Poetry · Chapter
Babies in Hospital explained
The poem presents vignettes of children in a hospital, focusing on the fragile and eroticized bodies of infants and toddlers.
What happens
The poem presents vignettes of children in a hospital, focusing on the fragile and eroticized bodies of infants and toddlers. Elena, a small girl with shrunken limbs and an 'ample sex,' is observed with clinical detachment, her mother's smile scattered on unseen tuberculous hands. A 'bad little boy' with a broken leg is praised for his gallant, precocious masculinity as he flirts with Elena. The speaker rejects maternal responsibility, emphasizing the limits of care and the unknowable nature of the children's suffering.
Themes in this chapter
The Body and Mortality
The poem dwells on the physicality of sick children—shrunken limbs, tuberculous hands, broken legs—and the tension between fragility and desire, highlighting the body's vulnerability and the clinical gaze.
Childhood and Innocence
Childhood is depicted as both precociously sexualized (the boy's gallantry, Elena's coquetry) and marked by suffering, challenging conventional notions of innocence.
Characters to notice
- Elena
A small girl in the hospital with shrunken limbs and an 'ample sex,' described as having filched her mother's smile. She is fragile and the object of the boy's gallant attention.
- Mary
Implied as the speaker or observer who addresses the children, refusing the role of mother and acknowledging her own ignorance.
Key passages
“Small Elena Of shrunken limbs And ample sex Who Having filched The atrophied Woman-smile of your mother Scatter it On the eating unseen Tuberculous Inaudible hands”
Little Elena, with her wasted limbs and exaggerated sexuality, has stolen her mother's faded smile and spreads it over the invisible, consuming hands of tuberculosis.
The image conflates maternal inheritance with disease, suggesting a corrupted transmission of femininity.
“Hail to you Bad little boy Lying In bound beauty Of only a broken leg And thank you For throwing Your bricks on the floor For the third time And the smack You gave me For the thermometer Delightfully male Already gallant”
Greetings to you, naughty little boy, beautiful in your bandaged state with just a broken leg. I thank you for your repeated mischief and the slap you gave me for the thermometer—charmingly masculine and already chivalrous.
The boy's defiance and physicality are celebrated as signs of budding masculinity, even in his injured state.
“Tend Do not touch Apparent flowers Of festering secret And the fly-by-nights Such little things I cannot be your mother There are already So many ignorances I am not guilty of.”
Care for but do not touch the seeming blossoms of hidden decay and the fleeting ones. Such small matters—I cannot be your mother. There are already many things I do not know, and for which I am not to blame.
The speaker establishes a boundary between care and intimacy, rejecting maternal guilt and acknowledging the limits of understanding.