This theme of impending death is then carried on throughout the stanza. The young children speak directly to the audience, conveying their own feelings about their labors. .

             Their reference to "your old earth" in line_____ is powerful. With just three words, the children are able to express the sub-standard nature of their lives. They are so lowly, and their lives so worthless, that they are not even residents or inhabitants of earth. They take no ownership of earth, because it, like every other freedom, has been denied to them. They have no power to own anything, so why should they even possess an earth to live on?.

             The young workers then show the audience that they have toiled and endured work, well beyond their years, and they reflect the effects of that age. "Our young feet. . . are very weak;/ Few paces have [they] taken, yet are weary." Rather than appearing as young and carefree children, running and playing, these workers have used their young limbs beyond that capacity. They have been worked to the point of such exhaustion that they have lost their desire, their ability to be children. Their feet hurt as though they are adults returning home from work. All the more disturbing is the excessive fatigue the children feel, after having taken but a "few paces." These "few paces" represent the small number of years the children have lived in comparison to the weariness they are now subjected to because of the grueling work. .

             The children are portrayed by Browning as so exhausted by the efforts of their short lives that they are actually looking forward to their own deaths. This wish for a swift death, too, is dashed, as they know that "our grave-rest is very far to seek." Browning uses this imagery of death to evoke a feeling of horror from her audience. It is unbelievable that children could even think of dying, much less hope to die.