Cry Of The Children

If our generation were represented by a time capsule, what would it contain? Perhaps it would hold several forms of social media, various apple products, and an abundance of pop stars. As a generation, is “Kanye West” really all we have to offer? We have never known a world without the Internet, cell phones or iPods. We are the most globally connected generation, yet we have contributed little of value to society. It is highly disconcerting that we choose to concern ourselves with the latest celebrity feud or scandal, while millions of people around the world are suffering from discrimination, persecution, poverty, disease and conflict. However society has not always been this way. Poetry, and literature in general, once encapsulated history,

When considering the social context of the stifling Victorian period, it is revealed that in addition to her message regarding child exploitation, Browning subtly utilised her writing to express her feminist views. Throughout the poem, Browning repeatedly questions the male factory owners that uphold such appalling conditions under the justification of economic progress. By addressing these males exclusively, Browning suggests that only a male-dominated society could treat the young and innocent so poorly. This idea is suggested further by the use of the word “Fatherland,” rather than the traditional “Motherland” to describe England. Browning writes, “For a man’s grief abhorrent, draws and presses / Down the cheeks of infancy.” This metaphor powerfully reiterates that it is the men of society who have treated the children so unjustly. The inferential message implied, is that if the women of the Victorian era did not break the sex barrier and fight for social reform, then they would be forever supressed by the masculine ideals of

After the Austrian empire defeated Hungary, Kossuth was forced into exile. He soon made his way to the US, where he was warmly welcomed (Vida, 2011). Whitman found himself inspired by the Hungarian reformer and alludes to him several times throughout the poem. For example, he writes, “The great speakers and writers are exiled—they lie sick in distant lands.” Whitman then goes on to personify the fight for liberty and democracy, writing “The cause is asleep,” that it “waits latent forever.” It “invites no one, promises nothing, sits in calmness and light, is positive and composed, knows no discouragement, waiting patiently, waiting its time.” This is crucial regarding the poems influence over the reader, as it convinces them that the fight for liberty is not dead; that it is only waiting for the right