Childhood Is Conveyed In A Selection

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Bangkok Patana School

Mrs Miah

Poems:

Prayer Before Birth- Louis MacNeice

If- Rudyard Kipling

A Mother in a Refugee Camp â€" Chinua Achebe

Hide and Seek â€" Vernon Scannell

‘Half-past Two’ â€" U.A Fanthorpe

Piano â€" D.H. Lawrence

By Akash Veeralakshman 11F

We all experience childhood, and we can all agree that childhood is one of the most important stages during our lives. This is evident by a selection of poems from Section C of the anthology, which include ‘Half-past Two’, ‘Prayer Before Birth’ and ‘Piano’. Each poem takes a different aspect towards childhood; some poems take a stereotypical view as a very enjoyable and thrilling view. Other poems view it as a stage during our life, when we first learn and experience the mistakes we make and the difficult situations we will encounter.

Firstly by analyzing several poems from Section-C of the anthology we can suggest the general theme of childhood and how it’s portrayed as a time of innocence, purity, excitement and naivety. This is most apparent in the poems ‘Half past two’ and ‘Hide and Seek. ‘Hide and Seek’ written by Vernon Scannel exploring the idea of excitement, tension and curiosity a boy gains through metaphorically playing a game of ‘Hide and Seek’. This is emphasized through the use of exclamation marks “I’m Ready! Come and Find me!”. We can sense the enthusiasm in the kid’s spirit and the anticipation of being found. Furthermore the fast pace comes through the use of various short piercing sentence for instance “Don’t breathe. Don’t Move. Stay Dumb” which helps build up the child’s internal excitement and the anticipation of being found. Throughout the poem we see there aren’t many detailed descriptions involved and no particular rhyming scheme to click the idea of Childhood being a time of simplicity.

Another poem part-taking in the theme of simplicity is ‘Half-Past two’. The poem starts off with “Once upon a time” this is a typical way of starting a child fairy tale, giving the reader a sense of innocence and simplicity. The poem is defined by a simple structure and consists of recognized actions. In addition the poems use of neologisms such as ‘Timetogohomenowtime’ and ‘TVtime’, illustrates the naivety and how the children are incapable of properly splitting up the words or phrases they had heard from adults. Thus treats them as independent words and ideas. The capitalization of ‘Time’ accentuates how important it was to him when he was younger.

In contrast the purity and innocence of childhood is a subtler but vital theme in the poems ‘Prayer Before birth’ and ‘A mother in a Refugee Camp’. ‘A mother in a refugee camp’ written by Chinua Achebe shows the hardship faced by a mother and child in a refugee camp due to war. It contrasts to ‘Hide and Seek’ as it takes different insight to childhood. “The air was heavy with odour of diarrhoea of unwashed children”, emphasizes the hardships they faced in the refugee camp. It paints a horrifying picture of how dirty and sick the children were. The positive pictures of ‘”flowers” is instantly contrasted by “grave” in the next line to shows a sudden change in tone. We can visualize a vast difference in the atmosphere expressed in ‘Hide and Seek’, which is packed with joy and happiness through the game.

‘Prayer Before birth’ written by Louise MacNeice takes a negative perspective to human life. The child having fears about “blooksucking bat” and “club-footed ghoul” conveys the child’s innocence and the use of alliteration helps further emphasize the fear the child experiences. It creates a dark image within the reader and through the use of vivid language for example ‘hear me and not come near me’ emphasizes the harm the animals could bring to him and once again reinforcing the child’s innocence. The repetition of the phrase “I am not yet born” makes it apparent that the child has not appeared in the world yet. It is followed by the horrors involving humanity, but the child is aware of the darkness present in the world, giving a dark and hopeless tone to the poem. The poem is very heart breaking as it demonstrates the world as a harsh and sinister places perhaps conveying the message that the child is going to be get affected by it in some kind of manner.

