A Sad Child

A Sad Child

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. 

Margaret Atwood

                                 ****   http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-sad-child/   ****

     This poem by Margaret Atwood is beautifully written, clearly describing the thoughts and feelings of depression within a child. She uses simple diction and creates images within her reader's minds. Atwood uses literary techniques to enhance her message about events in life that aren't always preventable, "It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical." The next line gives us a simile between a sad child and the sadness of "an eyeless doll". We, as an audience can connect to the line "You need to sleep." There have been times when kids tell their parents that they can't handle something anymore, and when parents have nothing to say, they come to the conclusion that sleep and pills will help. 

The next stanza continues the ending of the first stanza and it talks about how a child can cope with something as harsh as depression. Like the world today, many people find happiness through buying things rather than enjoying the small moments life has to offer. An example is my sister, rather than the family night we had after a bad test, she enjoyed the moment more when we got her a paint set. Maybe she enjoys letting her feelings out through art than talking. Just like that, the speaker suggests that the child buy things like “a hat…a coat or pet.”

                                                     

          In the third stanza, the speaker talks about the remains of a party, and with the diction that they use, the reader is able to visualize how unimportant they felt, the sadness within them that they just couldn’t let out. The pressure that the child feels to maybe fit in with others has finally let the child to a sad conclusion of believing that “[they are] not the favourite child.” As the poem starts to come to an end, the reader can mentally and emotionally feel the sadness within the child and with the help of a metaphor, “the light fails and the fog rolls in/ and you’re trapped in your own overturned body” we can conclude that the child feels helpless, they can’t escape the pain they’re going through and that gives us a vivid image showing that the child is helpless.

         

          In conclusion, as the poem is in its last stanza, with the aid of diction and the imagery created at the beginning of this stanza, we come to the  interpretation that depression is something that everyone goes through whether they know it or not. It’s not something that can be prevented, yet it can be calmed. With this, the speaker lets the child know that there are many ways to cope with sadness, and depression without the thoughts of giving up and failure.