— A simple Child.”
-- The Speaker (1-4)

Importance: The first line of the poem is important because it emphasizes the isolation of the young girl. The fact that the line, at four syllables in length, is the shortest line in the entire poem, and it describes only the child, points toward the fact that with four of her siblings away from home and the other two dead, the young girl in the poem lives a very isolated life with her mother in their small cottage.

Seven are we;/and two of us at Conway dwell,/and two are gone to sea./Two of us in the church-yard lie.”
-- The Girl (19-21)

Importance: These lines are significant because they highlight the young girl’s loneliness as well as her inability to comprehend the implication of her siblings’ death. By describing each of her siblings in sets of two, she leaves herself as the seventh child, not belonging to a pair...