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Question

The question I'm suppost to answer is -- Why does Wright use the word "mutterings" instead of reflections or feelings?
The poem is --
Mutterings over the Crib of a Deaf Child

"How will he hear the bell at school
Arrange the broken afternoon,
And know to run across the cool
Grasses where the starlings cry,
Or understand the day is gone?"

Well, someone lifting curious brows
Will take the measure of the clock.
And he will see the birchen boughs
Outside sagging dark from the sky,
And the shade crawling upon the rock.

"And how will he know to rise at morning?
His mother has other sons to waken,
She has the stove she must build to burning
Before the coals of the nighttime die;
And he never stirs when he is shaken."

I take it the air affects his skin,
And you remember, when you were young,
Sometimes you could feel the dawn begin,
And the fire would call you, by and by,
Out of the bed and bring you along.

"Well, good enough. To serve his needs
All kinds of arrangements can be made.
But what will you do if his finger bleeds?
Or a bobwhite whistles invisibly
And flutes like an angel off in the shade?"

He will learn pain. And, as for the bird,
It is always darkening when that comes out.
I will putter as though I had not heard,
And lift him into my arms and sing
Whether he hears my song or not.

Answer 1

#i the child is deaf and won't hear him muttering - which is like talking to yourself out loud...so what sort of picture does that conjure up when you read the poem? I notice he uses quotation marks which also says to me that he is speaking aloud over the child. Look at the final couplet.

Answer 2

Muttering is talking indistinctly, as you might do when you're talking to yourself.

In the poem, Wright is talking to a deaf child. The child can't hear him, so in a sense, he's talking to himself.

A muttering is also a low rumbling sound. The fourth verse begins, "I take it the air affects his skin." Perhaps Wright hopes the child will feel the vibrations of his voice, and know he is there.

Answer 3

To ME, the title says it all. "Mutterings over the Crib of a Deaf Child" if the child is deaf, like most people whom are deaf, can only "feel" vibrations of sounds, which would seem as if someone is muttering.

Answer 4

its a great poetic word for starters.

muttering is almost vocal, as opposed to silent "thought bubbles"

muttering is generally a more emotionally charged event

its more like talking to yourself... just that twinge of lost sanity.

Answer 5

Maybe he is saying that what is being said is not important

Answer 6

he is speaking whatever comes into his mind out loud

Answer 7

Maybe he doesn't know anything about it at all

Answer 8

There are quoats, which means it is spoken?