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In Mary Darby Robinson’s “The Alien Boy”, Saint Hubert and his infant son, Henry, are banished “On the day / When persecution, in the sainted guise / Of liberty, spread wide its venom’d power,” (7-9) to a desolate sea-facing mountain where they reside alone. Robinson was well known for her themes of the outcast, the orphaned, and the mad, championing the humility and bravery of the poor. In “The Alien Boy”, she portrays her experiences with poverty and criticizes the French Terror. If included in the British Romantic Literature canon, this poem could fit appropriately in either our French Revolution and Rights of Man unit or our Society and Political Economy unit. “The Alien Boy” shows that during the Romantic era when writers questioned the importance of human relationships with Nature and with others, Robinson took a definitively rational approach despite her imaginary Gothic settings, thus revealing that everything that defines human beings as human becomes obsolete when one is deprived of human contract.

First, the title of the poem is worthy of examination. The second line of the first stanza clearly identifies the father as the “alien”, while later in line 128 Henry is referred to as the “alien boy”. This introduces a set of recurring juxtapositions between father and son, revealing the worldviews that they are intended to represent. One can assume that by calling Saint Hubert an alien the author is referring to his status as an exile. Saint Hubert was forced to leave his “lordly home” (10) with his “baby son” (11), an action that inspires domestic appeal, which is an attribute of Feminine Romanticism. Appealing to the emotional impulses of the reader is important for Robinson because not only will the sympathetic imagery of his “baby son” (11) encourage her audience to empathize with Saint Hubert’s plight, but it will also reveal the precious necessity of human interactions. His “shag’d eminence” (20) glorifies him as one who has fallen out of favor with Fortune yet still takes heart for the sake of his son. Just as in Robinson’s poem “The Poor, Singing Dame” when the dame is chastised for her poor but happy lifestyle, Saint Hubert is also portrayed as rich in merit rather than assets. This also gains sympathy from the reader and coveys the idea that tangible wealth does not define us as humans– fellowship does. Henry, however, as will be revealed toward the end of the poem, learns to shun people entirely. Therefore, the title represents the shift from the definition of alien as one who was unwillingly dispelled from his homeland to that of deliberate removal from human society.

The difference between father and son is further explored in the first and second stanzas. Through the descriptions of his wretchedness and his decision to keep the secret of Henry’s privileged birth, one can infer that Saint Hubert still pines for the life he left behind. Sometimes he would speak of “friends forsaken, kindred massacred; / Proud mansions, rich domains, and joyous scenes / For ever faded, –lost!” (41-43). Saint Hubert does not bemoan the loss of his personal wealth, but rather he weeps for the destruction of humanity’s great accomplishments. The violence of the Terror has infringed upon the principles of the Revolution and razed the proud triumphs of man to the ground. However, Saint Hubert does not simply value the physical achievements of humans. He understands the principles behind human actions– the reason that prompts man’s desire to improve the world rather than simply survive in it. Instead, he values foremost his son’s “opening harvest rich / Of promised intellect…” (28-29). In contrast with Saint Hubert’s unhappy knowledge of splendor lost is his son’s innocence as seen in lines 20-21: “while the young kid / Skipp’d, to the cadence of his minstrelsy.” Henry asks his father why they are the only ones inhabiting the mountain in an inquisitive manner. It is clear, however, that the boy is content, stimulated intellectually, and inquires about other humans only for entertainment and not out of burning desire for companionship (31-35). Although Henry is “The partner of his sorrows” (7), he does not perceive their isolated home in the same way as his father.

Beginning in stanza three there is a significant change in the setting. A fierce storm blasts over their lonely mountain on “the eve of Christmas” (45). The fact that this wicked storm is described with powerful imagery such as “Now the full moon in crimson lustre shone…The black clouds / Flew swiftly on, the wild blast following,” (57-59) is taking place on Christmas Eve is not something to be overlooked and will come back to haunt Henry later in the poem. Stanza three also introduces the idea of hope in the form of a little boat trying to reach shore through the tempestuous gale.

