Poetry Critique of The Blind Boy

             The poem The Blind Boy, written by Colley Cibber, displays criteria in which signifies a good children’s poem. Characteristics of a good children’s poem include conciseness, emotional intensity, sounds, images, and insight. Examples from the poem can easily be pointed out to demonstrate each of these characteristics.

            The Blind Boy is about a boy that is blind talking about all of the things he can not see in life. In the first part he tells of how he can not enjoy light and asks people that can see what the blessing of sight is like. The second part talks about the sun and tells of how he can feel the warmth of it, but doesn’t understand day and night because he doesn’t know what the sun shining is like. The third part of the poem tells of how to him it is always day because there is no difference in the appearance of day and night. The fourth section of the poem the boy tells how no one should feel sorry for him because he does not know any different from being blind. The last part of the poem the boy tells of how he does not let him being blind bring him down because to him, he is a king.

            First of all, the poem is very concise. Conciseness means that the poem is written using the fewest words possible and that each word was chosen carefully for a specific purpose. Each section of the poem tells something different about the boy being blind. Even though there are five different sections, each is only two sentences. Each of the sentences highlights something that someone that was blessed with sight might not think about missing or displays his optimism despite his blindness.

            The emotional intensity in this poem is overwhelming, which is most certainly one of the reasons I chose to critique this poem. When you are able to see, you often do not think about the things blind people miss out on in life. However, this poem brings many thoughts to mind about how blessed we are to have the ability to see. The first line of the poem says, “o say, what is that thing called light? Which I can ne’er enjoy?” This line touched my heart because of how sad is it that he has no idea what light actually is and will never be able to know. Also in the poem, it says, “With heavy sighs I often hear you mourn my hapless woe.” This tells of how often people feel sorry for him because he can not see. That brings about serious feelings of emotional intensity knowing that you are pitied for a disability such as being blind. Following that line the poem says, “But sure with patience I may bear, a loss I ne’er know.” This line brings more emotions because it shows that he doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him because he knows no different than being blind. He tells of him he is patient with his lack of sight because he hasn’t lost anything, he simply doesn’t know what it would be like to have sight. That line makes readers feel set at peace about him being blind by the assurance that he really is okay with it. The most emotionally intense section of the poem is found in the last section which states, “Then let not what I cannot have my cheer of mind destroy; whilst thus I sing, I am a kind, although a poor blind boy.” This section is emotional because it teaches a lesson to readers of how we should be optimistic in our own lives just as the blind boy is. Even though he is blind, he says he won’t let it destroy the cheer of his mind. Each day, we let small things get us down and take away our cheer. However, he isn’t even letting the fact that he is blind destroy his cheer. He tells of how he is a king and not just a poor blind boy; this demonstrates his strength of character to readers and touches them emotionally through that realization.

            The sound of the poem is very interesting, which is an important component of a good children’s poem. The last word of every other sentence of the poem rhymes. For example, the second part of the poem says, “You talk of wondrous things you see, you say the sun shines bright; I feel him warm, but how can he, then make it day or night.” The words see and he rhyme and the words bright and night rhyme. Other rhyming words in the poem include light/sight, enjoy/boy, make/awake, play/day, woe/know, and sing/king. The sounds of several words in this poem are very unique and unlike language we commonly use in today’s time. Some of these interesting sounding words include ne’er, ‘twere, when’er, and whilst.

            Images are another characteristic of a good children’s poem. Images are made using word choice, imagery which appeals to the senses and metaphors/similes. The poem The Blind Boy includes images that make it as effective of poem as it is. There are several words that help this poem make a good picture in the readers head when reading this poem. First of all, saying that the sun shines bright and speaking of the warmth you can feel from the sun. When I read the part speaking of this, I could visualize the sun’s image in my head, its glow, and feel what it is like to feel its warmth. Also, when he speaks of heavy sighs that mourn his woe, I could visualize actual people in my mind pointing to him, feeling sorry for him, and whispering to each other that he was blind.

            Insight is another characteristic that a good children’s poem has. The Blind Boy certainly has many insightful points and characteristics. In good poems, insight surprises readers with inventive or intelligent observations. There are a few different insightful points made in this poem. First of all, one insightful point is to be thankful for what you have and not take what you have been blessed with for granted. This point is made in a few ways. The boy asks, “what is the blessing of sight?” This is an eye-opening question for those of us that are blessed with sight because we often do not think about how lucky we are to see when so many people can not. Also, he says in the second part, “You talk of wondrous things you see.” This also causes us to stop and think about all of the beautiful and amazing things we are able to see on a day to day basis when there are people that will never be able to see anything. This should cause us to be extremely thankful and consider the insightful reminder of our blessings. The second insightful point made in the poem I observed is that things in life could be worse, so be optimistic. Even though the boy was blind, he made it clear he didn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him nor was he going to let anything take away his joy. One part of the poem says, “With heavy sighs I often hear, you mourn my hapless woe; be sure with patience I may bear, a loss I ne’er know.” In this line he tells how even though people feel sorry for him, they shouldn’t because he has patience and knows no different because he has always been blind; he hasn’t lost anything. Also, he says, “Then let now what I cannot have my cheer of mind destroy; whilst thus I sing, I am a king, although a poor blind boy.”  This provides insight on how we shouldn’t let things cause us to lose our cheer because things could always be worse. Even though he was blind and had that disadvantage in life, he still thinks of himself as a king. That optimistic attitude and spirit should be an inspiration to all readers of this poem. Third, in the poem another insightful point is to be confident in who you are and don’t feel sorry for yourself or expect others to. Even though he was blind, he made it clear that he didn’t let that get him down. He told of how he had patience, never knew any different, wouldn’t let it destroy his cheer, and thought of himself as a king. The blind boy thought highly of himself and displayed confidence despite the fact that he was blind.

            The characteristics of this piece come together to create a wonderful children’s poem. The conciseness, emotional intensity, sounds, images, and insight play important roles in making the poem as meaningful as it is. Hopefully the conciseness will continue to draw readers, the emotional intensity will touch readers, the sounds intrigue, the images bring the poem alive, and the insight inspire readers. Colley Cibber did an excellent job of creating the character of the blind boy when he wrote this poem.