The Cry of the Children. Elizabeth B. Browning

“For oh,” say the children, “we are weary,	65
And we cannot run or leap;
If we car’d 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;	70
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	75
In the factories, round and round.
“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:	80
Turns the sky in the high window blank and reeling,
Turns the long light that drops adown the wall,
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,	85
And sometimes we could pray,
‘O ye wheels,’ moaning breaking out in a mad
‘Stop! be silent for to-day!’” xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Stanzas   6 and 7. She condemns slavery and portrays atrocities of child labour. She brings forth the miseries of the child labourers in England of her time, the Victorian Age. During Industrial revolution the the child labour was rampant. This poem shows that the children at that time longed for freedom from work. Children are tired and weary. Meadows they could not reach run and play there. Deep down in sleep all the time due to monotonous work. They were so tired  and their eyelids were heavy with sleep. Red flower appeared as pale as snow due to exhaustion. Tired and unable to drag the coal from the underground and drive the iron wheels of the machines the whole day long. The only air they got was from the wheels they turned. Wheels drone on and on and their heads turn, pulses turn, walls turn, high windows turn, shaft of light rays turn and the black fly on the ceiling turns. Their  only prayer was they wanted the Wheels to stop and give them rest atleast for one day. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Droning---- the continuous low sound made by the machines. Drooping eyelids---closing due to tiredness and exhaustion Moaning- Expressing of pain or regret Stooping: bending forward, xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx