The message of the poem The Last Bargain is that we should never desire worldly things like power, money and beauty. They are short-living and worthless. They do not give peace and joy to the soul. They always create fear of losing them in the minds of those who own them.

A person should be like that innocent child who plays with the shells at the seashore. He has no worries of the world like the king or the old man or the beautiful lady. He is free from worldly pains and sorrows. The speaker finds liberty and peace in becoming a free man like the child and wants the reader to be like him in order to attain peace.

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The bargain simply means agreement between two or more people or groups or parties. Here in the poem, it means which is a promise which would give the speaker what he really wants. The bargains of the king, the old man and the beautiful lady do not seem to be true because the speaker knows that power, wealth and beauty do not last forever.

Hence he accepts the bargain of the child i.e. to become free from all these worldly things and become a free man.

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The last bargain of the speaker was with the child who offered him to hire for nothing. It was the best bargain which the speaker accepted readily. The child has no worldly desires. He does not want power or wealth or beauty. He is simply playing with the shells.

After accepting the child’s offer, the speaker feels liberated. He loves being a free man and independent of sorrows of the world and its fake joy.

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