To Poetry “A Mongoloid Child Handling Shells on the Beach” When youfirst read Richard Snyders narrative poem, “A Mongoloid Child HandlingShells on the Beach”, it may be perceived that the poem is indeed about achild, happily gathering shells upon the shore.
However, if we closely considerthe diction and connotations that Synder uses, we can speculate that the meaningof the poem depicts a deeper and darker theme. The title itself gives us an ideafrom the beginning. The word Mongoloid, as identified in Websters New WorldDictionary (675), is an early term for Down’s Syndrome, a state of mentalretardation. Therefore I believe that the poem represents the child as anoutcast from the norm of society.
There are several words in the text that referto the child that we usually wouldn’t associate with youth. An early clue wouldagain be found in the title, “A Mongoloid Child Handling Shells on theBeach”. Notice that Snyder used the word “handling” instead ofplaying or collecting, words wich we might think of while envisioning a younggirl investigating sea shells. Snyder also uses the word ‘slow’ to describe thechild on more than one occasion, as we see in line one and line eight :”She turns them over in her slow hands/ .
. . hums back to it its slowvowels. ” Yet another example could be in line four, which reads: “they are the calmest things on this sand.
” Calm is yet another word that wewould not most likely use to portray a young child. It very well could be thatthe author is trying to paint a picture of her impairment and symbolize hercondition through her actions. Considering Snyder depicted the ocean as”. .
the mazarine maze,”(3) instead of simply stating that it is the”deep blue sea”, it is easy to speculate that the ocean representslife itself. Her being outside of the water while all the other children areswimming is a key example of her being isolated. The way that she is presented,which is slow and rather solemn, contrasts with the other children who are”rough as surf, gay as their nesting towels. “(6). I feel that thiskind of symbolism is repeated throughout the remainder of the poem. The seashells, for instance, are another important representation of her isolation.
Itreads in line three: ” broken bits from a mazarine maze,”. If we lookat the mazarine maze as being life, and the shells are broken bits of it washedashore, it becomes clear that the girl is swept out of the regular society, muchas the shells were swept out of the sea. It is even more comprehensible when weconsider the line “The unbroken children splash and shout,”. WhatSnyder meant by “unbroken children” is that they are not broken offfrom life, much like the child. They are not broken off of the sea, much likethe shells.
The child and the shells seem to have a valuable bond in portrayingthe girls solitude form society. This idea becomes even more graspable if welook at lines seven and eight: “But she plays soberly with the sea’s smallchange. . . “.
Websters New World Dictionary defines the phrase small changeas ” petty or unimportant”(721). It may very well be that the child isseen as less important by people of the society. She is the only one who playswith the shells, perhaps the only one who can truly appreciate them. Perhaps itis that the other children ignored the shells on the beach, and were tantalizedby the water instead, and maybe this is a foreshadow of her life-to-be, beingignored and pushed out by others. It is unmistakable that this poem describes achild on the margin of society. Yet even though she does not enjoy the beach asthe other children do, I feel that she does not resent them, but rather takespleasure in the small and insignificant things, much like herself.
Snyder uses acacophony of symbolic imagery and carefully chosen words to convey a messageabout the girls life as it is, and perhaps how it will become.
