Baby Sitting
by Gillian Clarke
F
“This is a
deliberate choice,
and intended to
guide the reader.”
In Clarke’s own
words, this is a
poem about babysitting
This is a poem about
love and loss and the
powerful emotions of
a parent and child for
each other
Baby Sitting
I am sitting in the wrong room listening
For the wrong baby. I don’t love
This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly
Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair;
She is a perfectly acceptable child.
I am afraid of her. If she wakes
She will hate me. She will shout
Her hot midnight rage, her nose
Will stream disgustingly and the perfume
Of her breath will fail to enchant me.
“The important words:
'wrong' to describe the
baby. I, the baby-sitter,
am telling you, the
reader, that I am sitting
in an unfamiliar room,
not in my own house.
Then I tell you that I am
listening for 'the wrong
baby', that is, not my
baby. Later, I emphasise
this: 'I don't love this
baby.'
To her I will represent absolute
Abandonment. For her it will be worse
Than for the lover cold in lonely
Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits This stanza is about
the baby's feeling in
A moment to collect her dignity
Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward.the company of a
As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land stranger. It describes
the baby's fear and
Stretching for milk–familiar comforting,
loneliness. The babyShe will find me and between us two
sitter is not sorry for
It will not come. It will not come.
F
herself, but sorry for
the baby
The poem is told
from a personal
perspective; in the
first person.
What is the effect
of this on the
reader?
Baby Sitting
I am sitting in the wrong room listening
For the wrong baby. I don’t love
This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly
Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair;
She is a perfectly acceptable child.
I am afraid of her. If she wakes
She will hate me. She will shout
Her hot midnight rage, her nose
Will stream disgustingly and the perfume
Of her breath will fail to enchant me.
To her I will represent absolute
Abandonment. For her it will be worse
Than for the lover cold in lonely
Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits
A moment to collect her dignity
Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward.
As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land
Stretching for milk–familiar comforting,
She will find me and between us two
It will not come. It will not come.
F
Stanza one focuses
on the mother’s
feeling of being in a
house with
someone else’s
baby.
Stanza two focuses
on the bay’s feeling
of abandonment
Repetition
emphasises the
strangeness of the
situation. The use of
wrong implies that
there is a right baby
Her ‘mother’s eye’
allows her to
appreciate the baby
as it sleeps.
This contrasts with
the odd description of
the child in the
following line
She is disgusted by
the baby’s screaming
and runny nose.
Unlike its mother
would be
Baby Sitting
I am sitting in the wrong room listening
For the wrong baby. I don’t love
This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly
Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair;
She is a perfectly acceptable child.
I am afraid of her. If she wakes
She will hate me. She will shout
Her hot midnight rage, her nose
Will stream disgustingly and the perfume
Of her breath will fail to enchant me.
Enjambment allows
the reader to consider
that the speaker
doesn’t love at all but
line three confirms
that the speaker does
love, just not this
baby.
Caesura forces the
reader to ponder this
odd statement. How can
she be afraid of a baby?
To her I will represent absolute
Abandonment. For her it will be worse
Than for the lover cold in lonely
Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits Why will the baby
hate her?
A moment to collect her dignity
Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward.
As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land
Stretching for milk–familiar comforting,
She will find me and between us two
It will not come. It will not come.
F
Long sentence
contrasts with earlier
short sentences.
What is the effect of
this?
Alliteration stresses
how complete the
feeling of loss is.
Baby Sitting
I am sitting in the wrong room listening
For the wrong baby. I don’t love
This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly
Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair;
She is a perfectly acceptable child.
I am afraid of her. If she wakes
She will hate me. She will shout
Her hot midnight rage, her nose
Will stream disgustingly and the perfume
Of her breath will fail to enchant me.
Enjambment means
the abandonment
comes as a shock to
the reader, as it
would to the child.
Clarke says, “[this]
implies that I
understand the
experience of being
enchanted by a baby's
breath. I use the word
'perfume' - something
joyfully experienced as
a mother.”
To her I will represent absolute
Abandonment. For her it will be worse
Than for the lover cold in lonely
Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits
A moment to collect her dignity
The caesura forces
Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward.
the reader to dwell on
As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land
this feeling
Stretching for milk–familiar comforting,
She will find me and between us two
It will not come. It will not come.
Explain this image.
F
Clarke compares
the baby’s
feelings to adult
situations of
abandonment.
The jilted lover
and the dying
spouse.
Why does she do
this?
The loss for the
baby is both
practical (loss of
food) and
emotional (the
stranger can give
no comfort).
A metaphor for
comfort that, as
the last line says,
is not forthcoming
Repetition stresses
that neither the milk,
nor the comfort, will
come because this
child is not hers
Baby Sitting
I am sitting in the wrong room listening
For the wrong baby. I don’t love
This baby. She is sleeping a snuffly
Roseate, bubbling sleep; she is fair;
She is a perfectly acceptable child.
I am afraid of her. If she wakes
She will hate me. She will shout
Her hot midnight rage, her nose
Will stream disgustingly and the perfume
Of her breath will fail to enchant me.
The baby awakes from
a bad dream. This is
exactly the time when a
child needs comforting
most and makes the
absence of maternal
comfort all the more
pitiful
To her I will represent absolute
Abandonment. For her it will be worse
Than for the lover cold in lonely
Sheets; worse than for the woman who waits
A moment to collect her dignity
Beside the bleached bone in the terminal ward.
As she rises sobbing from the monstrous land
Stretching for milk–familiar comforting,
She will find me and between us two
It will not come. It will not come.
F
Does this hint at
the future loss
and hardships to
come?
Which is worse,
the confused
pain of the child
or the knowing
pain of the adult?
Review
1. How does the poem show a contrast between
what we think and what we feel?
2. Do you share the poet's viewpoint here - how
would you (do you) feel towards children who
are not your own?
3. How far is this poem about the writer's own
children?
4. How does the poet relate the baby's
experiences to what happens in later life?
F
Comparisons
Song of the Old Mother
• Both deal with the relationship of mother and child
• Could Song of the Mother be said to have a more bitter tone
• Baby Sitting uses quite negative contrasts to present what is ultimately a
pleasant idea (motherly love). In what way is Song of the Old Mother the
same/different
• Link would be that this poem considers the cycle of life and the way in which
the roles of people change with age.
On My First Sonne
• First person narrative
• Both deal with abandonment and loss but On My First Sonne is more
concerned with the parents anxiety rather than the child’s
F
Comparisons
Follower
• Parent-child relationships are dealt with
• Perspective is different in these two poems (one he parent the other the child)
Mid-term Break
• Both deal with the trauma of loss, one permanent the other temporary
• Look at the imagery used in both to express this loss
• Both are personal accounts of singular events that can be seen as having
universal applications
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