We can all agree that going from childhood to adulthood is as much as a physical transformation as it is mental. This is evident in the poem ‘Half-Past two’ written by U.A Fanthorpe, which shows the mental transformation as the child realizes the concept of time. Through the realization of this concept will make a tremendous impact on his life. The poet’s use of compound words such as ‘Gettinguptime’ and “TVtime” focuses on how children associate themselves with time. It makes the readers realize how adults and children have a completely different perception of time and the impact it brings. Adults associate time with numbers such as ‘quarter to seven’ or ‘Half-past two’, it shows the insignificance of numbers with children. “He couldn’t click it’s language” because it was beyond their little carefree conception and throughout the poem U.A Fanthorpe makes ‘half past’ perceive as a unpleasant time. Nearing the end U.A Fanthorple states “where time hides tickles waiting to be born” this demonstrates that growing up as a child exposes us to many constrains in our life and by age these unravel themselves. Finally we see the mental transformation as “He escaped into the clockless land for ever”, illustrating a change of mind into a free flowing mentality.

‘Piano’ written by D.H Lawrence displays nostalgia and a desire for his past. It illustrates how a man struggles to remain a man while fighting against his memories of the past For instance when the poet mentions “The heart of me weeps to belong” shows the want and willingness desire to belong in the past. In addition through the use of “heart”, which has references to love but also that he’s mental emotions are affected deeply. His mother might be representing the idea of love and warmth she shared with him. Furthermore the use of “Old Sunday evenings” portrays how he used to enjoy sitting in the warm comfy indoors whilst humming melodious hymns with his ‘Piano’ played by his mother. Moreover it might be relating to the idea that his present life is lacking the same environment possibly due to the passing away of his mother. We also see a overwhelming longing for the past conveyed through the use of ‘Flood of remembrance’, the use of flood as a metaphor suggest that he’s forever lost in his memories and reluctantly flowing into the past Whilst being a grown up man he “weep like a child for the past” reinforces how he’s desperately he wants to belong in the past. Conclusively “the great black piano” which has direct links to the title of the poem is the main reason that trigger’s his childhood memories and a key element of this poem.

In contrast to ‘Piano’ is ‘A mother in a Refugee Camp’ which portrays nostalgia for a better past life when no war was present. The mother makes all the effort to make her child feel at home and safe. Even though ‘Other mothers there had long ceased to care, but not this one’ exemplifies to make the mother seem even more heroic despite the hunger and disease. For example when “She held a ghost smile between her teeth” indicates that her mother is almost ghost like which suggest that it wasn’t soon before she would pass away, but despite this she still holds a smile between her teeth to provide hope and care for her child, it also signals a sign of desperation. Additionally the use of ‘broken comb’ on the ‘hair left on his skull’ further symbolizes through all the poverty and depression the mother is still desperately trying to hold onto her normal routine, which portrays nostalgia of her better past life. Finally the act of her combing the baby’s her on this day could mean she might be burying him the next day and therefore is cherishing every single moment she has to spare.

Not only does ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ portray nostalgia for a better past life but shows how the bond between a child and parent is extremely precious. For instance when she “rubbed him down with bare palms” represents that the mother was doing everything in her power to make the child feel at home and as if they have been leading a normal life. But this is contradicted by the “bundle of possession’s” they owned demonstrating how little they had but more importantly they had no place to call home. The mother represented, as an Iconic image of “Madonna and child” to depict the unimaginable love whilst being in a horrific situation. Ultimately to have someone care and love for you makes the bond seem vibrant and precious in comparison to anything else.

Similar to ‘Mother in a Refugee Camp’ is the poem ‘If’ written by Rudyard Kipling touching on the theme of bond between a father and son, it is a strong motivational speech, bittersweet but positive and will benefit his son in the future to come. The structure of the poem makes it very clear to obtain success one must do the stated ‘If’s’ throughout the poem. Its apparent that “If” he’s going to face obstacles” he needs to learn not to give up as his father wont be alongside him to support him all the time, this is a contrast to ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, as the mother supports the child throughout the poem. In addition the use of the conditional word ‘If’, meaning it may or may not happen show’s the drastic consequences faced through a slight change. However the word ‘If’ is repeated several times throughout the poem this suggests that it will happen after all. Ultimately, it contrasts how childhood is frankly viewed as a time of simplicity, but in reality its much more complex emphasized through the word ‘If’.

Fundamentally we can agree that the theme of childhood is always perceived as a time of innocence and purity, but the following poems above give a different feeling and taste for the theme of childhood. We all think as childhood being the most exciting and thrilling moments of our life, but this is not the case in poems such as “Mother in a Refugee Camp”. The writers of the poem have helped me give a sense of different themes associated with childhood, through the use of personal experience and various linguistic techniques.

Word Count: 1796