Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Strategy for Addressing

Social Injustice in “The Cry of the Children”

In “The Cry of the Children,” Elizabeth Barrett Browning sheds light on the cruelty of child labor that stained the hands of Britain during the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century. As children were forced to work exhausting hours in unsafe and miserable conditions, conversations were occurring in Britain about child labor at the Parliament level. Barrett Browning inserted herself into the dialogue by using her medium to bring awareness of the social injustice to a broader audience, causing the atrocities suffered by child laborers to be felt on a deeply personal level. Barrett Browning strategically uses forceful speech, sentimentality, and religious critique to gain the attention of readers, and her stylistic techniques are carefully constructed to provoke the desired emotions in readers to raise awareness and to get results. By bringing the plight of the child laborers into the sphere of the arts, Barrett Browning makes her readers feel the cruelties on a more personal level, thus amplifying the ongoing discussion.

Parliamentary reports exposed the children’s working conditions and though they were not completely dispassionate, the facts necessitated an artistic interpretation that could emphasize the personal and emotional aspect of child labor. One such document is The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines and Colliers of the United Kingdom. The result of a three year long investigation, “the report’s findings shocked society and swiftly led to legislation to secure minimum safety standards in mines and factories, as well as general controls on the employment of children” (The British Library). But documents that consist of thousands of pages do not carry the weight of emotion that Barrett Browning is able to convey in her 160-line poem. According to Peaches Henry, in response to the Commission’s report, Barrett Browning “was immediately provoked into action and determined to use her poetry to publicize the physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual damage done to working children by this system” (Henry 543). A close look at Barrett Browning’s techniques in “The Cry of the Children” demonstrates her brilliant ability to enter the discussion in a powerful and effective way.

“The Cry of the Children” begins with a quotation from Medea, a Greek tragedy written by Euripides over 2,000 years earlier, which says, “’Pheu pheu, ti prosderkesthe m ommasin, tekna;’ [Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.]” By introducing her poem with Medea’s phrase, Barrett Browning cuts right to the heart of the matter. In the ancient play, Medea utters these words before she murders her two children with a knife, demonstrates the pain and guilt of a mother as she is about to do the unthinkable. Barrett Browning uses the phrase as a parallel to describe what mothers in the nineteenth century were experiencing by sending their own children to what oftentimes ended in their death. Barrett Browning creates a sense of despair that could not be understood by those who were childless, and may not have even been felt by the fathers, but for the mothers, the phrase could be a painful reminder and provoke a familiar emotion. Choosing the quotation from Medea, and keeping it in its original Greek, was a clever strategy for Barrett Browning to use because, while bringing out the desired emotions of the mothers of child laborers, it also reminds the reader of her position as an authoritative figure within the literary community. Barrett Browning’s use of Greek also indicates that her target audience, an elite group of governing men, understood the Greek language and she thereby positions herself among this group.

Barrett Browning’s next approach is to consider the patriarchal society of Victorian Britain, and she addresses the men in power in the first line of the first stanza. The line “Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,” directly, yet respectfully, asks these men to look at the children’s conditions (1). In a male-dominated culture, Barrett Browning places herself in a role equal to men by calling them her brothers, and she understands that for change to come, those in power must be swayed. By using the quotation from Medea to rouse the women, and by aligning herself with her “brothers,” Barrett Browning gains the attention of both women and men; mothers and fathers. For the rest of the poem, Barrett Browning continues with rhetorical techniques and effectively uses emotion to shake her readers.

The poem introduces readers to weeping children filled with sorrow who are unable to find comfort: “They are leaning their young heads against their mothers, - / And that cannot stop their tears” (3,4). Young children, looking to their mothers to soothe them, cannot be soothed. The image of inconsolable youth is contrasted with the youth of nature: lambs, birds, fawns, and flowers which all imply newness of spring. Words like “bleating / chirping / playing,” offer no lively images and, instead, simply remind readers that these children are missing out on the joys of life, and “weeping in the playtime of the others” (5-11). The second stanza contrasts the old things to the youth of the first stanza, and implies old things have reasons to weep but not the young. Once again, Barrett Browning asks her brothers a question: “Do you ask them why they stand / Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers, / In our happy Fatherland?” (23-4). The poem’s second stanza ends with the ironic image of a “happy” country where young children suffer in misery. Notice how Barrett Browning alters England’s usual term of “Motherland” into a more accurate description of “Fatherland.” This idea reminds us of the patriarchal system ruling England, and it shrewdly places the blame upon that authority.

The image Barrett Browning presents here is not created for the sake of pity. Peaches Henry argues that the poet is able to distinguish “between the poorly executed, banal emotionality often associated with poetry by Victorian women and the deeply compelling passion that she believed could touch readers” (Henry 541). Barrett Browning’s purpose is an important detail to keep in mind as the poem progresses, and as the children—victims of the Industrial Revolution—are given voices. When the children finally speak, they acknowledge their weakness, but they refuse pity and demand to be heard. Henry says, “The politically and socially voiceless children speak for themselves. Far from crying, they are now defiant and assertive in their response” (Henry 545). The children’s speech mimics Barrett Browning’s own forceful voice and the ensuing stanzas reveal their views of death, suffering, and the existence of God.

Many of the pages of The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines and Colliers of the United Kingdom include actual stories of child laborers such as Philip Phillips, age 9. Young Philip “began working when 7 years old. Has often fallen asleep when tired. Runs home and gets bread and cheese. Was burnt by the fire-damp 9 months since, and laid by 5 months, expected to die” (British Library). Barrett Browning draws from these real examples as she takes matter-of-fact words and straightforward stories, and “exposes ignorance, and, rather than unbridled emotion, demands passionate indignation that such suffering is allowed to exist in Great Britain” (Henry 547). The story of nine-year-old Philip found in official documents, while depressing, does not invoke a sense of horror in the same way Barrett Browning’s words do. The words of the poem reach through the pages and grab onto the heart in a way that was necessary during the Industrial Revolution. As the artistry of Barrett Browning entered the political and social spheres, important elements were added to the discussion of child laborers. By using testimonies from the Parliamentary reports, Barrett Browning gives voice to the children in the poem, and she effectively moves the children from the position of objects being discussed to subjects telling about their own experiences.

In the fourth stanza, the image of children looking for death to relieve them of their misery is heartbreaking, and it is deliberate. The children, speaking of their friend, say, “Little Alice died last year her grave is shapen / Like a snowball, in the rime,” illustrating the obscurity of little Alice’s life (39-40). The reader imagines a snowball in a field of frost—a white lump among total whiteness—and understands that Little Alice’s life had no impact; her time on earth was insignificant. The children understand Little Alice’s demise and they desire one like it: “’It is good when it happens,’ say the children, / ‘That we die before our time!’ / Alas, the wretched children! they are seeking / Death in life, as best to have!” (51-4). Young children desiring death produces such a tragic image and seems to be such an unnatural approach to life. The strong language and graphic images compel readers to listen.

Barret Browning alludes to the ignorance of a society that would allow such abuse when, in the poem, an adult encourages the children to get away from the city and go to the meadows where they can pick flowers, laugh, and sing. The children’s response is yet another reminder of their wretchedness: “’For oh,’ say the children, ‘we are weary / And we cannot run or leap - / If we cared for any meadows, it were merely / To drop down in them and sleep” (65-8). Through the voices of children, Barret Browning reprimands the individual who assumes that child laborers can simply go and play after their day of exhausting work. Also, her ability to artistically address the gravity of the situation shows a brilliant handling of the subject and a necessary addition to the ongoing discussion of child labor.

Barret Browning saves her boldest and most powerful rebuke for the religious community as she blames industry for Great Britain’s children having no knowledge of God. The last six stanzas of the poem chastise the church and speak to the hypocrisy of preaching the gospel to the poor without actions. “Now tell the poor young children, / O my brothers, / To look up to Him and pray -- / So the blessed One, who blesseth all the others, / Will bless them another day” (100-4). Here, Barrett Browning challenges not only the men, but also those in religious circles, who would dare to tell these children to just ask God to bless them only to respond by suggesting He might bless them another time. How can God take care of the children if the adults abuse them in such a way? It is impossible if the church leaders and others do not do their part. The failure of the church is seen in the children’s reaction to God. They imagine that if God could hear them, He would give them rest, which is promised in the Bible, but instead the children cry, “’He is speechless as a stone; / And they tell us, of His image is the master / Who commands us to work on’” (126-8). Barrett Browning’s audience, knowing their scriptures, would have felt the sharp criticism. The biblical image of God as a giver of rest directly contrasts the image of God that the children in the poem are presented with by their elders. Barrett Browning demonstrates the theologically unsound behaviors of the church and blatantly reveals them.

In a secular society, such a critique on religion may not seem to be an important device used to effect change, but nineteenth-century Great Britain would have felt the sting of Barrett Browning’s words. In the preface of The Condition and Treatment of the Children Employed in the Mines and Colliers of the United Kingdom, an official document, religion is considered an important aspect of Great Britain: “The abominations existing in the mining districts of the country will be put down, as infringements upon all those high and solemn obligations that rest upon a civilized and a Christian country” (The British Library). Considering the importance of religion during the Victorian era, Barrett Browning’s assessment on the conduct of religious leaders is remarkably brave.

In the final stanza, Barrett Browning gives the children the final say, and in their last words, she inserts the voices of all those who fought against the social injustice of child labor: “’How long,’ they say, ‘how long, O cruel nation, / Will you stand, to move the world, on a child’s heart, -- / Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation, / And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?’” (153-6). In these lines we read a resounding cry for help from not only the children but from Barrett Browning herself, who brings awareness and a sense of responsibility to the injustice of child labor. It is no small thing for a Victorian author to accuse Great Britain of being a cruel nation, but Barret Browning uses the facts found in the commissioner’s reports to speak the truth. By calling attention to Great Britain’s “throne” in the marketplace Browning states the entire purpose behind child labor: money and power. At this point in the poem, the senselessness of child labor is indisputable.

The closing of the poem echoes in the ears and hearts of the readers and Barrett Browning uses the last four lines to take the power from those who are to blame, and give power back to the children. The cruel employers within the industrial system are called “tyrants,” and the crying of the children in silence is described as stronger than the wrath of any man (157-60). The depiction of the power of the children’s sobs acts as a rallying cry intended to convince readers to take action. The image of children crying in the silence intends to motivate those who can do something to actually do something—to let the children know that their voices are heard. At this time in history, Barrett Browning understood the need for poetry within the context of social reform and although, as a woman, she could not participate in the political system, she used her voice to augment the conversation. Amid the political and social discussions, her beautiful words add power and passion that could otherwise lack the ability to effect change.