In this terrible, sad poem Elizabeth Barrett Browning draws her reader's attention to the plight of the children who worked in the factories and coal mines of C19th England. Children as young as seven could be employed working looms and other machinery and pulling coal trucks for 12 hours a day. Reformers, aided by the literary efforts of people like Elizabeth, succeeded in HAVING the age of employment raised to 10 years.
Meanwhile other poets strove to draw the attention of the wealthy to the plight of homeless city children who lived by earning a few pennies sweeping the street crossings. Charles Kinsley wrote his famous book "Water Babies" about children used by chimney sweeps and Charles Dickens described his own childhood experiences as a factory worker in "David Copperfield".
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Meanwhile other poets strove to draw the attention of the wealthy to the plight of homeless city children who lived by earning a few pennies sweeping the street crossings. Charles Kinsley wrote his famous book "Water Babies" about children used by chimney sweeps and Charles Dickens described his own childhood experiences as a factory worker in "David Copperfield".