Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Cry of the Children” is a passionate indictment of child labor in 19th-century industrial England. First published in 1843 and later revised multiple times, the poem captures the immorality of exploiting children as workers, and condemns both the people and societal institutions that uphold child labor as a practice. The poem was criticized then and is still sometimes viewed today as a deeply sentimental work, relying on stark stories of children’s suffering in an effort to tug on readers’ heartstrings. Nevertheless, the poem was a popular success, succeeding not just in exposing the exploitation of working-class children, but also in rallying greater public support for child labor reforms in industrial England.
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The Full Text of “The Cry of the Children”
"Pheu pheu, ti prosderkesthe m ommasin, tekna;"
[[Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.]]—Medea.
1Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
2 Ere the sorrow comes with years?
3They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,
4 And that cannot stop their tears.
5The young lambs are bleating in the meadows,
6 The young birds are chirping in the nest,
7The young fawns are playing with the shadows,
8 The young flowers are blowing toward the west:
9But the young, young children, O my brothers,
10 They are weeping bitterly!
11They are weeping in the playtime of the others,
12 In the country of the free.
13Do you question the young children in the sorrow,
14 Why their tears are falling so?
15The old man may weep for his to-morrow
16 Which is lost in Long Ago;
17The old tree is leafless in the forest,
18 The old year is ending in the frost,
19The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest,
20 The old hope is hardest to be lost.
21But the young, young children, O my brothers,
22 Do you ask them why they stand
23Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers,
24 In our happy Fatherland?
25They look up with their pale and sunken faces,
26 And their looks are sad to see,
27For the man's 's hoary anguish draws and presses
28 Down the cheeks of infancy.
29"Your old earth," they say, "is very dreary;
30 Our young feet," they say, "are very weak;
31Few paces have we taken, yet are weary—
32 Our grave-rest is very far to seek:
33Ask the old why they weep, and not the children,
34 For the outside earth is cold,
35And we young ones stand without, in our bewildering,
36 And the graves are for the old."
37"True," say the children, "it may happen
38 That we die before our time:
39Little Alice died last year, her grave is shapen
40 Like a snowball, in the rime.
41We looked into the pit prepared to take her:
42 Was no room for any work in the close clay!
43From the sleep wherein she lieth none will wake her,
44 Crying, 'Get up, little Alice! it is day.'
45If you listen by that grave, in sun and shower,
46 With your ear down, little Alice never cries:
47Could we see her face, be sure we should not know her,
48 For the smile has time for growing in her eyes:
49And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled in
50 The shroud, by the kirk-chime.
51It is good when it happens," say the children,
52 "That we die before our time."
53Alas, alas the children! they are seeking
54 Death in life, as best to have;
55They are binding up their hearts away from breaking,
56 With a cerement from the grave.
57Go out, children, from the mine and from the city,
58 Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do;
59Pluck you handfuls of the meadow-cowslips pretty,
60 Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through!
61But they answer, "Are your cowslips of the meadows
62 Like our weeds anear the mine?
63Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal-shadows,
64 From your pleasures fair and fine!
65"For oh," say the children, "we are weary,
66 And we cannot run or leap;
67If we cared for any meadows, it were merely
68 To drop down in them and sleep.
69Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping,
70 We fall upon our faces, trying to go;
71And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping,
72 The reddest flower would look as pale as snow.
73For, all day, we drag our burden tiring
74 Through the coal-dark, underground,
75Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron
76 In the factories, round and round.
77"For all day, the wheels are droning, turning;
78 Their wind comes in our faces,
79Till our hearts turn, our heads, with pulses burning,
80 And the walls turn in their places:
81Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling,
82 Turns the long light that drops adown the wall,
83Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling,
84 All are turning, all the day, and we with all.
85And all day, the iron wheels are droning;
86 And sometimes we could pray,
87'O ye wheels,' moaning breaking out in a mad
88 'Stop! be silent for to-day!'"
