Elizabeth Barrett Browning's The Cry Of The Children

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a woman not afraid to speak her mind and express the harsh reality of society. This essay is a literary analysis of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s life as a writer, what she wrote about and what made her a great poet of the Victorian era. Browning’s poems encompassed lyric, ballad and narrative while engaging with historical events, religious beliefs and political opinions (Avery). Her passion for change was the basis for many of her famous works, including Aurora Leigh, The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point and The Cry of the Children. This essay will be focusing on The Cry of the Children and how she was able to exploit the wrongs in industrialism and abuse of child labor through a poem.

Born in 1806 in Herefordshire, England, Elizabeth was the eldest of eleven children growing up in early 19th century, the time of Industrialization, patriarchy, child labor and poor working conditions. Elizabeth started writing in her early teens and in 1820, Mr. Barrett privately published her first poem, The Battle of Marathon, focusing on the battle of Ancient Greeks against …show more content…
Stone interprets the factory as the children’s main cause for weeping – ‘wheels are droning, turning…Till our hearts turn, - our heads, with pulses burning’. This is emphasizing how the industrial system reduces children just to be part of a ‘machine’ – they are the wheels droning and turning. The next stanzas are focused on the relationship between God and the children (Stone). Although the children are trapped in a mine/factory all day, Browning wants them to find their God and pray to God to bless them. The children respond – ‘Two words, indeed, of praying we remember;…”Our Father”, which is stating they know no other words except that are symbolic of the children’s nonexistent spiritual support (The Cry of The Children: An Appeal To Pity and A Curse On Society