Summary
The speaker begins the poem with a comparison between his own upbringing and that of a privileged child. He says that some children are born with a silver spoon, while he had to cut his teeth like a raccoon, preparing for attack. He continues on in this vein, noting that these children were wrapped in silk and had fairy godparents, while he was swaddled in a sack and knew only poverty and pain.
Analysis
"Saturday's Child" takes a careful look at hardship and inequality. The speaker of the poem discusses his difficult childhood, contrasting it with that of wealthy, white children. In examining the ways in which he was born into misfortune, he reveals the inherent injustices of systemic racism. He shows that from the moment he was born, everything was stacked against him.
The poem starts with the speaker describing children born in comfortable circumstances: "Some are teethed on a silver spoon, / With the stars strung for a rattle." A silver spoon is a traditional symbol for a privileged upbringing, signaling that these children's families are wealthy, while the image of "stars" connects them to light and whiteness. It can be assumed that these children are from affluent, white families. The depictions highlight the fact that they were able to enjoy living easily, without reflection or doubt on their luck or good fortune. In the next two lines, the speaker contrasts this comfort with his own hardships: "I cut my teeth as the black raccoon— / For implements of battle." He says that he "cut" his teeth, meaning he did not have the luxury of teething. Instead, he had to immediately prepare for the conflicts that he faced. Like a "black raccoon," he was forced to sharpen them into "implements of battle," suggesting that his life was a struggle from the moment it began. The order of these comparisons works well because the poem appears initially to be similar to a nursery rhyme, before quickly making it clear that it is dealing with darker, more serious themes.
The second stanza offers another contrast: "Some are swaddled in silk and down, / And heralded by a star." Again, he reiterates that these other children are born into comfort. They are wrapped in soft and expensive fabric, as their arrival is announced happily "by a star." The speaker is also suggesting again that these children are white, by linking them to the bright image of the star. The next lines are a direct answer to this happy scene: "They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown / On a night that was black as tar." The word "sackcloth" makes it clear that he was placed in a rough-hewn and uncomfortable swaddle. The word "tar" makes another parallel to night and darkness, while also connoting the speaker's ethnicity in a harsh manner, as it alludes to a racially charged insult in use at the time. In the third stanza, the speaker makes one final comparison between himself and these other children: "For some, godfather and goddame / The opulent fairies be; / Dame Poverty gave me my name, / And Pain godfathered me." The speaker is saying that in place of the fairy godparents these children had, he knew only poverty and pain. In personifying these ideas, he underscores the fact that his life has only been suffering, with no one watching over him. Like the other parallels, this one highlights the fact that the speaker's struggle began at birth and never stopped.
The poem is written in five quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme. Its structure resembles that of a nursery rhyme, which is fitting as it references the song "Monday's Child." This popular nursery rhyme predicts the different fortunes of children based on the day they were born. This allusion is important, as "Monday's Child" emphasizes the way in which children are born into their circumstances, with no say in the matter. The song states: "Saturday's child works hard for a living." The poem depicts this prophecy in great detail, showing the constant toil the speaker must engage in to survive his daily life. Cullen mimics this form to juxtapose the lightness of the poem's rhyme and meter with the painful reality of its content.
