"The Cry of the Children"

by Elizabeth Barrett

the text

First published in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in 1843, and then in Poems (1844).

This poem helped fuel the indignation felt by the educated public over the revelation of children's working conditions in the  Parliamentary Reports (such as that by her friend R.H. Horne), that eventually led to the 1847 Factory Act.  It is one of the best known social protest poems of the Victorian period.

Child Labor on the Victorian Web

As you read the poem, consider the following:

• how is the raw material of the report is transformed in Barrett's treatment of the topic?
• who does the poem address?
• what is accomplished by the use of children's voices?
• is a particular ideology of childhood operating in the poem?
• what kind of change does the poem seek and through what means?