The Orphan Girl
THE ORPHAN GIRL by HENRY LOUIS VIVIAN DEROZIO
Her hair was black as a raven’s wings,
Her cheek the tulip’s hue did wear,
Her voice was soft as when night winds sing,
Her brow was as a moonbeam fair;
Her sire had joined the wake of war;-
The battle-shock, the shout, and scar
He knew, and gained a glorious grave-
Such is the guerdon of the brave!-
Her anguished mother’s suffering heart
Could not endure a widow’s part;
She sunk beneath her soul’s distress,
And left her infant parentless.-
She hath no friend on this cold, bleak earth,
To give her a shelter, a home, and a hearth;
Through life’s dreary desert alone she must wend,
For alas! the wretched have never a friend!
And should she stray from virtue’s way,
The world will scorn, and its scorn can slay.
Ah! Shame hath enough to wring the breast
With a weight of sorrow and guilt oppres’d;
But oh! ’tis coldly cruel to wound
The bosom whose blood must gush unbound.
No tear is so bright as the tear that flows
For erring woman’s unpitied woes;
And blest be for ever his honoured name
Who shelters an orphan from sorrow and shame!
CRITICAL APPRECIATION-
“The Orphan Girl” portrays a young beautiful vulnerable orphan girl and draws a pitiable state in which she is thrown into because of the circumstances.The girl’s father died in a war and her mother could not bear the shock of her husband’s death and left the world leaving the little girl alone with no one to look after her. The poem "The Orphan Girl" is not a sonnet, it certainly does have a strict structure of being broken up into two stanzas. The first stanza appears to focus on a description of both the girl and her parents, as well as what happened to both parents, while the second stanza focuses on a description of what will happen to the poor little girl now that both of her parents are deceased. This poem in particular has a very interesting rhyme scheme. We analyze rhyme scheme by designating each rhyming word with a letter name, so that we can easily see the patterns. This poem starts out with an ABAB pattern but then switches to a BBCC pattern continuing in this vein all the way down to MM. The four ABAB lines specifically describe the beauty of the little girl, making the reader empathize even more with her pain and her plight. We see the description of the child's beauty in the opening lines:
Her hair was black as a raven's wings,
Her cheek the tulip's hue did wear,
Her voice was soft as when night winds sing,
Her brow was as a moonbeam fair.
In the beginning of the poem, the poet uses simile and metaphor to describe the beauty of the young girl:
Her hair was black as a raven’s wings
Her cheek's colour is like that of the 'hue' of 'tulip'. Her soft voice is like the singing of the wind in the night. And her forhead was as fair as the moonbeam.
Alliteration is used in the lines:
The battle-shock, the shout, and scar
He knew, and gained a glorious grave
The mother of the girl is in such anguish that she is not able to bear the shock of her husband's death. She is not able to play of the part of the widow and ultimately dies.
The images of the “cold, bleak earth” makes the situation of the girl pathetic as she has no “home” or “hearth” where she can feel protected and can grow up. The poem is full of language suggesting that a orphan girl would inevitably stray from virtue‘s way, become an erring woman, wretched, scorned and filled with sorrow, guilt and shame, as it is an “unpitying world.” The poem ends with an appeal to the people to provide her a shelter. Thus the poem also has a social message which is poetically presented.
Essentially, the poem describes an orphaned girl who will now be "scorned" by the world unless she is "sheltered" by some caring person.
Thus Derozio’s poems have a socio-cultural fervor as he thought poetry to be a medium of spreading social awareness. Most of his poems were first published in magazines and later published as a book. As his critical prose writings (many of which are lost), his poems also significantly contribute to the socio-cultural movement of Bengal which is also known as Bengal Renaissance.
Her hair was black as a raven’s wings,
Her cheek the tulip’s hue did wear,
Her voice was soft as when night winds sing,
Her brow was as a moonbeam fair;
Her sire had joined the wake of war;-
The battle-shock, the shout, and scar
He knew, and gained a glorious grave-
Such is the guerdon of the brave!-
Her anguished mother’s suffering heart
Could not endure a widow’s part;
She sunk beneath her soul’s distress,
And left her infant parentless.-
She hath no friend on this cold, bleak earth,
To give her a shelter, a home, and a hearth;
Through life’s dreary desert alone she must wend,
For alas! the wretched have never a friend!
And should she stray from virtue’s way,
The world will scorn, and its scorn can slay.
Ah! Shame hath enough to wring the breast
With a weight of sorrow and guilt oppres’d;
But oh! ’tis coldly cruel to wound
The bosom whose blood must gush unbound.
No tear is so bright as the tear that flows
For erring woman’s unpitied woes;
And blest be for ever his honoured name
Who shelters an orphan from sorrow and shame!
CRITICAL APPRECIATION-
“The Orphan Girl” portrays a young beautiful vulnerable orphan girl and draws a pitiable state in which she is thrown into because of the circumstances.The girl’s father died in a war and her mother could not bear the shock of her husband’s death and left the world leaving the little girl alone with no one to look after her. The poem "The Orphan Girl" is not a sonnet, it certainly does have a strict structure of being broken up into two stanzas. The first stanza appears to focus on a description of both the girl and her parents, as well as what happened to both parents, while the second stanza focuses on a description of what will happen to the poor little girl now that both of her parents are deceased. This poem in particular has a very interesting rhyme scheme. We analyze rhyme scheme by designating each rhyming word with a letter name, so that we can easily see the patterns. This poem starts out with an ABAB pattern but then switches to a BBCC pattern continuing in this vein all the way down to MM. The four ABAB lines specifically describe the beauty of the little girl, making the reader empathize even more with her pain and her plight. We see the description of the child's beauty in the opening lines:
Her hair was black as a raven's wings,
Her cheek the tulip's hue did wear,
Her voice was soft as when night winds sing,
Her brow was as a moonbeam fair.
In the beginning of the poem, the poet uses simile and metaphor to describe the beauty of the young girl:
Her hair was black as a raven’s wings
Her cheek's colour is like that of the 'hue' of 'tulip'. Her soft voice is like the singing of the wind in the night. And her forhead was as fair as the moonbeam.
Alliteration is used in the lines:
The battle-shock, the shout, and scar
He knew, and gained a glorious grave
The mother of the girl is in such anguish that she is not able to bear the shock of her husband's death. She is not able to play of the part of the widow and ultimately dies.
The images of the “cold, bleak earth” makes the situation of the girl pathetic as she has no “home” or “hearth” where she can feel protected and can grow up. The poem is full of language suggesting that a orphan girl would inevitably stray from virtue‘s way, become an erring woman, wretched, scorned and filled with sorrow, guilt and shame, as it is an “unpitying world.” The poem ends with an appeal to the people to provide her a shelter. Thus the poem also has a social message which is poetically presented.
Essentially, the poem describes an orphaned girl who will now be "scorned" by the world unless she is "sheltered" by some caring person.
Thus Derozio’s poems have a socio-cultural fervor as he thought poetry to be a medium of spreading social awareness. Most of his poems were first published in magazines and later published as a book. As his critical prose writings (many of which are lost), his poems also significantly contribute to the socio-cultural movement of Bengal which is also known as Bengal Renaissance.
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