Mutterings Over the Crib of a Deaf Child Published in 1957, James Wright’s poem “Mutterings Over the Crib of a Deaf Child” describes the array of emotions that the parents of a deaf child have as they ponder what kind of life and possible future that the child will have. In this essay I intend to discuss the fear, worry, hope, optimism and concern that the parents are feeling about their baby’s future.
The title is slightly ironic in the sense that it doesn’t matter how loud or soft that the parents talk over the crib, as the child is deaf. The first stanza emphasizes their initial concern for their baby:
"How will he hear the bell at school
Arrange the broken afternoon,
And know to run across the cool
Grasses where the starlings cry,
Or understand the day is gone?" …show more content…
They are worried that the child will feel lost in a world of silence and unable to keep pace with the hearing realm. “Well, someone lifting curious brows/ Will take the measure of the clock” is implying that people may not understand when the child is late or feeling lost and they may treat him differently than everyone else. “And he will see the birchen boughs/
Outside sagging dark from the sky/ And the shade crawling upon the rock” is creating an image of the child knowing the time based on the shadows on the rock and the darkness in the trees. They are reassured by the insight that the child will be able to see the sun rise and the day turn to night as a way to tell
The title is slightly ironic in the sense that it doesn’t matter how loud or soft that the parents talk over the crib, as the child is deaf. The first stanza emphasizes their initial concern for their baby:
"How will he hear the bell at school
Arrange the broken afternoon,
And know to run across the cool
Grasses where the starlings cry,
Or understand the day is gone?" …show more content…
They are worried that the child will feel lost in a world of silence and unable to keep pace with the hearing realm. “Well, someone lifting curious brows/ Will take the measure of the clock” is implying that people may not understand when the child is late or feeling lost and they may treat him differently than everyone else. “And he will see the birchen boughs/
Outside sagging dark from the sky/ And the shade crawling upon the rock” is creating an image of the child knowing the time based on the shadows on the rock and the darkness in the trees. They are reassured by the insight that the child will be able to see the sun rise and the day turn to night as a way to tell