To Beat the Child Was Bad Enough
To Beat the Child Was Bad Enough - meaning Summary
Loss of Innocence and Voice
The poem depicts a child’s abrupt loss of safety and agency after violence. Images of a fragile, newly born body and ordinary domestic scenes shift to terror and withdrawal, emphasizing how curiosity and choice are replaced by pain and silence. The closing image of a body floating silently suggests emotional dissociation or the lingering effects of trauma. It presents abuse’s quiet, dehumanizing aftermath rather than its spectacle.
Read Complete AnalysesA young body, light As winter sunshine, a new Seed's bursting promise, Hung from a string of silence Above its future. (The chance of choice was never known.) Hunger, new hands, strange voices, Its cry came natural, tearing. Water boiled in innocence, gaily In a cheap pot. The child exchanged its Curiosity for terror. The skin Withdrew, the flesh submitted. Now, cries make shards Of broken air, beyond an unremembered Hunger and the peace of strange hands. A young body floats. Silently.
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