 Hello and welcome to our video summarising all you need to know about the youth and age poems in the OCR anthology Towards the World Unknown. My name is Barbara and in this video I'll summarise each poem beginning with some context about the poet before analysing the poem. Do make sure you have your anthology handy and before you listen to each analysis, read the poem first. In this way you'll get a better grasp of its meaning. So let's get started. Now this collection begins with the poem Holy Thursday by William Blake. Now William Blake was born in 1757 and he belonged to the era of the Romantic Age. Mr. Viss poems depict emotions and the consequences of them. Although he wasn't very recognised during his time, he turned out to be successful post-humously and the poem Holy Thursday was first published in 1789. Now the poem itself depicts a particular ceremony which takes place in England. In Blake's time, Holy Thursday was the name given to the ceremony that took place on Ascension Day. On this day children from Charity School went to St Paul's Cathedral and they took part in a special service in the church. William Blake uses concrete historical events in order to reflect human attitudes and poverty in England. The poem consists of three stanzas with two rhymed couplets each, so an A, A, B, B rhymed scheme. The lines in the poem tend to be longer than those in the rest of the collection and this extension suggests that the children's procession is into the cathedral and by the collection I mean Blake's collection of songs of experience from which this poem is taken from. This particular form, the A, A, B, B form has a song-like rhythm and it's a representation of the children's innocence which contrasts with the narration of the exploitation. Now the first stanza depicts a ceremony, the lyrical voice describes the movement of the children from the Charity Schools to St Patrick's Cathedral on Holy Thursday. However, the lyrical voice appears to be an outsider, as they observe and describe how the children walk towards the church. The children are described as a colourful mass as the poem states, the children walking two and two in red and blue and green and this flows through the street and these children rather flow through the streets of London, Latter River Thames. The speaker or the lyrical voice suggests that the children are being carried out by the current of innocence. Notice however how, despite the celebratory scenery and the beautiful colours, the narrator critiques certain aspects of this social ritual. For example, the children of the faces of the children are described as clean which suggests that actually they're normally dirty. Also for example, notice how the Beatles walk alongside the children with wands as the poem states. This suggests their violent authority that they exercise over this children. They use these wands to essentially cane them or to beat them. In the second stanza, the lyrical voice describes the children in a very different way. They're described as flowers of London town, emphasising their beauty as well as their fragility. The narrator talks about the children and while they see them seated in the church, the poem states seated in companies, they sit with radiance all on their own. The children are also described as lambs accentuating their innocence as well as the closeness to God and their relationship with religion. Thus, the children are linked to Christ who had a special tenderness for children and this description contrasts with the harm of multitudes and it further emphasises the children raising the innocent hands. It really depicts the innocence of these children. Also notice how many they are. They're described as thousands of little boys and girls and they're all described as very uncorrupted and extremely delicate. In the third stanza, the children begin to sing and the narrator describes how they are like a mighty wind and they raise to heaven the voice of song. As these children sing, however, they're no longer fragile and they acquire a force which enables them to communicate with God. Notice how the song of the children is described first as a mighty wind then as hellmonious thundering. Also, the beetles that walk to them in the streets are now beneath them. They're overshadowed by the children and their song and the figure of these children changes throughout the stanza and in the last one they appear to be surrounded by an oral imagery. The final line tells the reader to have compassion for the poor as it states. Then cherish pity lest you drive an angel from your door. This suggests a criticism of Christianity but also of English society at the time and the possibility of divine wrath and the vengeance in the children's song particularly vengeance towards the rich and the people who are privileged and how they disregard the poorer children of London. Now the next poem in the collection is When I Have Fears That I May Seize To Be by John Keats. Now Keats himself was born in 1795 and he was the eldest of four children in his family and although he died at the age of 25 he perhaps had one of the most remarkable careers of any English poets. He published 54 poems, three slim volumes of books as well as some magazines and during his life he took on the challenges of a wide range of poetic forms from the sonnet to the Spinsarian romance the Miltonian epic and he defined anew the possibilities with his own distinctive fusion of his writing. Now the poem itself was written in 1818 just a short years before just a few short years before Keats's own death. It's primarily a poem about his fear of mortality however in true fashion to his writing death is also the solution for more of what ails him. It would be prudent to remember that Keats's poems have all in some way featured death, the death of nature, the death of love, the death of memory. There are few poems actually that don't reference the ending of things. So this poem is extremely effusive with imagery and it's very sensual in this description of the fears that Keats's possesses. Now when