A Child To His Sick Grandfather

Context

• Published in 1790 in a collection (Wherein it is attempted to describe certain views of nature and of rustic manners’)

• Written in an apostrophe: where the speaker speaks directly to an absent person or a thing / abstract idea.

  • conveys intense emotion

  • directly addresses ailing grandfather

• Late 18th-19th century - extended family connections were stronger.

  • grandparents were close.

Themes

Grief, familial bonds and memory

Structure (sestets and iambic tetrameter)

8 stanzas of six lines.

‘Grand-DAD / they SAY / you’re OLD / and FRAIL’ - feels simple and childlike and feflects that it is the child’s perspective.

iambic trimeter

‘I’m VEXED / to SEE / you, DAD’. Shortened line disrupts rhythm and shows him processing information.

Sticks to iambic rhythm throughout.

Metrical inversion

One foot is substituted for its mirror image. Iambic substituted for trochee (‘SCANT are / the WHITE / hairs ON / your HEAD’)

End stop and enjambment

Most lines are end stop and enjambment.

Regular rhythm, truncated sixth lines, end-stopping, rhyming couplets all create a ponderous, slow rhythm.

• Either shows the child’s determination or the grandfather’s inevitable death.

Vocative used throughout (‘Dad’)

emotional closeness and a growing sense of grief. Highlights the central role he plays, primary male figure and a paternal role- surrogate father figure.

First person direct address

Personal and intimate feel.

Present tense and real time

Immediacy and not grasping

Diction

Choice of words

• monosyllabic (having one syllable)

• co-ordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjuction shows naivety.

• thoughts unfold simply

lack of figurative language

traditional tone (archaic)

3rd person title → contrast with the intimate 1st person. Shift in perspective: universal and personal.

→ title sets a general scenario

‘Grand-dad’

Informal and affectionate → warm and close bond

‘They say’

not fully grasped

adjectives (‘sad’)

the grandfather is aware of his own condition.

pathos

i’m vex’d to see you, dad

regularity of polysyndeton

shows reliability. Contrasting conjunction (‘But’)

Parenthetical

‘I wot not how it be’ = ‘I don’t know why’. Childlike reflection = confusion

adjective (‘lank’)

lifelessness

metrical inversion

substitution of a metrical foot for its mirror image (‘SCANT are / the WHITE / hairs ON / your CROWN’)

anastrophe

inversion of the usual order of words or clauses. Places ‘SCANT’ at the start of the line → emphasises and strong stress: physical decline.

Unnatural word order

slows the rhythm → dawning realisation of the grandfather’s fraility.

'wan’

Pale + given the impression of illness or exhaustion

‘down!’ and anaphoric ‘how’

all emphasise shock, has only now realised the extent to which the grandfather has changed.

imperative

‘Rouse up and be our dad again.’ Desire to ‘wake’ his grandfather, both physically and metaphorically. Restore situation by sheer willpower.

Posessive pronoun ‘our’

Shared symbol of authority and love within the community.

Desire for control

Change in behaviour = altered outcome (‘we’ll doff our shoes’)

Series of ‘when’ clauses in the 6th stanza

Repetition shows a pattern of promises to his grandfather and a child’s sense of duty → being there for granddad in any circumstance.

'bide’

stay

repetition of conditional clauses

actions will ‘save’ him. Naïve belief in his ability to reverse the inevitable.

Transferred epithet

A modifier is transferred to a different noun.

• ‘And when the weary fire burns blue’ metaphor for declining vitality.

• ‘weary fire’ links tiredness of flame to grandfather’s own exhaustion, both reaching their end.

• ‘Burns blue’ about to burn out, imagery foreshadows father’s imminent death. Although the child may struggle to initially comprehend, they understand on a subconscious level.

role reversal

Tells him bedtime stories, mirrors the role the granddad once had in his life. Subtle yet poignant shift in responsibility. Tacit awknowledgement of shifting dynamics.

Dashes

‘the hen-roost led-’ interrupting himself, trying to get his attention.

Shift to 3rd person

‘But yet alough his strength be fled, I love my own old Dad’ → an aside (not for granddad’s ears, dispiriting knowledge of his weakness.)

Momentarily steps outside direct address: private sorrow. Shield granddad from truth → tenderness, unconditional love.

adjective (‘own’) and assonance with ‘old’

underscores the idea of tenderness and unconditional love

‘The housewives…/And gossips…/each neighbour cares…/And good men’

Everyone is highly invested in the granddad’s welfare → well respected, patriarchal figure,

‘Round their potions brew’

Herbal remedies. The syntax gives it an incantatory feel: fairytale ideology reflects the child’s perspective of the world, doesn’t fully grasp seriousness of the situation.

Lens of youthful imagination.

CONTEXT

At the time the poem was written, folk remedies were used more often than traditional medicine.

‘Weal’

welfare

anaphoric polysyndeton

In 4th stanza (‘And…/And…/And…/And…’) surrounded by love and care from diverse groups in the community.

‘You will not die and leave us then?’

Rhetorical question → naivety, despair. Clings to the hope that everything will be fine, cannot fathom death. Everyone tries to help, denial