Analysis of Charles Dickens' "A Child's Hymn"
Analysis of Charles Dickens' "A Child's Hymn"
Analysis of Charles Dickens' "A Child's Hymn"
In the first stanza, we can see that the speaker was praying to someone that he
called ‘heavenly Father’. We can assume that the ‘heavenly Father’ is God and he
pray before he lay down to sleep. He greets the heavenly father’s angels, which he
saw them pure and holy, standing around him and stayed awake to watch him.
The word ‘vigil’ mostly uses to express when someone stays awake to watch a
sick person; from here we can say that the speaker is in sick condition. This poem
was written in 1856, so some words were using old English, such as ‘Ere’ and
‘Thy’. Ere means ‘before’, while Thy means ‘your’. But the word thy only use
when talking to the only one person, from here we can assume that this poem is
the pray of the speaker to the God, privately.
He praise and feel thanks to God, because keep protect him when he spent the
dangerous night, when he was in the below of the infinite shades of it. We can
assume that when he has to pass through the very dangerous night, which could
obtain his life, the God still protect him and take him to take rest in his side and
praying to him when he start his religion journey. This stanza shows us how God
protect him when he start to know more about his religion.
Thin this stanza we can see how the speaker feel regret about people’s behavior
which measure out the patience of God and bound the tender mercies which
bought by God’s Holy Son which we can assume it’s Jesus. Since Jesus is the one
who has bought Christian to the world. He said that it should be no one testing the
patience of God, he already patience enough to face us the sinful creature and no
one neglecting the mercies that already bought by Jesus.
In the last stanza, the speaker show his thankful to God which already forgive his
all mistakes in the past and give him strength to face the upcoming day. God also
guide and guard the speaker to his bless until the angels of god greets and
welcome the speaker when he come back home. The speaker tell his thanks to the
God because of his forgiveness, bless, guide, and his guard to the speaker even he
late to realize how generous God is.
From the poem we can see how the Victorian society views the religion at that
time. At that time, -during the Victorian Era, the religious morality changed
drastically. At the time when Queen Victoria took the throne, the Anglican
Church was very powerful, it’s running schools and universities, and the high
ranking churchmen holding the offices in the House of Lords. The power of the
Church still continued to rule in rural areas throughout the Victorian Era, but they
can’t rule the industrialized cities.
At that time, many people in the cities at that time against the Church and there’s
a lot of dissent happened. And the "Crisis of Faith" that happened at that time hit
religion and the citizens' faith just like a brick. The Crisis reach the peak when the
work of Charles Darwin about the Origin of Species in 1859 publish to the public.
His theory explained how the Natural World had become what it was through
gradual change over eons. And he stated that the natural selection and survival
was the perfect and the fittest reasons why man had survived so long. In his theory
of evolution was based on the empirical evidence that would call into question
Christian beliefs and Victorian values. At that time, people tend to glorify the
science and felt that they need to find a new system on which to base their values
and morality. Their belief to the science discovery somehow made completely
lose faith, they combined both their religious beliefs with individual duty—duty to
one's God, fellow man, social class, neighbor, the poor and the ill. And this poem
tell us how the person who lived in that era when people lost their faith, start to
realize that what he has done in the past was wrong. He ask for the forgiveness
and God not only forgive him, but also blessing him, guide him, and guard him to
face the upcoming day. We can conclude that this poem not only speak the pray of
the speaker but also criticizing the society who already lose their fait to the
religion.
Reference:
www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-child-s-hymn/
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_morality#Religious_morality
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens