I chose to analyze the poem “Death of an Infant” because it is susceptible and appeals to the author’s feelings. The poem, through metaphorical images, describes a terrible event in the life of any woman, which is the death of a newborn baby. The touching love that the writer implies into drawing the features of a tender infant is impressive, “There was a tint of rose //O’er cheek and lip; – he touch’d the veins with ice” (line 3). Sigourney depicts death as something animate, an entity that has taken away a tiny soul that has just appeared into the world, “Death found strange beauty on that cherub brow” (line 1). Finally, Sigourney concludes, “Death gazed and left it there; – he dared not steal // The signet-ring of Heaven” (lines 14-15). The reader thus learns that the author considers the death of an infant to be innocent and doomed to eternal life in the Kingdom of God.
The accuracy of conveying the mother’s feelings about who lost the child and the subtle vivid description of the event leaves no doubt that Sigourney is familiar with the story. Understandably, such a sorrowful experience leaves a significant traumatic imprint that probably has led to the desire to express feelings through poetry. Therefore, many of Sigourney’s poems are distinguished by such melancholic touchingness and appeal to maternal feelings.
In general, in her poems, the author feels that she wanted to write about the vital, often traditionally hard. Given the realities of that time, one can imagine how difficult it was for her and how much disapproval she received. However, going through Sigourney’s poems, the reader understands that she certainly experienced a lot and could not help but express it through words and images.
Reference
Sigourney, L. H. (1997). Death of an infant. In She Wields a Pen: American Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. University of Iowa Press.