Poem

Mother and Child
By Eugene Field

One night a tiny dewdrop fell
Into the bosom of a rose,--
"Dear little one, I love thee well,
Be ever here thy sweet repose!"

Seeing the rose with love bedight,
The envious sky frowned dark, and then
Sent forth a messenger of light
And caught the dewdrop up again.

"Oh, give me back my heavenly child,--
My love!" the rose in anguish cried;
Alas! the sky triumphant smiled,
And so the flower, heart broken, died.


This poem mirrors The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In the novel, the higher authorities of the church try to take Pearl away from her mother Hester, because she is believed to be evil. Of course, Pearl does not want this to happen and rebels, making the church believe even more that she is evil. In this poem, the child or "Dewdrop" is being taken away by the messenger and the mother is telling him to give back her child she believes is not evil. The author uses the word "heavenly" to show that the child is indeed not evil. The child ends up getting taken away in the poem and dies due to a broken heart. In the novel, Pearl ends up getting to stay with her mother and does not die. Both the novel and the poem contain a situation is which the child is being taken away from its mother, but each end differently.