89Ay, be silent! Let them hear each other breathing
90 For a moment, mouth to mouth!
91Let them touch each other's hands, in a fresh wreathing
92 Of their tender human youth!
93Let them feel that this cold metallic motion
94 Is not all the life God fashions or reveals:
95Let them prove their inward souls against the notion
96 That they live in you, or under you, O wheels!
97Still, all day, the iron wheels go onward,
98 Grinding life down from its mark;
99And the children's souls, which God is calling sunward,
100 Spin on blindly in the dark.
101Now tell the poor young children, O my brothers,
102 To look up to Him and pray;
103So the blessed One who blesseth all the others,
104 Will bless them another day.
105They answer, "Who is God that He should hear us,
106 While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred?
107When we sob aloud, the human creatures near us
108 Pass by, hearing not, or answer not a word.
109And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding)
110 Strangers speaking at the door.
111Is it likely God, with angels singing round Him,
112 Hears our weeping any more?
113"Two words, indeed, of praying we remember,
114 And at midnight's hour of harm,
115'Our Father,' looking upward in the chamber,
116 We say softly for a charm.
117We know no other words, except 'Our Father,'
118 And we think that, in some pause of angels' song,
119God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather,
120 And hold both within His right hand which is strong.
121'Our Father!' If He heard us, He would surely
122 (For they call Him good and mild)
123Answer, smiling down the steep world very purely,
124 'Come and rest with me, my child.'
125"But, no!" say the children, weeping faster,
126 "He is speechless as a stone:
127And they tell us, of His image is the master
128 Who commands us to work on.
129Go to!" say the children,—"up in Heaven,
130 Dark, wheel-like, turning clouds are all we find.
131Do not mock us; grief has made us unbelieving:
132 We look up for God, but tears have made us blind."
133Do you hear the children weeping and disproving,
134 O my brothers, what ye preach?
135For God's possible is taught by His world's loving,
136 And the children doubt of each.
137And well may the children weep before you!
138 They are weary ere they run:
139They have never seen the sunshine, nor the glory,
140 Which is brighter than the sun.
141They know the grief of man, without its wisdom.
142 They sink in the despair, without its calm:
143Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom,
144 Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm:
145Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly
146 The harvest of its memories cannot reap,—
147Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly.
148 Let them weep! let them weep!
149They look up, with their pale and sunken faces,
150 And their look is dread to see,
151For they think you see their angels in high places,
152 With eyes turned on Deity.
153"How long," they say, "how long, O cruel nation,
154 Will you stand, to move the world, on a child's heart,—
155Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,
156 And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?
157Our blood splashes upward, O gold-heaper,
158 And your purple shows your path!
159But the child's sob in the silence curses deeper
160 Than the strong man in his wrath."
The Full Text of “The Cry of the Children”
"Pheu pheu, ti prosderkesthe m ommasin, tekna;"
[[Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.]]—Medea.
1Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
2 Ere the sorrow comes with years?
3They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,
4 And that cannot stop their tears.
5The young lambs are bleating in the meadows,
6 The young birds are chirping in the nest,
7The young fawns are playing with the shadows,
8 The young flowers are blowing toward the west:
9But the young, young children, O my brothers,
10 They are weeping bitterly!
11They are weeping in the playtime of the others,
12 In the country of the free.
13Do you question the young children in the sorrow,
14 Why their tears are falling so?
15The old man may weep for his to-morrow
16 Which is lost in Long Ago;
17The old tree is leafless in the forest,
18 The old year is ending in the frost,
19The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest,
20 The old hope is hardest to be lost.
21But the young, young children, O my brothers,
22 Do you ask them why they stand
23Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers,
24 In our happy Fatherland?
25They look up with their pale and sunken faces,
26 And their looks are sad to see,
27For the man's 's hoary anguish draws and presses
28 Down the cheeks of infancy.
29"Your old earth," they say, "is very dreary;
30 Our young feet," they say, "are very weak;
31Few paces have we taken, yet are weary—
32 Our grave-rest is very far to seek:
33Ask the old why they weep, and not the children,
34 For the outside earth is cold,
35And we young ones stand without, in our bewildering,
36 And the graves are for the old."
37"True," say the children, "it may happen
38 That we die before our time:
39Little Alice died last year, her grave is shapen
40 Like a snowball, in the rime.
41We looked into the pit prepared to take her:
42 Was no room for any work in the close clay!
43From the sleep wherein she lieth none will wake her,
44 Crying, 'Get up, little Alice! it is day.'
45If you listen by that grave, in sun and shower,
46 With your ear down, little Alice never cries:
47Could we see her face, be sure we should not know her,
48 For the smile has time for growing in her eyes:
49And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled in
50 The shroud, by the kirk-chime.
51It is good when it happens," say the children,
52 "That we die before our time."
