Child of Our Time (Leaving Cert English): Revision Notes

Child of Our Time

Background and context

"Child of Our Time" by Eavan Boland was published in her 1975 collection The War Horse. This powerful poem was written in response to the Dublin and Monaghan car bombings that occurred in May 1974 during "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland. These attacks killed thirty-four civilians, including three children: two infants and one unborn child. The victims were Anne Marie O'Brien, Jacqueline O'Brien, and Baby Doherty.

The poem was originally dedicated to a child who died of sudden infant death syndrome (crib death), adding another layer of meaning about the vulnerability of children and the different ways young lives can be lost.

Overview and meaning

This is a stark and deeply moving poem that explores the aftermath of a child's death during a period of violent conflict. Boland uses the poem as both a personal elegy and a broader commentary on how society fails to protect its most vulnerable members. The speaker addresses a dead child directly, explaining how their death has taught her to create this "song" or poem.

The poem serves as both a tribute to innocent victims and a call for social change. It highlights how violence destroys not just individual lives but the very fabric of community and childhood innocence.

Structure and form

"Child of Our Time" consists of three sestets (six-line stanzas) with a sophisticated rhyme scheme that varies across each stanza:

This changing rhyme pattern reflects the disrupted, fragmented world the poem describes - nothing follows a predictable pattern when violence tears apart the natural order.

Key poetic techniques

Boland employs several important techniques to create emotional impact throughout the poem:

Anaphora

This is the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning of lines. The most striking example appears in the first stanza with "Its" repeated at the start of lines 4, 5, and 6:

Alliteration

Words beginning with the same sound appear close together, such as:

• "overnight" and "order" in the second line
• "living", "learn", and "learn" in the sixth line of the second stanza

This technique creates musical connections between words and emphasises key concepts.

Repetition

The phrase "of our time" from the title is repeated in the final stanza, emphasising the collective responsibility theme.

Stanza-by-stanza analysis

Stanza one

Yesterday I knew no lullaby
But you have taught me overnight to order
This song, which takes from your final cry
Its tune, from your unreasoned end its reason;
Its rhythm from the discord of your murder,
Its motive from the fact you cannot listen.

The speaker addresses the dead child directly, explaining how the child's death has "taught" her to create this poem. The irony is powerful - instead of singing lullabies to comfort a living child, she must compose elegies for a dead one. The "discord of your murder" creates the "rhythm" of her song, showing how violence generates art born from tragedy.

Stanza two

We who should have known how to instruct
With rhymes for your waking, rhymes for your sleep
(...)
And living, learn, must learn from you, dead.

Here Boland contrasts what should have been - adults providing gentle nursery rhymes and bedtime stories - with the harsh reality. Children should be surrounded by "legends to protect" and stories of "heroes" rather than becoming victims themselves. The final line is particularly poignant: the living must learn from the dead child, reversing the natural order where adults teach children.

Stanza three

To make our broken images rebuild
Themselves around your limbs, your broken
(...)
Of our time, our times have robbed your cradle.
Sleep in a world your final sleep has woken.

The concluding stanza calls for action and renewal. The "broken images" must be rebuilt around the memory of this child. The repetition of "our time" emphasises collective responsibility - society has "robbed" this child's cradle through its acceptance of violence. The final paradox suggests that the child's death might awaken others to create a better world.

Major themes

Loss of innocence

The poem explores how violence destroys childhood innocence and the natural progression from nursery rhymes to adult understanding.

Societal responsibility

Boland emphasises that this child belongs to all of us ("child of our time") and that society collectively failed to protect them.

The power and purpose of poetry

The poem examines how art emerges from tragedy and whether poetry can serve as both memorial and catalyst for change.

Violence and its consequences

The poem shows how violence creates a "discord" that reverberates through communities, destroying the natural rhythms of life.