To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible by Anna Barbauld

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Poetry in the early 19th century was a form of therapy that allowed the writer and reader to get in touch with their emotions. In the poem “To a Little Invisible Being Who is Expected Soon to Become Visible”, Anna Barbauld discusses the feelings of what it is like for a mother awaiting her unborn child. The poem is written in a third-person narrative style and the author uses many exclamation points, which suggests the urgency and emotion through the punctuation. The rhyme scheme of the poem is ABAB. The language is positive and hopeful, which helps form an inclusive tone of romance. Likewise, the poem is broken into nine quatrains which aids in the depiction of the mother carrying a child for nine months in her womb.
As a poet from the Romantic era, Barbauld attempts to purport to the reader (men in particular) how having the ability to recreate another human being contributes to the emotional state of a female. The contradiction in the poems title “invisible” and “visible” aids in the role of the Romanticism period. The majority of the writers sought after the importance of focusing on the invisible just as much as the visible.
The focus of the poem is on the feelings of a female narrator that is waiting for her unborn baby. As previously stated, men were jealous of women because of their recreation power; during the era, recreation was a main focus of many writers. Moreover, Anna Barbauld validates in her poem just how the female narrator having the power to recreate a human being conveys hope and contentment. I will prove this contentment that the narrator has in the poem through Barbauld’s diction, female perspective, and nature as a metaphor.
The narrator in Anna Barbauld’s poem reveals to men exactly how having the power ...

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.... Accordingly, discussing the desire that the mother has portrays this happiness. The interval a mother encounters for nine months by waiting for a glimpse of her baby requires patience, which also is connected to happiness. By being patient a mother is experiencing hope; and with faith she is capable of waiting for the day when she is able to hold her newborn. Overall, Anna Barbauld validated in her poem exactly how the female narrator having the power to recreate a new human being gave a feeling of happiness by using content diction, nature as a metaphor, and through female perspective.

Works Cited

Barbauld, Anna. "To a Little Invisible Being Who Is Expected Soon to Become Visible." The Norton Anthology. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: Greenblatt, n.d. 49-50. Print.
The Oxford English Dictionary. OED online. Oxford University Pres.

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