53Alas, alas the children! they are seeking
54 Death in life, as best to have;
55They are binding up their hearts away from breaking,
56 With a cerement from the grave.
57Go out, children, from the mine and from the city,
58 Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do;
59Pluck you handfuls of the meadow-cowslips pretty,
60 Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through!
61But they answer, "Are your cowslips of the meadows
62 Like our weeds anear the mine?
63Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal-shadows,
64 From your pleasures fair and fine!
65"For oh," say the children, "we are weary,
66 And we cannot run or leap;
67If we cared for any meadows, it were merely
68 To drop down in them and sleep.
69Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping,
70 We fall upon our faces, trying to go;
71And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping,
72 The reddest flower would look as pale as snow.
73For, all day, we drag our burden tiring
74 Through the coal-dark, underground,
75Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron
76 In the factories, round and round.
77"For all day, the wheels are droning, turning;
78 Their wind comes in our faces,
79Till our hearts turn, our heads, with pulses burning,
80 And the walls turn in their places:
81Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling,
82 Turns the long light that drops adown the wall,
83Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling,
84 All are turning, all the day, and we with all.
85And all day, the iron wheels are droning;
86 And sometimes we could pray,
87'O ye wheels,' moaning breaking out in a mad
88 'Stop! be silent for to-day!'"
89Ay, be silent! Let them hear each other breathing
90 For a moment, mouth to mouth!
91Let them touch each other's hands, in a fresh wreathing
92 Of their tender human youth!
93Let them feel that this cold metallic motion
94 Is not all the life God fashions or reveals:
95Let them prove their inward souls against the notion
96 That they live in you, or under you, O wheels!
97Still, all day, the iron wheels go onward,
98 Grinding life down from its mark;
99And the children's souls, which God is calling sunward,
100 Spin on blindly in the dark.
101Now tell the poor young children, O my brothers,
102 To look up to Him and pray;
103So the blessed One who blesseth all the others,
104 Will bless them another day.
105They answer, "Who is God that He should hear us,
106 While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred?
107When we sob aloud, the human creatures near us
108 Pass by, hearing not, or answer not a word.
109And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding)
110 Strangers speaking at the door.
111Is it likely God, with angels singing round Him,
112 Hears our weeping any more?
113"Two words, indeed, of praying we remember,
114 And at midnight's hour of harm,
115'Our Father,' looking upward in the chamber,
116 We say softly for a charm.
117We know no other words, except 'Our Father,'
118 And we think that, in some pause of angels' song,
119God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather,
120 And hold both within His right hand which is strong.
121'Our Father!' If He heard us, He would surely
122 (For they call Him good and mild)
123Answer, smiling down the steep world very purely,
124 'Come and rest with me, my child.'
125"But, no!" say the children, weeping faster,
126 "He is speechless as a stone:
127And they tell us, of His image is the master
128 Who commands us to work on.
129Go to!" say the children,—"up in Heaven,
130 Dark, wheel-like, turning clouds are all we find.
131Do not mock us; grief has made us unbelieving:
132 We look up for God, but tears have made us blind."
133Do you hear the children weeping and disproving,
134 O my brothers, what ye preach?
135For God's possible is taught by His world's loving,
136 And the children doubt of each.
137And well may the children weep before you!
138 They are weary ere they run:
139They have never seen the sunshine, nor the glory,
140 Which is brighter than the sun.
141They know the grief of man, without its wisdom.
142 They sink in the despair, without its calm:
143Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom,
144 Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm:
145Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly
146 The harvest of its memories cannot reap,—
147Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly.
148 Let them weep! let them weep!
149They look up, with their pale and sunken faces,
150 And their look is dread to see,
151For they think you see their angels in high places,
152 With eyes turned on Deity.
153"How long," they say, "how long, O cruel nation,
154 Will you stand, to move the world, on a child's heart,—
155Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,
156 And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?
157Our blood splashes upward, O gold-heaper,
158 And your purple shows your path!
159But the child's sob in the silence curses deeper
160 Than the strong man in his wrath."
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“The Cry of the Children” Summary
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“The Cry of the Children” Themes
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The Immorality of Child Labor
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
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Classism and Injustice
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The Human Cost of Industrialization
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God and Religion
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Cry of the Children”
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Before Line 1, Lines 1-4
"Pheu pheu, ti prosderkesthe m ommasin, tekna;"
[[Alas, alas, why do you gaze at me with your eyes, my children.]]—Medea.
Do ye hear the children weeping, O my brothers,
Ere the sorrow comes with years?
They are leaning their young heads against their mothers,
And that cannot stop their tears. -
Lines 5-12
The young lambs are bleating in the meadows,
The young birds are chirping in the nest,
The young fawns are playing with the shadows,
The young flowers are blowing toward the west:
But the young, young children, O my brothers,
They are weeping bitterly!
They are weeping in the playtime of the others,
In the country of the free. -
Lines 13-20
Do you question the young children in the sorrow,
Why their tears are falling so?
The old man may weep for his to-morrow
Which is lost in Long Ago;
The old tree is leafless in the forest,
The old year is ending in the frost,
The old wound, if stricken, is the sorest,
The old hope is hardest to be lost. -
Lines 21-24
But the young, young children, O my brothers,
Do you ask them why they stand
Weeping sore before the bosoms of their mothers,
In our happy Fatherland? -
Lines 25-30
They look up with their pale and sunken faces,
And their looks are sad to see,
For the man's 's hoary anguish draws and presses
Down the cheeks of infancy.
"Your old earth," they say, "is very dreary;
Our young feet," they say, "are very weak; -
Lines 31-36
Few paces have we taken, yet are weary—
Our grave-rest is very far to seek:
Ask the old why they weep, and not the children,
For the outside earth is cold,
And we young ones stand without, in our bewildering,
And the graves are for the old." -
Lines 37-40
"True," say the children, "it may happen
That we die before our time:
Little Alice died last year, her grave is shapen
Like a snowball, in the rime. -
Lines 41-46
We looked into the pit prepared to take her:
Was no room for any work in the close clay!
From the sleep wherein she lieth none will wake her,
Crying, 'Get up, little Alice! it is day.'
If you listen by that grave, in sun and shower,
With your ear down, little Alice never cries: -
Lines 47-52
Could we see her face, be sure we should not know her,
For the smile has time for growing in her eyes:
And merry go her moments, lulled and stilled in
The shroud, by the kirk-chime.
It is good when it happens," say the children,
"That we die before our time." -
Lines 53-56
Alas, alas the children! they are seeking
Death in life, as best to have;
They are binding up their hearts away from breaking,
With a cerement from the grave. -
Lines 57-64
Go out, children, from the mine and from the city,
Sing out, children, as the little thrushes do;
Pluck you handfuls of the meadow-cowslips pretty,
Laugh aloud, to feel your fingers let them through!
But they answer, "Are your cowslips of the meadows
Like our weeds anear the mine?
Leave us quiet in the dark of the coal-shadows,
From your pleasures fair and fine! -
Lines 65-70
"For oh," say the children, "we are weary,
And we cannot run or leap;
If we cared for any meadows, it were merely
To drop down in them and sleep.
Our knees tremble sorely in the stooping,
We fall upon our faces, trying to go; -
Lines 71-76
And, underneath our heavy eyelids drooping,
The reddest flower would look as pale as snow.
For, all day, we drag our burden tiring
Through the coal-dark, underground,
Or, all day, we drive the wheels of iron
In the factories, round and round. -
Lines 77-82
"For all day, the wheels are droning, turning;
Their wind comes in our faces,
Till our hearts turn, our heads, with pulses burning,
And the walls turn in their places:
Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling,
Turns the long light that drops adown the wall, -
Lines 83-88
Turn the black flies that crawl along the ceiling,
All are turning, all the day, and we with all.
And all day, the iron wheels are droning;
And sometimes we could pray,
'O ye wheels,' moaning breaking out in a mad
'Stop! be silent for to-day!'" -
Lines 89-94
Ay, be silent! Let them hear each other breathing
For a moment, mouth to mouth!
Let them touch each other's hands, in a fresh wreathing
Of their tender human youth!
Let them feel that this cold metallic motion
Is not all the life God fashions or reveals: -
Lines 95-100
Let them prove their inward souls against the notion
That they live in you, or under you, O wheels!
