9), “children” (11), “darkness”(13), “slowly”( 15), “lurking”(17), “sheltered”(19), “woman”(21), “living”(23), “corner”(25), “pedlar”(27), “unsheltered”(29), “England”(31), “value”(33), “England” (35), “Chattles”(37), “image”(39), “doorstep”(41).
Thus it may be read to create the following alternate story: The speaker of the poem entreats a highborn person to listen to her tale, as lines (1) and (3) and “listen” and “lady.” We assume the audience is of a higher class because she is referred to as a “lady.” The beginning here is similar to the actual poem in its entirety, because the speaker mentions the plight of the homeless and how ironic it is that even spaniels have blankets, (5, 7). The poem then takes a dark turn by informing the Children of England that darkness is slowly lurking (11,13,15,17). The speaker then reminds the “lady” that she is a sheltered woman (19, 21). Similar to the original reading, it speaks of a pedlar, only in the alternate reading the pedlar himself is actually living unsheltered in the corner, rather than the image of his bag (23,25,27,29). England is then entreated to learn its own value, which is in it’s people who are treated like Chattle and sleep on doorsteps (31,33,35,37,41).
Through unique poetic structure and harsh content, Adelaide Anne Procter brings to life political issues of Victorian England. In “The Cradle Song of the Poor” and “Homeless” she shows injustice, incompleteness, and cosmic irony. Through alternate reading of each poem based on poetic structure, the reader may construct both pessimistic and optimistic endings. Perhaps the purpose of this poetic structure that enables both readings is the ultimate portrayal of cosmic irony.
Works Cited
Procter, Adeliade Anne. “The Cradle Song of the Poor.”
Procter, Adeliede, Anne. “Homeless.”


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Publication Date: 11-08-2011

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