The Toys- Poem by Coventry Patmore

The Toys by Coventry Patmore

OUTLINE OF THE ESSAY:

·       INTRODUCTION

·       CHILD’S DISOBEDIENCE

·       FATHER REGRETS

·       THE TOYS

·       GOD IS MERCIFUL

·       CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION:  “The Toys” is one of the most beautiful poems written by Coventry Patmore. He was born in London in 1823. He associates his poems with the everyday happenings of life and has a deep concern for religion.  His publications are, ‘The Angel in the House’, ‘The Unknown Eros’ and other odes. Patmore died in 1896.

The poem, ‘The Toys’ is highly religious. The poem relates the story of a father and son. The father treats his son harshly but later realizes his mistake and asks God to forgive him for his foolish behaviour.

CHILD’S DISOBEDIENCE: The poet tells us how he punished his son for disobedience. The child acted and talked just like a grown up man. He made noise. His father asked him to keep quiet but the son did not obey him. At seventh time, the father punished his son and sent him away without the usual kisses. The child was much grieved. He left his father and went to bed.

FATHER REGRETS:  After sometime, the poet realized that he had made a mistake, as his son was lonely since his mother had died. He feared that the child might not be able to sleep due to his grief. He went to his bedside, but he found the child asleep. His eyelids were swollen due to weeping. His eye lashes were still wet with the drops of tears.

THE TOYS: The father became more emotional when he found that his son had very neatly arranged some pieces of glass, a red veined stone, some shells and a bottle of blue bells and two French copper coins on the table. They were simple but enough to comfort him. He noticed that the boy had sought consolation in small ordinary objects to comfort his sad heart. It was a touching scene for the father whose wife was dead and there was no one to console the child. He felt sorry for his attitude. The father bent over the child and kissed away the tears from the boy’s cheeks, but tears from his own eyes dropped on his son’s face.

GOD IS MERCIFUL:  In this poem the poet points out that God is always kind and merciful to man but man often fails to follow the commands of his creator. He provides man with all the simple joys of life. Yet there are some who do not fear God even on their death bed. God knows that though we had been disobeying His commands and enjoying ourselves with worldly things, yet He forgives us.

CONCLUSION: The father hopes that as he has forgiven his son God would pardon him for his childishness. He prayed all night with the feeling that God is merciful and He would forgive him.

Moral: As the saying goes ‘To err is human; to forgive is divine’ we should forgive the mistakes of people and live friendly with all. God is merciful on us and he forgives those people who forgive the mistakes of human beings.