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This was a period of time where England was known as the empire on which the sun never sets. Military might and the Industrial Revolution turned England into a juggernaut of powerhouses in the world theater. Little did the world knew that it was the labor of poor children that made the English Industrial Evolution possible as able bodied men were busy fighting. Orphaned children from cities and parishes were contracted from city officials to factory owners to work until they reach 21 or 24 years old. There were no one who fought for their welfare or rights. The children worked 12 to 16 hours a day with little substantial food, hence "their pale and sunken faces". The children were essentially slaves.

Richard Oastler, a critique of the Victorian factory system wrote: "Poor infants! ye are indeed sacrificed at he shrine of avarice, without even the solace of the negro slave; ye are no more than he is, free agents; yet ye are compelled to work as long as necessity of your needy parents may require, or the cold blooded avarice of your worse than barbarian masters may demand!…ye are doomed to labour from morning to night for one who cares not how soon your weak and tender frames are stretched to breaking!" Indeed, children were often contracted to factories to work until they reach 21 years old for very little money. Even the factory reformers that called for change, for better work hours, conditions and for education, did not ask for the abolition of child labor. Families could not survive without the supplemental wages of the children. Textile factories could not function without the nimble children darting between running machines to reattach broken threads being woven (Nardinelli). The factory owners were like slave owners who invested as little as they can and whip the most work out of the children as they can.

One of the impetus for EBB to write "Cry of the Children" was the fact the the poor working children had no knowledge of God (Bouchard). They were separated from their parents at an early age as all members of the family had to work, sometimes at different locations. The normal, structured life of a nucleus family is absent and no one taught the children religion. Working from 12 to 16 hour days was another deterrent for children to accomplish any learning (Alexandrova). Like EBB says in her poem (lines 67-68), the children would rather sleep if given a meadow than play.

https://blogs.baylor.edu/19crs/2017/06/28/textual-revisions-and-constructed-narratives-in-elizabeth-barretts-the-cry-of-the-children/#:~:text=The%20first%20published%20version%20of%20Elizabeth%20Barrett,of%20signs%20of%20human%20or%20divine%20mercy**

This article has photos of the book, the poem, and images from the survey of children working in mines relating to "Cry of The Children".

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YdWLxoHYR1E

This video shows how close, cramp, and claustrophobic the mines would be. Also, the ground is sometimes lined with rails, other times consists purely of mud and even imbedded with large rocks. This little clip is an attempt to let the readers see the harsh conditions the children working in mines had to deal with daily.

Elizabeth Browning was friends and frequent correspondent with Richard Hengist Horne. RH Horne was the assistant commissioner to an inquiry that reported the "Physical & Moral Conditions of the Children and Young Persons Employed in Mines and Manufacture." The horrific conditions that Horne related to EBB spurred her to write "Cry of the Children" (Robertson).

How poignantly EBB describes Alice's grave: "…no room for any work in the close clay." It makes one feel as if Work chases the child to the grave, stands there, looks down at the pit, and ponders if there is room for it to join little Alice-as if death is not escape enough. In reality, Victorian children do suffer many injuries and violent deaths in work related accidents. Take chimney sweepers, for example. Usually little boys 5 to 6 years old were employed to clean out narrow, twisted chimneys. They came out scraped and bleeding from the tight confines and suffer long term breathing problems due to soot and creosotes. If the child got stuck, the master chimney sweeper would light a fire in the fire place to encourage the child to get out faster. This little tale of the chimney sweeper speaks of the Victorians' general attitudes toward child labor (Alexandrova).

EBB's use of "my brothers" is strategic. She is not passing judgement, but rather, rallying society. By placing herself along side with her countrymen, she effectively "elbows" her neighbors in saying, "I don't find this acceptable. Do you?" Like the opening quote, EBB corners her readers in a position where they couldn't endorse the current treatment of the children because that would make them look uncaring and unconscionable.

The deliberate refrain of "young" nature and the emphasized double "young, young children" point out the irony and tragedy of how life shouldn't be for these children. While nature frolic and play, the human children are weeping bitterly. In fact, some poems in the Victorian period use this juxtaposition of the free natural world versus the state of the oppressive poor. Thomas Hood's "Song of the Shirt" has these lines: "Oh! but to breathe the breath Of the cowslip and primrose sweet--- With the sky above my head, And the grass beneath my feet". Gerald Massey wrote in "Cry of the Unemployed": "Heaven droppeth down with manna still in many a golden shower, And feeds the leaves with fragrant breath, with silver dew, the flower; There's honeyed fruit for bee and bird, with bloom laughs out the tree". Nature is plentiful, beautiful, and free while humans suffer from hunger and fetters of their working class.

Although the working class had very little of worldly goods, its family unit was quite close. One main reason was they had to share a small space as living quarters. Another reason was children often working alongside their parents. All the children were viewed as a potential source of income so the family strived together as a unit to make ends meet. The close knit working class family was a sharp contrast to the wealthy Victorians. Usually their children were left in care of nannies or governesses. The higher echelon of society had little time to spare for their kids yet had high expectations of them. Even Winston Churchill said he could recall every hug he ever had from his mother.

The difference between the classes here is not immediately discernible for modern readers with just the line describing children leaning on their mothers. In Victorian England, the rich and middle-class did not handle their own children.

Check out https://victorianchildren.org/victorian-child-labor/ for more interesting facts.

Beautiful and bright used here to describe the young man, but they also tell us how the writer felt about the qualities this boy possessed. The qualities are “born to rule the storm”, “heroic blood”, “proud”, “brave despair”, “gallant child”, “noblest”, and “faithful”.

Here, the author is foreshadowing what will follow later on in the poem. She subtly emphasized “dead” by rhyming it with the second stanza’s “fled”. Of course, the poem did ended with the stanzas, “But the noblest thing which perished there, Was that young faithful heart.”, confirming that indeed the boy eventually lost his life along with the ship.