The Little Mute Boy
The Little Mute Boy - meaning Summary
Searching for a Lost Voice
The poem presents a small boy searching for his voice, imagined as a fragile, elusive thing found “in a drop of water” and held by a cricket-king. Rather than reclaim speech, the speaker plans to turn that voice into an ornament of silence for the boy to wear. The final image, of a captive voice disguised in cricket clothes, suggests loss, transformation, and the tension between expression and enforced muteness.
Read Complete AnalysesThe little boy was looking for his voice. (The king of the crickets had it). In a drop of water the little boy was looking for his voice. I do not want it for speaking with; I will make a ring of it so that he may wear my silence on his little finger. In a drop of water the little boy was looking for his voice. (The captive voice, far away, put on a cricket’s clothes).
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