The Ballad of the Harp-Weaver

Initially and superficially, the poem depicts a young boy living with his mother in abject poverty. As the poem progresses, the mother and son endure the seasons—autumn and winter specifically. The boy cannot attend school because his mother cannot outfit him with suitable clothes. The only material item the mother and son possess is a harp that they cannot sell. On Christmas Eve, the mother begins playing the harp, and the harp transforms into a magical loom. The mother weaves the boy a pile of clothes. When the boy wakes on Christmas morning, he finds the mother dead at the harp.

The poem’s portrayal of abject poverty is timeless; because of this, the setting could be both historical and contemporary. The portrayal also erases a sense of place, because abject poverty might look and feel similar no matter the geographic location in which it occurs. The lack of geographical and chronological reference reinforces the mother and son’s sense of isolation. The mother and son are isolated from society because they do not possess the financial or material means to participate in society.

The harp possesses magical qualities and is both a curse and a blessing. The harp is a curse because the family cannot sell it, and because of this, the family remains in poverty. The harp is a blessing because it is the instrument the mother uses to create the pile of clothes for the son. While the harp's powers and the mother’s work resulted in clothing that the son can use, the harp is also somewhat complicit in the mother’s death. Though the boy now has clothes, he is an orphan, and he must figure out how to provide for himself after his mother’s death.

Despite the sadness of the poem, there is beauty in the overall theme of a mother's enduring love and devotion to her child. The mother is suffering, yet she is the only one who can take care of her son, so she puts her own suffering aside for the sake of her son. Her husband is no longer alive, and she is isolated from the community, therefore, she does not have any financial or emotional support. No one will even buy the harp from her for "pity's sake" (Line 64). This might reflect the unsympathetic nature of her community, or it might reflect that the community at large is also suffering from poverty.

In the fourth stanza, the mother expresses that the "sight" (Line 16) of her son "[m]akes [her] blood crawl" (Line 17). They are both starving, and she cannot bear to see how thin her son is becoming from the lack of nourishment. He is a physical representation of her poverty, reminding her daily that she does not have the means to provide adequate food, clothing, and shelter for him. Despite her poverty, the mother can still provide her son with the rare and priceless attributes of love, warmth, and comfort. The mother holds her son in her lap and sings nursery rhymes to him despite his age, which makes them laugh amidst the worst of times. This genuine, loving moment precedes what can only be seen as magical, as the mother's devotion to her son is represented in the act of weaving clothes for him as she plays the harp. The harp is often seen as a heavenly or angelic instrument, and because the mother is described as having "a light about her head" (Line 120), this connects her to that realm of angels in this last selfless act before her death.