1/19/14


"A Sad Child"
 By Margaret Atwood


You're sad because you're sad.
It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical.
Go see a shrink or take a pill,
or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll
you need to sleep.

Well, all children are sad
but some get over it.
Count your blessings. Better than that,
buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet.
Take up dancing to forget.

Forget what?
Your sadness, your shadow,
whatever it was that was done to you
the day of the lawn party
when you came inside flushed with the sun,
your mouth sulky with sugar,
in your new dress with the ribbon
and the ice-cream smear,
and said to yourself in the bathroom,
I am not the favorite child.

My darling, when it comes
right down to it
and the light fails and the fog rolls in
and you're trapped in your overturned body
under a blanket or burning car,

and the red flame is seeping out of you
and igniting the tarmac beside your head
or else the floor, or else the pillow,
none of us is;
or else we all are.  


It took me a while to find a poem that I wanted to read and analyze this month.  I used the list that Mrs. Clinch gave us in the beginning of the year and looked up the poet Margaret Atwood.  I enjoy reading poems that capture my interest right away and usually have a more grim or darker tone.  I found "A Sad Child" to be extremely interesting.  It is not a complicated read and is not that hard to understand what the poem is saying, but it is intriguing.  It makes the reader think about his or herself and his or her own happiness or sadness. "You're sad because you're sad."  This statements starts off the poem with a "get over it" attitude.  It is like it is saying "yeah you might be sad, but so is everyone else."  The next line gives a list of reasons why a person could be sad.  When I read it, I sense that the speaker is giving of a know it all attitude.  It is like she is trying to say that everyone is sad and that they all try to blame it on a certain reason why.  In reality, everyone is sad and some people can deal with it and some people cannot deal with it.  The people who cannot deal with it try to blame there sadness on something else.  The speaker lists things that children can do to get over it.  They can buy things to make them happy or they can "take up dancing to forget."  Personally, I think this statement is relatable.  I am a dancer, and I dance to release emotion and to forget about the difficulties I might be facing or the problems that I might have.  When I am dancing, I truly forget about everything going on in my life for that three minute number or improv period. 
  The third stanza discusses that moment when every child realizes, "I am not the favorite child."  This moment is the moment when a child loses his or her innocence.  There is a moment when a child realizes the world is not what it seems and that he or she can disappoint his or her parents.  Usually, when a child upsets his or her parents when they are young, they become upset.  The moment of realizing that "I am not the favorite child" is a moment when the sadness could begin to grow in a child.
   The next two stanzas describe a rather grim accident.  The speaker describes a car accident, yet it also seems that she is hinting that it could be a dream.  The speaker uses the words "blanket" and "pillow" to show that the sadness can consume you while you sleep or in an actual accident.  When the sadness consumes you, everything becomes chaos no matter what situation you are in.  My favorite lines of the poem are, "none of us is; or else we all are."  I interpret that to mean either none of us are sad, or everyone is sad.  Every "child" is consumed with his or her own sadness.  They are so consumed that they do not recognize the sadness around them.  It is usual for a child to be somewhat narcissistic.  They are self absorbed and can only see their own problems.  Margaret's choice to describe a child's sadness is fitting.  The speaker is scolding the child for being so self absorbed in her own sadness because either everyone is sad or no one is sad at all.