"The Bridge of Sighs" is an 1844 poem by

Thomas Hood Thomas Hood (23 May 1799 – 3 May 1845) was an English poet, author and humorist, best known for poems such as " The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Shirt". Hood wrote regularly for ''The London Magazine'', ''Athenaeum'', and ''Punch''. ...

concerning the suicide of a homeless young woman who threw herself from

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

in London.

Background

Although Thomas Hood (1799–1845) is usually regarded as a humorous poet, towards the end of his life, when he was on his sick bed, he wrote a number of poems commenting on contemporary poverty. These included "

The Song of the Shirt "The Song of the Shirt" is a poem written by Thomas Hood in 1843. It was written in honour of a Mrs. Biddell, a widow and seamstress living in wretched conditions. In what was, at that time, common practice, Mrs. Biddell sewed trousers and shi ...

", "The Bridge of Sighs" and "The Song of the Labourer". "The Bridge of Sighs" is particularly well-known because of its novel meter, complex three syllable rhymes, varied rhyming scheme and pathetic subject matter. The poem describes the woman as having been immersed in the grimy water, but having been washed so that whatever sins she may have committed are obliterated by the pathos of her death. She seems to have become a suicide by jumping off a bridge, after she was thrown out of her home. ''Make no deep scrutiny
Into her mutiny
Rash and undutiful:
Past all dishonour,
Death has left on her
Only the beautiful.'' Several clues in the poem, which harps upon beauty, sins and scorn, hint that the woman was pregnant and had been thrown out of her home. ''Sisterly, brotherly,
Fatherly, motherly
Feelings had changed:
Love, by harsh evidence,
Thrown from its eminence;
Even God's providence
Seeming estranged.''

Illustrations

The poem was widely anthologised and frequently illustrated in books of Victorian poetry, including an etching by Sir

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

in 1858. It was also set to music by

Reinhold Ludwig Herman Reinhold is a German male given name. This German name is originally from "Reinold", composed of two elements. The first is from ''ragin'', meaning "the (Germanic) Gods" and ''wald'' meaning "powerful". This name was popularised by the ancient Ge ...

(1849–1919). Along with Hood's other notable serious poem, ''The Song of the Shirt'', it influenced several Victorian artists. Paintings inspired by the poem included

Augustus Egg Augustus Leopold Egg RA (2 May 1816, in London – 26 March 1863, in Algiers) was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique best known for his modern triptych '' Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class ...

's '' Past and Present'' (1858; Tate, London),

Abraham Solomon Abraham Solomon (London 7 May 1823 – 19 December 1862 Biarritz) was a British painter. Born as the second son of Meyer Solomon, a Leghorn hat manufacturer, by his wife Catherine, in Sandys Street, Bishopsgate in east London. His fath ...

's untraced ''Drowned! Drowned!'' and

G.F. Watts George Frederic Watts (23 February 1817, in London – 1 July 1904) was a British painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolism (arts), Symbolist movement. He said "I paint ideas, not things." Watts became famous in his lifetime for hi ...

's ''

Found Drowned ''Found Drowned'' is an oil painting by George Frederic Watts, c. 1850, inspired by Thomas Hood's 1844 poem '' The Bridge of Sighs''. The painting depicts the dead body of a woman washed up beneath the arch of Waterloo Bridge, with her lower b ...

'' (Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey). The poem was also illustrated in a bas-relief on Hood's tomb.

Popular Culture

Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...

is rumoured to have written the song

Little Susie ''Little Susie'' is an album by pianist Ray Bryant released on Columbia Records in 1960.The Bridge of Sighs
text of the poem.

* ttps://archive.org/download/PoetryMoment/585-bridgeofsighs_hood-20110204.mp3 The Bridge of Sighs audio from Archive.org. Victorian poetry 1844 poems {{poem-stub