ASSIGNMENT

ENGLISH SOCIAL HISTORY

Analysis of Charles Dickens’ “A Child’s Hymn”
By: Zahra Pravitasari - 12022415478

“A Child’s Hymn” is one of poems that written by Charles Dickens (1812-1870).

Charles Dickens is an English novelist and poet in Victorian Period of Britain. He
is considered as one of famous novelists and poets that giving influence to the
other poets and novelists. One of his famous works is novel “Oliver Twist” that
tells about child labor that happened at that time (Victorian Era). He is also known
as an England social critic. Charles Dickens created some world’s best-known
fictional characters and also had recognized as a literally genius.

Hear my prayer, O heavenly Father,

Ere I lay me down to sleep;
Bid Thy angels, pure and holy,
Round my bed their vigil keep.

In the first stanza, we can see that the speaker was praying to someone that he
called ‘heavenly Father’. We can assume that the ‘heavenly Father’ is God and he
pray before he lay down to sleep. He greets the heavenly father’s angels, which he
saw them pure and holy, standing around him and stayed awake to watch him.
The word ‘vigil’ mostly uses to express when someone stays awake to watch a
sick person; from here we can say that the speaker is in sick condition. This poem
was written in 1856, so some words were using old English, such as ‘Ere’ and
‘Thy’. Ere means ‘before’, while Thy means ‘your’. But the word thy only use
when talking to the only one person, from here we can assume that this poem is
the pray of the speaker to the God, privately.

My sins are heavy, but Thy mercy

Far outweighs them, every one;
Down before Thy cross I cast them,
Trusting in Thy help alone.
In the second stanza, the speaker we can see how the speaker reflecting his sins,
but the God still forgive him, even more than everyone. In here, he tried to
compare the God and the human, God still could forgive even the sins that he has
done were heavy, but most of people couldn’t forgive the small mistakes. Even
before the cross of God, the speaker already cast them and the speaker only trust
in God’s help. Here, we can see how religious the speaker, and if we look at the
history of religion life of Charles Dickens –the author of this poem, when he was
young, he has grown sullen and obstinate, and was becoming disgusted with the
faith which condemns him to such a day as this, once in every seven, just like how
the society thinks about the religion at that time. And then he was kind of
regretting that time when he staying away from the God. Now when he already
interested to a religion, he seems like regretting his past life when he has done a
lot of sins.

Keep me through this night of peril

Underneath its boundless shade;
Take me to Thy rest, I pray Thee,
When my pilgrimage is made.

He praise and feel thanks to God, because keep protect him when he spent the
dangerous night, when he was in the below of the infinite shades of it. We can
assume that when he has to pass through the very dangerous night, which could
obtain his life, the God still protect him and take him to take rest in his side and
praying to him when he start his religion journey. This stanza shows us how God
protect him when he start to know more about his religion.

None shall measure out Thy patience

By the span of human thought;
None shall bound the tender mercies
Which Thy Holy Son has bought.

Thin this stanza we can see how the speaker feel regret about people’s behavior
which measure out the patience of God and bound the tender mercies which
bought by God’s Holy Son which we can assume it’s Jesus. Since Jesus is the one
who has bought Christian to the world. He said that it should be no one testing the
patience of God, he already patience enough to face us the sinful creature and no
one neglecting the mercies that already bought by Jesus.

Pardon all my past transgressions,

Give me strength for days to come;
Guide and guard me with Thy blessing
Till Thy angels bid me home.

In the last stanza, the speaker show his thankful to God which already forgive his
all mistakes in the past and give him strength to face the upcoming day. God also
guide and guard the speaker to his bless until the angels of god greets and
welcome the speaker when he come back home. The speaker tell his thanks to the
God because of his forgiveness, bless, guide, and his guard to the speaker even he
late to realize how generous God is.

From the poem we can see how the Victorian society views the religion at that
time. At that time, -during the Victorian Era, the religious morality changed
drastically. At the time when Queen Victoria took the throne, the Anglican
Church was very powerful, it’s running schools and universities, and the high
ranking churchmen holding the offices in the House of Lords. The power of the
Church still continued to rule in rural areas throughout the Victorian Era, but they
can’t rule the industrialized cities.

At that time, many people in the cities at that time against the Church and there’s
a lot of dissent happened. And the "Crisis of Faith" that happened at that time hit
religion and the citizens' faith just like a brick. The Crisis reach the peak when the
work of Charles Darwin about the Origin of Species in 1859 publish to the public.
His theory explained how the Natural World had become what it was through
gradual change over eons. And he stated that the natural selection and survival
was the perfect and the fittest reasons why man had survived so long. In his theory
of evolution was based on the empirical evidence that would call into question
Christian beliefs and Victorian values. At that time, people tend to glorify the
science and felt that they need to find a new system on which to base their values
and morality. Their belief to the science discovery somehow made completely
lose faith, they combined both their religious beliefs with individual duty—duty to
one's God, fellow man, social class, neighbor, the poor and the ill. And this poem
tell us how the person who lived in that era when people lost their faith, start to
realize that what he has done in the past was wrong. He ask for the forgiveness
and God not only forgive him, but also blessing him, guide him, and guard him to
face the upcoming day. We can conclude that this poem not only speak the pray of
the speaker but also criticizing the society who already lose their fait to the
religion.

Reference:

www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-child-s-hymn/

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_morality#Religious_morality

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Dickens