Henry and Saint Hubert become physically closer to one another in stanzas four and five as seen in lines 71-72: “Their hands fast link’d together, and their eyes / Fix’d on the troublous ocean….” In the moments before their final separation, this closeness suggests man’s natural reaction to cling to others in times of distress. Just then, a human form is seen struggling to crawl across the slippery crag. He calls out to Henry and his father, but his voice is lost in the roar of the wind. Saint Hubert’s subsequent actions can be viewed as a rediscovery of self through human contact. In a burst of courage, Saint Hubert reaches out for the weak mariner and grasps his arm “With transport exquisite!” (91). However, before either man can speak they are both swept away by a terrible wave. In this cruel twist of fortune, Robinson sweeps away all hope for justice and the merit of a good man fighting to save another’s life.

Meanwhile, Henry has just witnessed his father’s death and is overcome with grief and madness. He calls out, listening for another human voice, but he is now utterly alone. The moonlight shining upon the storm-ravaged mountainside, illuminating the landscape absent of human life not only depicts Nature as cruel, it also shows that no matter what petty human conflicts or passions, Nature dominates, callous and blind in her actions. The black weeds and low growl of waves breaking on the rocks are even personified to heighten Henry’s sense of solitude (104, 107-109). Robinson even makes a point to personify Despair to convey how grief-stricken the boy is. Lines 116 through 119 (“mid the woes / Of poverty and toil, he had not known, / Till then, the horror-giving cheerless hour / Of total solitude!”) romanticize the unassuming poor and allude to the French Revolution’s values dissipation into the suffering of the Terror. The lines also refer to man’s obliviousness to the misery of solitude until he has experienced it.

Robinson’s last stanza begins with Henry’s groan. Only once the storm is over can human voices be heard, but by then it is too late: there is no one to consol him. This signifies an appreciation for the company of one’s fellow man. As the sun shines brightly overhead, Henry rushes to his hovel and upon seeing a pillow still indented from the night before, he turns completely mad. The indented pillow symbolizes for Henry the last traces of his absent father, and in that moment he knows what he has lost. Just as Saint Hubert mourned his exiled condition and the loss of loved ones, Henry now understands loss.

On Christmas Day Henry is born anew: wild, his mind changed, an alien boy- “From that hour / A maniac wild the alien boy has been;” (127-128). The allusion from stanza three has come back to haunt Henry as he is driven to madness at the dawning of the next day, signifying the birth of an untrusting, deranged being who is the product man’s despair instead of his salvation. If anyone seeks to romanticize the remote main and land upon it in search of a refuge from humanity, Henry’s scuttling form among the cliffs serves as a warning of the horrors of solitude. Henry is now more of an alien than his father ever was. In his last moments, Saint Hubert was eager to risk his life to reach out and touch another human being. Because Henry’s first and only encounter with another human other than his father forever robs him of compainonship, he now shuns all humanity as seen in lines 135-137 “and leaves pursuit / To track him, where no footsteps but his own / Have e’er been known to venture!” Henry is a warning of the unnatural state that men can fall into when deprived of comraderie.

The seemingly trivial tasks that humans perform are part of what makes them human. Henry happily interacts with his father while he trims the fire (22), and Saint Hubert weaves nets to catch fish (23-24). When Henry becomes mad he ceases to take care of himself, clothing himself in sea-weeds (129). Saint Hubert and his son often “… sang / And talk’d…” but now Henry is no longer inquisitive. Human beings differ from animals in that they do more than simply survive. They question why they are alive and what their existence means. Now that his mind has been “disorder’d, changed, / Fading, and worn with care,” (130) Henry is less than human, attesting to the meaning of Robinson’s last lines “Yes he lives / A melancholy proof, that man may bear / All the rude storms of fate, and still suspire / By the wide world forgotten!” (137-140): Man is a resilient being who can weather fate and hardships when among others, but when separated from humankind the significance of his existence is diminished.