it comes to the first dancer his first worry that's presented as this. What if he should die before he's written to the best of his ability? It seems like it's not merely death that makes Keats worry but death and infamy which is ironic as he's now one of the most renowned names of English poetry. In fact it's interesting to know contextually that Keats was so sure he would die without creating a ripple in the world of English writing and poetry that his tombstone was made out to the one whose name was written water thus showing the transience of his fame. Keats also feared that he wouldn't be able to achieve his full capacity in terms of writing and he feared the limitations of his life before his time was over. In the first stanza the use of words which we associate with fertility are plenty. He states gleaned Garner's full ripened grain and this subtly reinforces the idea of the artist's creation in his mind as a fertile landscape. Keats views his imagination as a field of grain wherein he's both the man harvesting but also the product being harvested. In the second stanza the second quatrain shows Keats viewing the beauty of the natural world. This natural world is full of miracles and it's what Keats describes which he can transform into poetry. This is a material that he uses for his own work in the medium of which inspires him. As an artist Keats depicts that he fears the lack he's terrified that he will die before doing justice to the beauty of nature that he perceives. However paradoxically he's also terrified of not achieving the artistry that he's dreamed of and not doing justice to the beauty of nature even should the opportunity to write about them present itself to him. There's a further reference to high romance which could also show Keats's terrors about not finding the right person to fall in love with. He feared being lonely as well and the woman that he met and fell in love with Fanny Braun was never consummated in a formal marriage as her mother wouldn't give him consent to marry. He died betrothed to Fanny in Italy though it's clear from their correspondents that neither Keats nor Fanny believed they would see each other again in Keats's final year alive. Now in the third stanza Keats turns to the idea of love. The ease of the phrase fair creature of an hour shows that even his love is not immortal. The crux of this poem is also concerned with the short nature of love in addition to the short-lived nature of creativity. The opening of this quatrain with the word and shows that this is an additional fear of Keats to not only have never achieved artistic mastery but also to never see his potential lover again which of course was true because he never saw Fanny Braun alive again. Thus we get to the dual terrors that haunted his life, the opportunities provided by life but also his inability to live up to them. Keats was terrified of failure even more so than death. The final two lines of the poem give this overarching feeling of misery and despair as Keats finds himself standing alone trying to understand these fears and not managing to do so. Thus no matter if he attains these fears or he doesn't attain what he wishes he will constantly be anxious and worried that his life will not make an impact. The next poem in this collection is a blue ball by Anne Bronte. So Anne Bronte was born in the village of Thornton in Bradford in 1820 and she died in 1849. So her brief life was strewn with triumph and tragedy. Her mother died when she was just one year old and her two younger sisters soon followed. She was in many ways the most practical of the Bronte sisters of course one of her most famous sisters being also Emily Bronte. Although she was shy and reserved she overcame her struggles and was the only one of the siblings to have a job for some length of time. Now when it comes to the poem itself the core of the blue ball seems to be that it is better to learn from the past than be caught up in it. The speaker's morning rises from the blue ball and it's an important turning point in her life. It states that it would be easy to spend the rest of her life mourning over and missing her childhood. It's hard to be happier than when one sees fairies in the blue ball and love everywhere they look through essentially a child's eyes. However the ability to grow to grow up and change from this memory does give this poem a light and also hopeful atmosphere amidst a strong melancholy nostalgia that runs throughout this poem. This poem is really powerful as it examines the nature of nostalgia yearning for the past but also a hope for the future. Now the opening stanza of the poem uses personification to discuss the blue ball which makes up the theme the name of this piece. It describes each blue ball as housing its own spirit though it's not the kind of spirit that's typically associated with the world. There's a silent eloquence and more or less of power and these two quotes are telling descriptions of the strong emotional reaction the speaker in the piece fills towards seeing the blue balls. The subtle spirit which is intelligent alliteration and more specifically sibilance is something very personal to the speaker who describes their own softened heart suggesting that this is kind of an emotional state that was not always part of who they currently are. Now when you look at the second and third stanzas the poem takes on a more consistent approach to rhyming structure being laid out in quatrains that rhyme off the second and fourth lines only. The speaker describes her own experience shortly before the present day where they're walking down a path amidst a troubling day to discover that they are surrounded by flowers. While this is a simple description of events, Bronte's use of words like twas and strayed, her repetition of the beauty of the day and the personified description of flowers as smiling all indicate a light mood through the romantic imagery. Despite the description of a twolesome life the speaker seems yearning for something better on a particular day and this leads to their straying