Poetry · Chapter
Prologue explained
A woman, burdened by sorrow and shame, walks through a misty field of graves, lamenting her fate and the illegitimate child she carries.
What happens
A woman, burdened by sorrow and shame, walks through a misty field of graves, lamenting her fate and the illegitimate child she carries. She prays for the mist to hide her grief and decides to abandon her son to strangers rather than bind him to poverty and disgrace, drawing a parallel to a widow's song about surrendering her children to the river.
Themes in this chapter
Motherhood and Sacrifice
The woman's agonizing decision to abandon her son to protect him from a life of poverty and shame exemplifies the theme of maternal sacrifice.
Suffering and Exile
The woman's isolation and grief in the misty graveyard, along with her plea for death as relief, underscore the theme of suffering and exile from society.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The woman who laments her fate and abandons her child.
Key passages
“Something to her heart she pressed, In accents low the clouds addressed.”
She held something close to her chest and spoke softly to the clouds.
The woman is holding her baby and praying to the mist.
“Shall I, then, give to him christian name, To poverty bind, with his mother's shame?”
Should I have him baptized and burden him with a life of poverty and the disgrace of being illegitimate?
The woman questions whether to keep her child and subject him to social stigma.
“Thee, sweet son, shall strangers christen, Thy mother's eyes with teardrops glisten.”
Strangers will baptize you, my sweet son, while I weep.
She decides to abandon the child so that others will raise and baptize him.