How Is the Theme of Childhood Presented?

How is the theme of childhood presented?

The theme of childhood is presented as adventurous, playful and exciting  in poems ‘Hide and Seek’ and ‘in Just’. In ‘Hide and Seek’, the poet uses sensory imagery: ‘They’re moving closer, someone stumbles, mutters;’ to present this excitement. In ‘in Just’, the poet uses onomatopoeia ‘far and wee’ to indicate how much fun the child is having. It is very effective for the two poets to have hidden messages and express their thoughts of childhood through a game in the poems. The theme of childhood is also present as naive, innocent, graceful, blessed and full of holiness in the poems ‘Prayer before Birth’ and ‘You’re’. In the poem ‘Prayer before Birth’ the repetition of  these phrases such as ‘Let not’ and ‘O hear me’ emphasise the fear of being born and the desperation for protection. In ‘You’re’, there are similar phases such as ‘Feet to the stars’ and ‘O high riser, my little loaf’ to express the theme of childhood through prayer. In the poems ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘Frost at Midnight’, childhood is expressed as uncorrupted and easily affected and therefore needs a guide. The poets both show a nostalgia to their childhood and their past. In ‘Once upon a time’, the use of sibilance ‘So show me son’ and ‘show me how I used to laugh and smile once upon a time when I was like you.’express a deep and sad tone of lost childhood innocence. In ‘Frost at Midnight’ a promise is made to the baby of a different childhood ‘but though my babe! Shalt wander like a breeze’. I think ‘Once upon a time’ and ‘Frost at Midnight’ express the theme of childhood in the best way than the other four poems. I like how the poets use dialogues between parent and the child and time lapse to show a difference between childhood and adulthood. In ‘Once upon a time’, I was deeply moved by that although the man and the child are closely related as father and son, they are people in two different worlds, meeting different people, facing different stresses in life and different thoughts; which makes them far apart, not the actual distance, but spiritually.

In the poem ‘Hide and Seek’, childhood is presented as playful, innocent and yet has a shadow of abandonment.  Vernon Scannell uses an imperative in the first line “Call out. ‘Call out loud: I’m ready! Come and find me!’” to present the childlike thoughts. It shows that the child is trying to build up his confidence, and has a challenging and playful tone as he calls out to his playmates. In the line ‘The sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside’, the poet uses sibilance (sacks, shed, smell and seaside) which creates a strong impression on the reader. He also uses simile and sensorial imagery to demonstrate what the toolshed is like. By comparing the salty smell of the toolshed to the seaside, it creates the image that he is at the beach which has a positive connotation. The child’s thoughts, ‘They will never find you in this salty dark’ brings out the potency of the smell. ‘The floor is cold’ emphasizes that his hiding place is uncomfortable. With these lines, Vernon Scannell tells us that the child is always impatient and imaginative. ‘You mustn’t sneeze when they come prowling in.’ tells us that the child is ordering himself not to sneeze and the word ‘prowling’ shows us that the child think of his mates as predators and he is taking the game very seriously and is full of tension and excitement. The poet also uses the rule of three in the line ‘Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb.’ to expose that the child is really into the game and that he is excited, serious and he has a plan. The poet hints about a dark side of childhood towards the end of the poem ‘Hide and Seek’. In the last line ‘Yes, here you are. But where are they who sought you?’ gives out a very strong tone of grief and isolation, this rhetorical question is very effective because it shows a sad ending that the child has been abandoned and isolated. In the poem, Vernon Scannell did not mention anything about ‘light’. At the beginning, he uses repetition of dark, dark toolshed, salty dark and the sense of blindness. At the end of the poem, the darkness did not disappear but described as dark damp smell, the darkening garden watches, and the sun is gone. This hints that childhood is gone and corrupted.

‘Their words and laughter scuffle, and they are gone.’, and ‘They must be thinking you’re very clever,’ these lines reveal that the child doesn’t think much about the meaning of his playmates laughed and the odd conversation they have. This shows the child is too pure and innocent to suspect his mates and that they won’t care. At the end of the poem, ‘The darkening garden watches. Nothing stirs.’ and ‘The bushes hold their breath; the sun is gone.’ This is the metaphor in the poem ‘Hide and Seek’ conveys the sadness of growing up, time is gone and childhood innocence lost, much like the metaphor in ‘in Just’ that the child is sliding down a slide that represents time fly, this is supported by the structure of this poem in which the shape is very much like a slide. Similarly to ‘Hide and Seek’, the children in ‘in Just’ are playing games with zest and enjoyment. In these two poems, the poets bring out the innocence and purity of childhood, but the poems differ as ‘Hide and Seek’ ends on a desperately sad tone, whereas in ‘In Just’, the poet creates a very playful tone with childlike thoughts expressed in the poem. ‘Mud-luscious’ is not even a word but expresses the feeling of the child who is very fond of rolling in the mud. Moreover, ‘puddle-wonderful’ shows a childlike construction which illustrates the fun they are having. e.e cummings wants to create a very fast, exciting and unclear childlike speech by continuously using repetition of the word ‘and.’ This is evidenced in phrases such as, ‘and eddieandbill come’, ‘and bettyandisbel come dancing’. The repetition of ‘and’ is also used in everywhere in the poem to hint there are surprises everywhere and this draws the child’s attention.