into a bed of flowers. Now when it comes to the fourth and fifth stanzas the speaker seems to stand amidst a scene further described through words like lofty hill and they reveal that the troubles of their life fade away in that moment. The quote twosome life described in the second verse was described in the past tense and it seems that this is the moment that life has become better standing in a place surrounded by peaceful nature. The simple realization that peaceful nature is enough as they begin to speak of the joy and express it and not caring if they're seen or heard by others really presents a type of hope. Now when it comes to sixth and seventh stanzas in the poem in a sudden contrast the speaker appears to describe the noticing of bluebells along the bank of the sea. Seemingly from nowhere the eyes tear up and the lump forms in the throat as though they're about to begin weeping. The speaker is just as confused as the reader at this point. Why should a bluebell have such a strong effect as to shatter the peace and the joy described only a few stanzas before. There's nothing inherent about this scene that could cause pain yet it's described as being the onset of bitter feelings towards this plant. Now in the eighth and ninth stanzas the narrator realizes the source of their pain. As a child the thought of bluebells as rare treasures like finding fairies in the grass that innocence that wonder at the simple beauty of the world is something long lost. Furthermore the speaker remembers long carefree days and warm nights presumably with family who'd love them unconditionally. This suggests that they no longer live at home or the family is deceased. The beautiful language and imagery described here summons the effect in power of the bluebell as a portal to nostalgic sadness. To the speaker they represent the happiest days of life that can never be reclaimed. Now in the penultimate verses the tenth and the eleventh stanzas the speaker recalls a realization that they didn't live leave their childhood happiness behind to live in anxiety and strife over other people who described as heartless and thankless. Recalling the second verse the speaker describes their twolesome life in the past tense suggesting that this moment in the field is a real turning point for the future. Personifying the flower this speaks to the narrator encouraging them to weep over time lost and memories faded and this is the sighted cause of their mourning as they now realize that they're able to use this to change their life for the better. Now the next poem in the collection is Midnight on the Great Western by Thomas Hardy. Now Hardy himself was born in 1840 and died in 1928. He was an English novelist and poet and he was greatly influenced by Southern England where he was born and raised. His works span the Victorian and early modern era and his poetry focuses on the musical aspects of language by paying attention to the different possibilities of sound and he was greatly influenced by poets like William Wordsworth. Now this poem specifically uses a fairly unorthodox verse structure that works to make the concluding idea for each verse stand out. The rhyming pattern is A B C D B however the fourth line contains a D rhyme as its middle word which gives the verse an A B C D D B feel to it flows significantly better than if the rhyming words were only at the end of each line. This style also means that the rhyming line that concludes each verse is by necessity a short piece that has its own line and it emphasizes each final idea in the verses. Now to begin with the first verse or rather the first stanza tells the reader about a young boy who's traveling presumably by train to an unknown destination. There's a strong sense of atmosphere conveyed in this verse and Hardy makes great use of noting the candle lantern near the roof the way its light illuminates the boy's listless face. Typically it would be expected that that a young boy riding a train would feel somewhat excited about this experience but this isn't evident in this first stanza instead it seems that things are looking very gloomy and very melancholic for this boy. The final two lines of this verse are written in a poetic fashion and Hardy uses words such as Be Wrapped and Wentz which are curious choices and they indicate a sense of the unknown in the boy's journey where he came from when where he's going are both mysteries to the reader. The subtext of this verse is filled with very important details on the character and set in the story. The boy in this poem is sitting in a third class seat which is generally among the most basic of accommodations that a person can get on a train. Typically this suggests a modest income and of course it suggests that perhaps he belongs to the working classes. However a young child is not a strong candidate for someone who could afford any kind of train ticket in any case implying that he's saved up for a very long time for this journey. His listless posture suggests that he's really unhappy about the journey but whether this is because he's running away or traveling against his will remains unknown to the reader. In the second standstill we get a great detail on the few items that the boy has brought with him on his journey. He's wearing a hat with a band on the inside that holds his ticket around his neck. There's a key on a string and on his lap is a locked box decorated with a reflective material that catches a lamp light. Again Hardy is using the subtext to hint at a greater story beneath this poem. We're not told for instance what's in the boy's box but as he carries a key with him close by and at all times we know it's really important. He has very few other possessions and he seems to keep his ticket in his hat rather than in this locked box or pocket which is interesting. Hardy's description that the sad beams of the lamp make the box seem almost like a living thing shows the reader how lifeless the boy is in comparison. That the box and the lamp are more lively than the boy really speaks volume about his sad backstory. Now