MacEwen’s poetic technique assists in justifying her view about how artists have a very powerful role in society and how they can abuse this power. MacEwen cleverly revels this to us by using a digression as evidence to compare two other famous writers, who have written about children as victims of war. Niko Kazantzakis who wrote about the
“boy with a green belly full of dirt”
and T.E. Lawrence who wrote about a
“Small girl...one shoulder chopped off”.
These famous writers have chosen to write about these topics; such as children suffering, because children are a symbol of innocence and they know that they will make people feel emotionally moved as they read it. They present their work for the world to see, based only on their ideas and perspectives. They accept praise for their writings, even though they know that they are not fully capturing those moments and emotions, because art can never capture reality. In the end, they are manipulating how humans may perceive the world.
The Artist’s use of figurative language assists in illustrating the children’s suffering,
“in his body of rags”,
is a metaphor that implies either his body is worn, tattered, and abused and or he is dressed in rags.
MacEwen utilizes a simile using the moon, to make a comparison with the Child’s appearance.
“face as pale and trusting as the moon”
She is showing that the “Child” is innocent, harmless and reliable as the moon is, but at the same time, the moon exemplifies paleness, suggesting that the child is unusually light in skin complexion because he is ill, shocked, and worried. She is trying to make the reader feel sympathy for this “Child” because he did does not deserve what he is going through. MacEwen even goes as far as to use onomatopoeia,
“one shoulder chopped off”,
to give more visual imagery and the effect for the readers to feel like they just heard the small girl’s arm get cut off.
The attitude in which MacEwen displays towards the reader is refusal, detachment, and casualness. Notice how in the first stanza,
“there’s no way i’m going to write”,
is a statement of intention of what she is not going to do. In fact in the second stanza,
“the child i will not write about”,
is repetition. She is very forceful and determined to convince herself that she is doing the right thing, to not write about this “Child”.
Through MacEwen’s choice of words
“there were only two corpses…that day”,
gives the impression that she was there that day and she is recollecting the time she witnessed the “Child Dancing”. What really disturbed me about this line is that she uses the word “only” which produces a very casual tone even though she is describing something very horrific.
The most worth-mentioning and crucial quote from the poem,
“I don’t feel like slandering them with poetry.”
MacEwen sounds as if she is trying to make this distance from the subject because this isn’t easy for her to write about. Therefore she adapts to this casual, yet detached tone to disguise the struggle she is having whether to write or not to write. It is her job to write about what she observes, in fact I think deep down she really wants to write about the “Child”. Her problem is that she is at loss for the words to describe what this “Child” is experiencing because a “Child Dancing” in the Warsaw ghetto is the worst image of war. On top of that, she realizes the capability she has to influence the world through her writing. The Artist knows that if she actually published a piece of written work about this “child dancing” it would be fallacious, and consequently immoral as a human being. MacEwen is making a social statement, which simply implies that it is distasteful to believe that you can capture reality with art.
In the sixth stanza MacEwen takes this predictable route and begins to discuss in more detail about “the child dancing”. Many readers would concur that MacEwen is being ironic, but I feel that she is just letting the memories go by brooding about them in her mind.
“to some music no one else could her”
The “Child” is insane, but he plays this music in his head to encourage himself to keep on dancing in hopes that he will attract someone to take care of him.
The simplicity of this line brings to light that the “Child Dancing” is suffering very differently from the others.
“had moon eyes, no green horror and no fear”
Moon eyes could symbolize so many things. For example he’s wide-eyed because he is looking for love and nourishment. Or maybe he’s dreaming-he is imagining he is in a completely different world.
This is the climax of the poem,
“but something worse”,
it is the height of tension as we uncover more and more about the “child dancing” and we, as the readers want to find out what could possibly be worse than ‘green horror” or “no fear”.
The most upsetting part of the poem,
“ a simple desire to please...back and forth”,
is literally worse than death and physical injuries. It’s heart wrenching for the reader because all this “Child” wants is to make someone else happy in hopes that they might take care of him.
The theme of the poem is how society changes during war. It is revealed to us by highlights of three children suffering very differently during war. Kazantzakis who wrote about the
“boy with a green belly full of dirt”.
This boy has been lying on the roadside for so long that moss and grass have been growing on his open flesh. People, who are still alive don’t have the decency to bury him. Instead, they’re trying to stay alive themselves.
In T.E. Lawrence’s work he wrote about a,
“small girl...one shoulder chopped off crying: don’t hurt me, Baba!”
In this highlight a small girl must beg someone to spare her life, while in excruciating pain. This scenario is upsetting, disturbing, and petrifying. Yet, believable only because these people are at war and anyone’s morality can transform, what he or she may think is right is actually wrong.
As MacEwen continues to write about the “Child Dancing”, she exposes that the “Child” danced for
“the people who stayed to watch him”.
Some of them do not even notice that his boy is begging for some for food, shelter, and attention. They sound like they are more amused to see this “Child Dancing”. On the other hand, there are some who realize what the “Child” needs but they just can’t help, because they must take care of themselves.
In the seventh stanza,
“his feet wrapped in the newspapers”,
is very symbolic, because newspapers are linked to reporters and this child can not even get attention from them. This is something that would be shocking today; in fact all over the headlines, but in the Warsaw ghetto many children were hopeless and abandoned to die, so to them it is not even news worthy.
As you read the closing line,
“of another ordinary day”
your blood just freezes over. It’s very straightforward, you know that he will do this every day and become more and more psychologically damaged until some body put him out of his misery.
In conclusion, Gwendolyn MacEwen, reveals through her choice of words and techniques her true perspective of how artist’s should be cautious about what they choose to write about because it might be consequently immoral as a human being.
