The child has always been a versatile and powerful symbol for a variety of themes; themes such as new life, innocence, potential and even loss. While in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "To a Friend Who Asked How I Felt, When the Nurse First Presented Me to My Baby" and Agnes Strickland's "The Child", the new- Born titulars are used in order to convey the themes of innocence and bliss, their contrasting circumstances lead to very different deductions in terms of overall meaning. Coleridge deals with the acceptance of life and the realization of potential, while Strickland deals with the loss of both, leading to the possible redefinition of the symbolic entity that is the child. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay Coleridge's ecstatic reaction to the birth of his child is apparent even before reading the sonnet itself, with the superfluous title of the poem and his pride, egocentric diction revealing his irrepressible joy on this occasion. Using words such as "I", "my", and "me", Coleridge reveals the personal pride and affection he feels towards his newborn son. However, early in the sonnet, Coleridge also expresses concern for his child's future given his own past, noting that "For vaguely upon my reflecting mind burst / All that I had been, and all my baby could be!” In recounting this affair, Coleridge reveals the apprehensions and regrets he has regarding his personal history, and that he fears the same for his child in terms of the potential for a repeat of his own mistakes. And yet, as the sonnet progresses, its focus shifts to the child himself, and then to his mother, where Coleridge's fears are allayed. Declaring that he was "delighted and melted", and "all seduced / by dark memories and fears omens", when he saw the beatific scene of the child "on his mother's arm, / and hanging on her breast ( she meanwhile/ Leaning over her features with a tearful smile)", it appears that the sacred bond between mother and child reassured Coleridge of the child's well-being. Further explaining the relationship between the mother and the child, Coleridge also states that "So for the mother's sake the child was dear,/And the mother was dearer to the child" This observation on the dependence between the two explores physical needs. of the child and the emotional demands of the mother; a symbiotic relationship rooted in the powerful and sacred symbol that is the child. Just as the sentiment of Coleridge's sonnet is apparent even in its title, so it is. likewise in Strickland's "The Infant," with its solemn brevity presaging the dark nature of the poem to come. By being so brief, Strickland emotionally distances herself from the infant in question, hoping to push away the vulnerability she faces when the child is lost. Unlike Coleridge's healthy and promising child, the one Strickland observes is mortally ill, upon whom "the withering scourge/of a pale disease had fallen." Lamenting that "severe death was near and the young wings of life were beating to fly away," Strickland creates a powerful image of the child's final struggles to stay alive, despite impending demise. Furthermore, while using the tremendous symbols of life and death to illustrate the child's struggle, she at the same time makes their transition represent the theme of loss. Describing the child on his deathbed "like a beautiful flower prematurely plucked", Strickland uses the innocent simile of a.