The Affliction of Margaret as a “poem founded on the affections”.

The poem The Affliction of Margaret is written in the form of monologue in which a rustic widow expresses the desperation and pain of not knowing the whereabouts of her son. Her son left home seven years ago and has not heard about him since then. Seven years seem like eternity to her. The mother does not even know he is alive as there is no news from her son. She says that her son was the gem of a child. He was well born and well bred. He was honest, innocent and bold and so she was always proud of him. She recollects those happy days with her son but now she misses those happy moments. She says that children are not aware of a mother’s pain. As the child grows older, the mother’s anxiety and fear grows too, but her love does not diminish. Margaret gives vent to her pent up feelings of loneliness and anger. She claims that she had been a kind mother to him and she felt proud of it. But now she mourns in private over her son’s disappearance.

 The loss of her son has changed her views and values. She has learned to dismiss and think nothing of what this world has to offer. Now all that matters to her is her son. She pleads with her son to return home even if he is in a bad situation. The mother wishes her son had wings, so that he could fly home like the fowls of heaven. But she knows that her wishes will remain unfulfilled. She is full of apprehensions about her son that she imagines all the worst possible things that might have happened to him. She fears that her son may be in some dungeon or attacked by wild animals or killed in a shipwreck.

 Margaret is almost sure that her son is dead. She does not believe in ghosts because she has never seen any ghost. If ghosts exist, she is very sure that her son would certainly come to her for her love for her son is deep and sincere. Her tears and worries are overwhelming and she trembles at every shadow or slightest sound. She asks herself so many questions but finds no answer. Her grief makes her feel that the whole world is unkind to her. She says that no one can share her grief and her miseries are beyond relief. She laments that she has no companion in this world except his son. And so she again pleads with her son to return home or at least send some news about him so that her miseries will have an end.