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Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained | |||
"Contra Mortem: The Child's Being" by Hayden Carruth is a profound exploration of the essence of childhood, capturing the innate expansiveness and unbounded nature of a child's existence. Carruth delves into the ways in which a child's being challenges conventional understandings of identity and the self, presenting childhood as a state of pure consciousness and unfiltered engagement with the world. Through this exploration, the poem touches on themes of identity, freedom, and the inherent connection between the individual and the cosmos. The poem begins by characterizing the child's being as "Extended and always uncentered," a state that disconcerts adults but is natural and untroubling to the child himself. This opening line sets the tone for the poem, emphasizing the child's divergence from the structured, self-contained notions of identity that adults often cling to. The child's existence is fluid and expansive, not confined by fixed boundaries or a stable center. Carruth's description of the child's reaction to being singled out with a "you" highlights the child's alienation from the conventional use of pronouns and the socially constructed aspects of identity. The child, "a stranger / to the pronominal itch," does not recognize himself in the language and categories imposed by others. Instead, his response is to exclaim "me me me," pointing indiscriminately to the various elements of the world around him. This reaction is not one of egotism but of a "manic delight" in the sheer act of being and the child's inability to distinguish between the self and the external world. The child's consciousness is a "spendthrift spate," lavishly poured out onto everything it encounters, without reservation or self-consciousness. Carruth uses the metaphor of the child putting on his being "as the dark world / in its necessity puts on the dawn / by turning toward it" to illustrate the naturalness and inevitability of the child's engagement with existence. Just as the world greets the dawn in a cyclical act of renewal, the child embraces his being as something organic and inherent, a process that is both inevitable and unpremeditated. The poem culminates in the image of the child "trembling in halflight," a figure of vulnerability and openness, "giving himself away" to the experience of life. This surrender is not a loss but a transformation, through which the child "becomes sun's favor," emblematic of the potential and beauty of existence that is embraced without design or intention. The child, in his unfettered being, represents what is "freeborn and intricate like the day," an existence marked by complexity, spontaneity, and the unforced rhythm of natural processes. "Contra Mortem: The Child's Being" is a meditation on the essence of childhood as a state of profound connection with the world, unmediated by the constructs and constraints that adults navigate. Carruth presents the child as a symbol of existential freedom, a reminder of the intrinsic wonder and possibility that characterize the human experience at its most fundamental level. Through this poetic exploration, readers are invited to reconsider the nature of being and the ways in which we relate to the self, the other, and the universe.
| Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE THREE CHILDREN by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN CHILDREN SELECTING BOOKS IN A LIBRARY by RANDALL JARRELL COME TO THE STONE ... by RANDALL JARRELL THE LOST WORLD by RANDALL JARRELL A SICK CHILD by RANDALL JARRELL CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS ON THE DEATH OF FRIENDS IN CHILDHOOD by DONALD JUSTICE THE POET AT SEVEN by DONALD JUSTICE I'VE NEVER SEEN SUCH A REAL HARD TIME BEFORE' by HAYDEN CARRUTH |
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