The Dead Baby by William Carlos Williams

The Dead Baby is a poem that brought back memories for me. As you read the poem, you can sense what the parents must be going through. Even though they are facing a hard time in their life they are still worried about getting the house cleaned for guest that will be coming to share with them their grief.

This poem brought back memories of losing my first child. My wife and I were expecting our first child in 2004. On our anniversary of 2004, she began to have complications and we found out the following Monday that we had lost the baby. Even though the child was never born, there is a sense of a loss. A sense that a baby, your baby will never be born. A sense of wandering the all wandering question Why?

My wife went through a diffucult time during those days and Williams pens "the mother's eyes where she sits by the window, unconsoled--have purple bags under them.." This was such a picture of my wife. She was upset, seemed lost, and deprived of rest. On the other hand friends and family both were coming to see us so we still had to have the house somewhat cleaned.

Williams also mentions the baby was a "curosity". I will always wander was the baby a boy, a girl, blonde hair, brown hair, etc. Would they have grown up to be a star? Curosity often caught me for the next few months, however, curosity would soon be defeated when my wife gave birth to a healthy boy 15 months later! Parker Elijah Hall..