the toys

[almond21]

What are your views on his poem "The toys"? What do you think is the central theme of this poem? In addition, what devices does he make use of to achieve his purpose? If you have any views, please email [email protected]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Coventry_Patmore"

[mono]

Hello, almond21. Welcome to the forum. :)
I hope you intended this specific poem:


The Toys

My little son, who look’d from thoughtful eyes
And moved and spoke in quiet grown-up wise,
Having my law the seventh time disobey’d,
I struck him, and dismissed
With hard words and unkiss’d,
— His Mother, who was patient, being dead.
Then, fearing lest his grief should hinder sleep
I visited his bed,
But found him slumbering deep,
With darken’d eyelids, and their lashes yet
From his late sobbing wet.
And I, with moan,
Kissing away his tears, left others of my own;
For, on a table drawn beside his head,
He had put, within his reach,
A box of counters and a red-vein’d stone,
A piece of glass abraded by the beach,
And six or seven shells,
A bottle with bluebells,
And two French copper coins, ranged there with careful art,
To comfort his sad heart.
So when that night I pray’d
To God, I wept, and said:
Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,
Not vexing Thee in death,
And Thou rememberest of what toys
We made our joys,
How weakly understood
Thy great commanded good,
Then, fatherly not less
Than I whom Thou hast moulded from the clay,
Thou’lt leave Thy wrath, and say,
“I will be sorry for their childishness.”

Coventry Patmore
To me, this poem reads as seemingly straightforward and simply, but strongly hinting at some assumed beliefs.
In summary, I would like to think that the main character, since the mother passed away, only leaves the father, a disciplined and equally disciplining figure. A great part of the poem seems very intimate and nostalgic; intimate when referring to the child's tears, "with darkened eyelids," followed by the father's shedding of his own mutual tears; nostalgic in the manner when the author refers to the surroundings of toys and small 'knick-knacks' owned by the child, that he/she seemingly treasures very much.
The end of the poem, I think, proves a little more complex, and worth analyzing further. The child's toys become somewhat of a metaphor, associated with joy during life that we, as humans, take too often for granted. A summarized theme, as you asked, may sound something like how people as a whole spend and assume the joy in life, especially the seemingly 'petty' joys, correspondingly in the same way that children play, break, dispense, but often treasure their material toys. For that, Patmore writes, "How weakly understood" we make "Thy [God] great commanded good." The poem then ends on a simpler, easily understood note, as the main character asks forgiveness, to spare wrath, for how seemingly easily we take the joys in life, while focusing too much on the negative aspects (such as arguing and "striking" a child).

[Scheherazade]

Mono, you are simply too nice... :)

She wants it to be emailed to her though! :D

[mono]

Aww, thanks, Scher. You make me blush. :D
I forgot about the e-mail thing, thanks for the reminder. I suppose I should, if I went through the poem, regardless.

[SwiftSleigh7]

This One Is Overwrought With Forced Symbols And Cliquish Esoteria That Smiles Like A Rancid Whore Unpacking Her Idle Wares For An Oafish Giant. Sad You Had To Buy In Mono.