Now, read the poem ‘The Toys’ by Coventry Patmore :
Meaning of The Poem :
In the poem a father is talking :
My little Son …. being dead.
My little son looked at me with thoughtful eyes. He moved and spoke as if he had grown up. He had disobeyed my instructions 7 times and so I beat him. I sent him away with hard words. I did not kiss him when he went to bed. His mother was a patient woman, but she is dead.
Then sobbing wet.
Thinking that his sorrow at my beating him and scolding him might prevent him from sleeping, I went to his bed. I found him in a deep sleep. But his eyelids were dark and his lashes were wet because of his earlier crying.
And I, …. sad heart.
I felt very sad at his condition and I too wept. I kissed away his tears but left my tears on his cheek. On a table near his head he had kept within his reach a box of counters (metal or plastic pieces), a stone with red lines, a piece of glass abraded (worn or rubbed by the sand on the beach) and six or seven shells, a bottle with bluebells (owers) and two French copper coins which were arranged in an artistic manner. He had kept all these to comfort his sad heart.
When I prayed to God that night, I wept. I spoke to God something like this. When we lie with silent breath, not annoying you as we are dead, you may remember what toys made us happy when we were alive. We did not properly understand the good things you commanded us to do. But you are a much greater and more merciful father than I am, as I am made of clay. You will be not so angry like me when I beat and scolded my son. When you see our disobedience, you will only say, like a kind father, that how sorry you are for our childishness and not punish us harshly