Prayer for the Children of Longing

beseech

“grant us the clarity of ice the comfort of snow”

• reverential tone emanates one of prayer

• beseeching the tree to grant them insight into how to cope with the harsh reality

• reflections the people asking the government to appreciate the gravity of the issue at hand

“the scream, the siren, the knock on the door”

• enjambment is seen throughout the poem, and the first punctuation is used here to emphasise the harrowing truth of addiction - the destruction of lives, the grief, the trauma

• tone of reverence changes to one of helplessness, as drug abuse is rampant and the government takes minimal action

“the needle in the track the knife in the back”

• harsh rhyme and slang draws attention to deaths caused by addiction

• tone is accusational as the government fails to take sufficient action to protect the people of Dublin

• the absence/lack of justice is a betrayal of the people

“the streets that defeated them that brought them to their knees”

• personification of the streets conveys how the poet laments the inability to save people from the dangers the streets exposed them to

• the desperation of the stanza shows the gravity of the drug problem

• enjambment underscores the unforgiving, unrelenting cycle of addiction

“the streets that blew their minds […] that promised them everything that delivered nothing”

• the criminals who introduced others to drugs gave false promises

• the poor addicted people spent the rest of their lives chasing the feeling of their first high, which was of course impossible to replicate and led only to a downward spiral

• in a world full of potential and excitement they were vulnerable and led astray

• the reality of addiction is not as glamorous as it seems

“let their names be the song of the river let their names be the holiest prayers”

• the poet returns to images of nature to restore the dignity of the dead

• after their suffering on earth, they pray that their souls mar find heaven

• they should be remembered for the people they were and not for the addiction that overcame them

remember for who are not addiction, pray for their souls, may find heaven, restore dignity

“here at the heart of winter here at the heart of the city”

• repitition of this refrain has a comforting and soothing effect - offers a sense of hope in the face of tragedy

• lack of punctuation emanates how these people will live on in the memories of their loved ones

• the community is stronger together, as they share the burden of grief and do not suffer alone

repitition of refrain, comfort, soothing, community, stronger together, lack punctuation memory lives on prayer continues