Still, all day, the iron wheels go onward,
Grinding life down from its mark;
And the children's souls, which God is calling sunward,
Spin on blindly in the dark. -
Lines 101-106
Now tell the poor young children, O my brothers,
To look up to Him and pray;
So the blessed One who blesseth all the others,
Will bless them another day.
They answer, "Who is God that He should hear us,
While the rushing of the iron wheels is stirred? -
Lines 107-112
When we sob aloud, the human creatures near us
Pass by, hearing not, or answer not a word.
And we hear not (for the wheels in their resounding)
Strangers speaking at the door.
Is it likely God, with angels singing round Him,
Hears our weeping any more? -
Lines 113-124
"Two words, indeed, of praying we remember,
And at midnight's hour of harm,
'Our Father,' looking upward in the chamber,
We say softly for a charm.
We know no other words, except 'Our Father,'
And we think that, in some pause of angels' song,
God may pluck them with the silence sweet to gather,
And hold both within His right hand which is strong.
'Our Father!' If He heard us, He would surely
(For they call Him good and mild)
Answer, smiling down the steep world very purely,
'Come and rest with me, my child.' -
Lines 125-132
"But, no!" say the children, weeping faster,
"He is speechless as a stone:
And they tell us, of His image is the master
Who commands us to work on.
Go to!" say the children,—"up in Heaven,
Dark, wheel-like, turning clouds are all we find.
Do not mock us; grief has made us unbelieving:
We look up for God, but tears have made us blind." -
Lines 133-136
Do you hear the children weeping and disproving,
O my brothers, what ye preach?
For God's possible is taught by His world's loving,
And the children doubt of each. -
Lines 137-142
And well may the children weep before you!
They are weary ere they run:
They have never seen the sunshine, nor the glory,
Which is brighter than the sun.
They know the grief of man, without its wisdom.
They sink in the despair, without its calm: -
Lines 143-148
Are slaves, without the liberty in Christdom,
Are martyrs, by the pang without the palm:
Are worn as if with age, yet unretrievingly
The harvest of its memories cannot reap,—
Are orphans of the earthly love and heavenly.
Let them weep! let them weep! -
Lines 149-152
They look up, with their pale and sunken faces,
And their look is dread to see,
For they think you see their angels in high places,
With eyes turned on Deity. -
Lines 153-160
"How long," they say, "how long, O cruel nation,
Will you stand, to move the world, on a child's heart,—
Stifle down with a mailed heel its palpitation,
And tread onward to your throne amid the mart?
Our blood splashes upward, O gold-heaper,
And your purple shows your path!
But the child's sob in the silence curses deeper
Than the strong man in his wrath."
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“The Cry of the Children” Symbols
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Tears
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Nature
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Little Alice
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Wheels
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“The Cry of the Children” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Assonance
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Anaphora
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Apostrophe
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Metaphor
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Caesura
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Enjambment
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Imagery
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Juxtaposition
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Repetition
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Rhetorical Question
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Consonance
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Alliteration
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Parallelism
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“The Cry of the Children” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Ye
- Ere
- Bleating
- Stricken
- Bosoms
- Fatherland
- Hoary
- Anguish
- Paces
- Weary
- Rime
- Kirk-chime
- Cerement
- Thrushes
- Meadow-cowslips
- Reeling
- Wreathing
- Resounding
- Disproving
- Christdom
- Martyrs
- Pang without the palm
- Unretrievingly
- Mailed
- Palpitation
- Tread
- The mart
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- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Cry of the Children”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“The Cry of the Children” Speaker
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“The Cry of the Children” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “The Cry of the Children”
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More “The Cry of the Children” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poem Out Load — Listen to the poem read aloud by Christie Nowak for LibriVox.
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More About Elizabeth Barrett Browning — A biography of the poet at the Poetry Foundation.
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Social and Political Issues in Barrett Browning's Poetry — An article at the British Library on the social and political issues that fed Elizabeth Barrett Browning's work.
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"Cry of the Children" Exhibition — An academic virtual exhibition on "The Cry of the Children," in honor of its 175th anniversary.
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More on Child Labor — An encyclopedia article on child labor during the British Industrial Revolution.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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