A Sorrow by Sarah Noble Ives
A grief-stricken child recounts the death of a pet White Rat, found cold and stiff and wrapped tenderly in the speaker's best handkerchief. Jimmy leads a solemn procession bearing the dead Rat, Alice dresses in deep mourning, and the speaker wears papa's silk hat for the occasion. Jimmy delivers a funeral sermon while Alice and the speaker weep, the speech deemed noble and worthy of the departed Rat. The three children dig a tiny grave in a shadowed spot beneath waving willow hedge-rows and solemnly bury him there. Afterward Jimmy, Alice, and the speaker return sadly to their play, though a cloud remains in the sky and a shade falls across the Shining Way.
By Sarah Noble Ives · Genre: Elegy, Narrative Poetry, Children's Literature · 168 words
First lines
The White Rat died last night. / We found him cold and stiff; / We wrapped him warm and tight. / In my best handkerchief.
Jimmy marched on before, / Bearing the poor dead Rat; / Alice deep mourning wore, / I had papa's silk hat.
Jimmy the sermon preached, / Alice and I just cried. / That was a noble speech, / Worthy the Rat that died.
We made him a tiny grave. / Down in the shadow dim / Where the willow hedge-rows wave / We solemnly buried him.
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Genres
- Elegy — The poem is fundamentally structured as a lament for death, following classical elegy conventions with ritualized mourning, funeral ceremony, and reflection on loss and sorrow.
- Narrative Poetry — The work tells a complete story with named characters (Jimmy, Alice, the narrator), temporal progression, and a clear sequence of events from discovery through burial.
- Children's Literature — The poem centers on child narrators and experiences, uses accessible language and simple meter, and explores death through a child's understanding and emotional processing.
- Verse Poetry — Composed in formal rhyming verse with consistent meter and stanzaic structure, establishing it fundamentally as a poetic work.
Tags
pet death · white rat · childhood grief · funeral · funeral sermon · burial · mourning · children's verse · narrative poem · rhyming verse · melancholic · poignant
What this Textopian page supports
A Sorrow is listed on Textopian as a poem by Sarah Noble Ives, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Sarah Noble Ives
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Elegy, Narrative Poetry, Children's Literature, Verse Poetry, Sentimental Poetry
- Length: 168 words
- Structure: 1 section, 5 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Very Easy (5th Grade or below)
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- Work identity for A Sorrow by Sarah Noble Ives
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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