Margaret Atwood Poem 1

A Sad Child
You're sad because you're sad.
It's psychic. It's the age. It's chemical.
Go see a shrink or take a pill,
or hug your sadness like an eyeless doll
you need to sleep.

Well, all children are sad
but some get over it.
Count your blessings. Better than that,
buy a hat. Buy a coat or pet.
Take up dancing to forget.

Forget what?
Your sadness, your shadow,
whatever it was that was done to you
the day of the lawn party
when you came inside flushed with the sun,
your mouth sulky with sugar,
in your new dress with the
the ice-cream smear,
and said to yourself in the bathroom,
I am not the favorite child.

My darling, when it comes
right down to it
and the light fails and the fog rolls in
and you're trapped in your overturned body
under a blanket or burning car,
and the red flame is seeping out of you
and igniting the tarmac beside you head
or else the floor, or else the pillow,
none of us is;
or else we all are.

In Margaret Atwood's "A Sad Child" the initial stages of womanhood and adulthood are expressed through representation of a girl, not quite a woman but woman but no longer a child coming to the revelation that she will no longer be waited upon or treated as a favorite child. Atwood uses diction, imagery, and metaphor to illustrate the natural beauty of becoing and all the emotions that come from it. The poem rationalizes the stuation but also critiques society for ther inability to come to terms with the rites of passage to adulthood.
Atwood uses visual imagery to describe the childlike appearance of the girl during her revelation about her status, in order to demonstrate how the girl is changing from girl to woman and she herself has yet to come to terms with that as shown because she wears "a new dress with a ribbon. The situation at the lawn can be assumed to be a small, general situation, such that she smeared something on her new dress and was upset with it but in that moment she realized her parents would not take care of her so she had to take care of herself and thus the connotations of flushed and smear suggest anger but also an action of distrubtion within her life.
It is implied that this is the change of womanhood due to diction and connotations that refer to the menstral cycle. For example, the first thing sad is that its the age, its chemical- refering to hormonal changes. And then connotation of "flushed and bathroom" can also refer to taking care of the cycle.
The speaker begins with a cynical tone and this suggests that Atwood is in fact critiquing society and its inability to come to terms with womanhood as the speaker tells the girl to focus on other items to forget- very materialistic items or medications.
Althought the speaker also sympathizes when she calls the child darling- like a caress. And uses the metaphor of a burning car - "red flame.. overturned body..burning car.." to suggest that there are more extremes of sadness but it is yourself that put you in the situation and you can pull yourself out.
All in all, Atwood's poem refers to adulthood and the changes of it as well as our emotions. By refering to shadows, etc she tells that all of us are meaning that although we hide our feelings and think no one else feels this way, that is never true. We are all connected.