The following poem was written by Ms. ANNIE DENMAN titled ‘From the Heart of a Little Girl’. This poem was published on advertising card of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company – MetLife – 1924.
Daddy, if you know we’re hungry,
Know that we are very poor,
It must break your heart in heaven
Because you never did Insure!
Mamma wonders why you didn’t
Save the dimes you threw away;
But you felt too strong and healthy
For insurance, people say.
You were taken without warning,
Leaving us to fight alone.
You’d have taken out insurance,
Daddy, if you’d have only known!
‘I wasn’t that you didn’t love us,
I recall how dear you were.
But your little girl must suffer
‘Cause you failed to save for her.
Mamma just can’t make the living;
She is wearing out, she said.
I shall have to miss some schooling,
For the sake of daily bread,
When she is gone, I guess they’ll take me
To a place of charity;
To be clothed and fed; but Daddy,
It can never be home to me.
Mary’s daddy left insurance
And their home will be still theirs,
They’re not hungry. Sometimes Mary
Gives me cast-off clothes she wears.
They don’t have to take in sewing,
Mary’s mamma doesn’t cry.
For her Daddy left insurance.
But you didn’t Daddy – WHY?
Prima facie – this is a heart wrenching and a truly awful poem! This is a poem that made sense (Probably) a century ago. Not today!
In a strange reversal of roles, the livings in the poem are haunting the dead! So far, we have only heard of instances where the dead haunt the living. In this instance and in insurance there is a reversal of roles! Let the Daddy go in peace, I say. Reading this poem, I conclude that the departed Daddy was never at peace in his life, for he was always toiling. He never seems to have rested and worked till his death to keep his family fed and clothed. It is clear that this extreme stress & strain caused his departure! The Daddy in the poem loved his family! Reading the poem, I feel that it is the family that did not love him! Hello Mamma and the little girl! Why don’t you leave the dead man in peace and for good? You have no other work but to lament that the departed did not provide for insurance?
One can take the help of an exorcist if the dead was haunting the living. In this specific case the living is haunting the departed. Even the God becomes powerless. I ask both the mother and the child, what have you done all these years in life? Enjoying good food and warm clothes provided by the Daddy? He loved you, hence worked hard. I do not think you both have loved him even a bit! Otherwise, you would not be reproaching him for not leaving insurance.
It is extremely painful to see your unwavering determination to break the heart of the departed in heaven. You want sympathy of the society and free supplies for life? Life teaches much more than schooling. There is no harm in missing some schooling. And who said charity is bad? Be thankful to your friend Mary for giving her old clothes. What is the point of your mamma’s wondering about the dimes when the water has already passed under the bridge?
Please let the dead be dead. Let you Daddy to find his eternal peace in his grave. Do not be selfish, and think of yourself & your mamma. He was a good man; he took care of you all these years! All I ask you and your mamma is to take care of him in his death or am I asking too much?
About the Author
Dr. K. Raja Gopal Reddy is a seasoned internationally qualified Insurance professional.
What you are reading here, may not answer all the questions we have, but has the absolute power of asking unsettling questions which increase the interest in the strange world, and show the contradictory wonders lying just below the surface of the commonest things of life. Look at this disturbing but beautiful thought of Friedrich Nietzsche “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him”.
Dr. Reddy can be reached at: raja66gopal@gmail.com