in the third stanza the narrator emerges with their own voice and asks the question that has been implied since the first line what is the boy doing on the train? For the speaker this boy is acting as though he doesn't understand what it means to try and survive on one's own as he seems to be doing. He seems to not understand how much he could lose by trying to survive on his own and failing an idea the speaker has surmised from his emotionless gaze. Words like plunge and stake are strong jocks to position against journeying boy and world unknown. The former highlight the dangers of a life unknown while the latter make his plight out to be a kind of adventure. The narrator presumably another passenger on the train is asking these questions but the phrasing of each suggests that they're not doing so out loud but rather expressing their curiosity to themselves. Now the fourth stanza presents some interesting concluding thoughts which are very philosophical in nature the speaker views the boy as being innocent in a world of sin and thinks of him as riding a train towards the rude realms that they consider themselves a part of. The boy's journey the narrator decides has taken him to a dark place and this ends the poem on a rather foreboding note musing that the child has entered quote a region of sin but they are not part of this realm. The truth of this boy's journey is never really revealed but the narrator seems very cynical about it considering how little is known about the boy's story. The narrator and the reader are given a glimpse of this young boy riding on a train seemingly either leaving a bad place or heading to another bad place and there's a hope that the boy will survive as a beacon of innocence in a corrupt world. Now the next poem in this collection is spring and fall to a young child by Gerald Manley Hopkins. So Gerald Manley Hopkins was a Victorian poet who seemed comfortable with addressing heavy topics within his work rather than solely focusing on the lighter aspects of life he was willing to discuss less pleasant notions and deliver works that could resound on deeper levels with readers. Now this poem uses a very unique rhyme scheme and the concept of nature's demise as a representation of something far deeper. In this one stanza piece Hopkins utilizes the reaction of a young girl named Margaret to express a deep rooted fear that humans carry throughout their lives expressly that of their own mortality. What seems like a simple account of a girl grieving over trees losing their leaves as summer months lead into the autumn season is eventually noted to have a much greater meaning. That meaning as Hopkins notes in the final poem or rather the final line of the poem is that Margaret is mourning the passage of her own life even though she's not mature enough to grasp this notion. Now when it comes to lines one to four of this one stanza poem Hopkins delivers the basic factors of the poem setting. Margaret who we're introduced to is noted as a young person when the narrator references her contemplations as fresh thoughts and she is saddened by a golden grove where the leaves are falling from the trees to signal their end. There's so much information presented within this bit of description that the reader might actually overlook some of the more significant details. Specifically Margaret is being treated as an aspect of nature herself since her ideas are referred to as fresh which is a description that's fitting of an apple for instance or a fruit. Now the fruit is fresh because age has yet to take its vigor she's a young girl and this similarity of wording parallels Margaret's youth and with nature's bounty. Moreover the nature the the notion rather that she's grieving over golden grove is telling. A grove means a series of trees and the idea that they are golden links the setting to autumn colors showcasing themselves on the leaves. These details are keen understanding the scene itself because the reader can envision a collection of autumn colored trees before the young girl as she weeps and they're significant as well as to the meaning of the poem. If the reader grasps the young girl is grieving for trees losing the luster through changing seasons the concept of mortality is centered as a focal point for the poem's overall concept. Now when it comes to lines five to nine the narrator in this part of the poem assures the young child that her heart will age and mature until she should hold her towards sights of nature's demise so much so that she will not even spare a sigh for them when she's older. This information is given after a quick ah for a transitional element from her current grief to her future lack of mourning and that simple addition to the poem offers a wistful quality to the concept as if the narrator thinks fondly of Margaret's youthful ideas but ultimately knows that they won't survive until her adulthood. We wonder if this is a condescending quality or it's just an indication of nostalgia overtaking the narrator. The answer to this question is speculation at best but given the description of quote one word leaf mill lie which is a cumbersome way to say that a collection of dead leaves are cluttered together. The reader could easily conclude that the narrator is in fact being condescending by flashing their knowledge of deeper and more mature concepts that the child can't grasp. There's also a promise of sorts in these lines when the narrator ends the thought by declaring that even though nature in autumn's group will not spark Margaret's mourning as she ages she'll still weep and know why. Essentially the narrator shows the child that her emotions will linger though logically they would need to be directed at something else if nature will no longer be the cause and she'll one day discover the reason behind her emotions something that the child could arguably not understand at such a youthful point in her life. It's also worth noting that this is the series of lines that make up the rhyme scheme whereas the lines before and after follow an a-a-b-b-c-c rhyme