In the first stanza, the speaker portrays the recovery of sadness to happiness to be an effortless process. The speaker or author is helpful, however, in bringing the child back to happiness. He or she gives advice to the child with specific ways to get over her sadness. In the end, the speaker or author assures the child that it doesn’t matter how a person’s life ends, no person is the “favorite child” or all people are. In other words, the child is not alone in her struggles with sadness and grief.
Shifts
1. Stanza 1 to Stanza 2 (Careless/”get over it” attitude to helpful/assisting attitude) “Well, all children are sad, but some get over it…”
2. Stanza 2 to Stanza (Helpful to confrontational) “Forget what?”
3. Stanza 3 to Stanza 4 (Confrontational to helpful) “My darling, when it comes right down to it…”
4. Stanza 4 to Stanza 5 No Shift
Title- After reading the poem
1. Who? -> The “sad child” is a girl. – “In your new dress…”
2. Why? ->The child feels that she is not the “favorite child”
3. Atwood? -> The child could be Atwood as a child, but the poem does not directly imply that she is the child.
Theme
The theme of the poem is to not dwell on the sadness and grief in life. One must learn how to move on from it, and know that everyone is going through it. Just because it may seem that one person is dealing with more grief than another, does not mean that the one without grief will not endure pain at some other point in time.