The Cry Of The Children Elizabeth Barrett Browning Analysis

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, declared one of “the most incisive of female social reformers” (Snowgrass 1), was an English poet who often wrote about political and social topics. Browning used her poetry to influence readers to take a stand against the topics. She did this by describing in detail horrific events around the world and sharing opinions in her poems. Some key issues of Browning’s time, the nineteenth century, included child labor and slavery. In a time of such political and social revolution, Browning wanted to educate her readers about these terrible injustices. Politics greatly influenced Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s writing in her two poems: “The Cry of the Children” and “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrims’ Point” Browning illustrates two political issues by using thorough descriptions, poetic devices, and structure.
Browning used politics to inspire her writing. While living in …show more content…
In “The Cry of the Children”, Browning adopts a thirteen-stanza style, predominantly using ten or twelve lines in each stanza. Each stanza has a certain rhyme scheme. For example, stanza one contains a rhyming pattern of ababcdcdefef. This end rhyme creates a cadence and cyclic feeling by using repetition and similar words. Through the use of structure the text places a certain emphasis on the words rather than in a poem lacking structure. For example, Browning always places a question in each stanza, usually at the beginning or end. Browning places these questions to either emphasize or summarize a point. In stanza two the text reads, “Do you question the young children in the sorrow/ Why their tears are falling so?” (Browning 156) Browning asks this question to emphasize how terrible child labors lived. The author continues to comment that the old may weep for their former lives but the young should have nothing to weep about. This style of structure efficiently creates cadence and