Child of Our Time by Eavan Boland Flashcards
Why was Child of Our Time written?
In response to the death of a child, killed in a Dublin bombing, May 1974. during the same time, Boland’s friend’s baby died a cot death
What is the last line of Child of Our Time? How could this line be interpreted?
“Sleep in a world your final sleep has woken” could be interpreted as the child has slept its final sleep in this world, and has awoken in a world where it can sleep peacefully and undisturbed. Or that the child’s death (final sleep) has woken the world up to the awareness of the need for change, for a “new language”
What are the themes of Child of Our Time?
- Cost of political violence
- History
- Conflict
- Death
- Unnecessary violence
Describe the rhyme and rhythm in Child of Our Time by Eavan Boland
- Blend of rhyme and discord, just like the image in the poem
- Sometimes follows a rhyming scheme, but some are slant or half-rhymes which prevent the poem from becoming inappropriately melodious
Give an example of repetition in Child of Our Time by Eavan Boland, and the impact it has
Repetition of “broken image” → great sense of immense grief
What is the structure of Child of Our Time by Eavan Boland?
- Three, six line stanzas
* Tight, controlled structure → constrain a great anger
What is the tone in Child of Our Time by Eavan Boland?
- Sadness and regret
- Shocked
- Reproachful → “we should have known”
Give examples of images in Child of Our Time by Eavan Boland that show anger, hurt and grief
- “The discord of your murder”
* “Broken image”
Give examples of images in Child of Our Time by Eavan Boland that highlight the idea of learning from our mistakes
“To make our broken images, rebuild
Themselves around your limbs, your broken
Image…”
“Yesterday…
“Yesterday I knew no lullaby
But you have taught me overnight to order
This song, which takes from your final cry
Its tune, from your unreasoned end its reason.”
“Its rhythm…
“Its rhythm from the discord of your murder”
“We who…
“We who should have known how to instruct
With rhymes for your waking, rhythms for your sleep,
Names for the animals you took to bed,
Tales to distract, legends to protect”
“And living, learn…
“And living, learn, must learn from you dead”
“To make…
“To make our broken images, rebuild
Themselves around your limbs, your broken i
Image”
“Child of…
“…Child
Of our time, our times have robbed your cradle.
Sleep in a world your final sleep has woken.”
