Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

"A Sick Child" is a poem by Randall Jarrell, first published in his 1960 collection, "The Lost World." The poem reflects on the experience of watching a child suffer from illness and the emotions it evokes.

Explanation:

The poem describes the speaker's experience of watching a sick child, emphasizing the way it affects them emotionally. The speaker reflects on the sense of helplessness they feel in the face of the child's suffering, and on the beauty and fragility of life itself.

Poetic Elements:

• Form:
• "A Sick Child" is written in free verse, with no set rhyme scheme or meter. The lack of formal structure allows the poem to flow freely and express the speaker's emotional response to the situation in an unforced and natural way.
• Imagery:
• Jarrell uses vivid imagery to create a sense of the child's suffering and the emotions it evokes in the speaker. The descriptions of the child's "burning flesh" and "wasted face" are particularly vivid and haunting.
• Metaphor:
• The poem employs the metaphor of the "sick child" to highlight the fragility and vulnerability of life itself. The child becomes a symbol of the preciousness of life and the way it can be taken away or threatened by illness or other forces beyond our control.
• Tone:
• The tone of the poem is melancholy and reflective, with a sense of helplessness and sadness underlying it. The speaker is deeply affected by the child's suffering and is forced to confront the fragility and preciousness of life in the face of illness and death.

Conclusion:

Through "A Sick Child," Jarrell explores the complexities of life and the emotions that arise when we are confronted with its fragility and vulnerability. The poem serves as a reminder of the importance of compassion, empathy, and love in the face of suffering, and of the need to cherish every moment of life while we can.

Poem Snippet:

"The room's cold, whitewashed walls,

The wasted face, the burning flesh

Are the illness; but they are not all.

Death, who sits near us at table,”