Mutterings over the Crib of a Deaf Child Essay

The poem is a work of classic poetic prowess. It paints a vivid picture of a world where there is no sound, yet that world is just as fluent in operation as the one with. The poem undertakes the difficulties a deaf child would face in the real world, in contemplation of which he would have to make do with the other 4 senses, and in explaining how he would utilize those, Wright manages to paint pictures in the reader’s head that take him through the deaf child’s way of life were he to experience the same things a normal child would. The images that are conjured up will thus be considered in order to understand what emotions the two speakers are going through as they relay what a deaf child undergoes in his quest to live through the ordeals of a normal life with one sense less. Analysis The poem is depicted as a question and answer session where one speaker addresses the problem the deaf child might have to face in the world and the other portrays the effect of a heightened visual aura as well as more prominent ancillary senses that may make up for his deafness. To communicate this ideology, Wright utilizes the tool of articulating imagery, which forces the reader to visualize what the speaker is relaying and the passion which he relates to it. The first speaker, for example, discusses how important the sense of sound is and how impairment to the same would render a person seriously disabled to the basic sounds one undergoes, such as the bell at school and the cry of the starlings. In reply, the second speaker puts a lot of weight on cherishing life with the remaining senses, which a deaf person has the ability to put into perspective. Thus, every single argument is rebutted, with the second speaker taking careful note of the visual elements that contribute to a person’s knowledge, such as the measure of the clock and the shade crawling upon the rock as the day ends. The questions continue and sleep factors in when the first speaker reinvigorates the need to sleep and wake up on time, which as a child is the responsibility of the parent. Of course, this is a clear indication of how strongly he feels about the use of sound in early childhood as the young one is still learning to get accustomed to the ways of the world. The second speaker is adamant on the use of visual perception to counter all the missing elements of sound, as when the child’s finger bleeds he will learn to get accustomed to pain where as a whistling bobwhite would simply indicate the emergence of night. Conclusion The two speakers were thus planted by Wright to demonstrate the emotional attachments humans attribute to the five senses. The first speaker very obviously arguing the importance of the sense of hearing coupled with an underlying passion for the audible rigors of childhood, during school and as a part of growing up, without which he believes that life may just be incomplete. The second speaker, however, is there to counter that very argument to its roots, indicating the importance of the remaining senses and how they more than make up for the deafness. This, as it were, has a larger than life element, as the second speaker so fervently argues the presence of a higher power, which negates any handicap that the child might face with other qualities naturally gifted to him, such as that of sight and touch. Thus, he is more emotional about his belief in God more than anything else.