scheme. There are a trio of lines here that offer rhyming words specifically line seven eight and nine that end with psi, lie and y. Already this section has been noticed as transitional in that the narrator is giving commentary that's more for future focus for this child. Thus this is the pivotal change within the poem. Now after this change we shift into lines 10 to 11 and once more Hopkins the author presents the reader with concepts that are linked to natural ideas therefore constructing a concrete representation of the human life through a metaphor. In particular human sorrow doesn't have storage a supply or some generic method of expression it has springs and that choice of wording parallels sorrow's existence without a body of fresh water so very representative of nature. Hopkins also reinforces the concept that Margaret will still mourn after she's reached adulthood and states the reason for future mourning will be the same as her current dismay over the demise of the leaves on the trees. The name will be different which makes sense if the leaves are not so much as insight aside from her in later years but the underlying rationale for grief in either instance will remain unchanged. The question remains though as to what that underlying reason is and it's only in the last lines of the poem that the idea is stated so clearly as to remove any doubt. Now in lines 12 to 15 here the reader learns that the principal reason for Margaret's mourning has nothing to do with the autumn plants or fields of trees rather it's because Margaret mourns for the mortality that she faces. In time she will understand for in more detail her own mortality however even if she's a child she's still at some stage can understand the basis of her own temporal existence. Although this isn't something that Margaret should feel weak over as a narrator knows that this is a blight that man was born with and everyone is destined to leave life behind Margaret still senses a huge feeling of fear and dread over this real aspect of mortality. Overall this poem is commentary to the fear and dread of death that so integral to life although young Margaret can't grasp that she has any idea of her mortality she still has an inbuilt fear of its heaviness even though she doesn't know the dread is there and this highlights the fear and concern of morality that haunts every human throughout the life even in the early stages of life when they don't fully understand and grasp its meaning. Now the next poem in this collection is owed by author O'Shaughnessy. Now he's an Irish poet who was born in 1884 1844 in London. He worked at the British Museum as an entomologist and herpetologist though his true love was poetry and the poem owed came from his 1874 publication called Music and Moonlight. Now this poem specifically dedicates his work to the artists, the writers, the painters and people who've lived in fantasy and built worlds outside of the real world. This is one of the more uplifting and hopeful poems about art that has been written in this collection and it's so often quoted in several works of art. This poem is made up of three stanzas of eight lines each and the rhyme scheme for the first stanza is A, B, A, B, A, B, A, B and the rhyme scheme for the second stanza is A, A, B, B, C, D, C, D and the rhyme scheme for the third stanza is A, B, A, B, A, B, A, B. Now in the first stanza this appears to be addressed to the artists, to the music makers, the dreamers of dreams and the fact that no one artist as mentioned and no one art form is celebrated specifically is what makes this poem so appealing to a range of different artists. Art in this poem appears to have a very fluid definition and everything can be art and here the poet wants to make clear that to be an artist requires sacrifice and very often that sacrifice is to live external to society it's almost necessary to be external to human error and strife and see the beauty in human nature. Despite the fact that most artists are beyond the reach of society this poet wants to make it clear that this is in no way meaning that they are forgotten or easily replaced they have a role to fulfill in the world and that's to be the movers and shakers of the world forever it seems by calling artists movers and shakers it's implied that they are rebellious and of course it's a spirit of rebellion that causes any type of change in society. Now when it comes to the second stanza the poet goes into detail about the boon that is artistry about what artists have done for society he states the majesty of what artists managed to do quoting with wonderful death-less ditties we built up the world's great cities and out of a fabulous story with fashion and the empire's glory thus this quotation from the poem but also the poem at large celebrates something that's innate to creation the idea of fantasy the wielding of stories which push society forward and in some ways also changes society drastically above all this poem wants to make it clear that artists have been the cause of society shifting and moving forward it also seems to imply that the myth makers of the modern world are to be considered as the leaders of the world for its myth and story and fantasy and legend that survives after all civilizations have been eaten up by tragedy and have passed away. The lasting effect of poetry indeed outlives most societies and is thus what must be celebrated and enjoyed. Now in the third stanza the poet lords once more the power of the artist he references a city of babble Nineveh lending the idea that art is almost a divine creation and itself its divinity because also do you bear in mind that these two cities are also biblical cities they are featured in the bible the importance of the artist to ode the poem cannot be overstated the poet attributes an almost godly quality to the artist and through the final stanza he shows that's ultimately the artist himself who creates and kills his own mythology but there will always be other artists and there will always be other myths art is therefore eternal art is what is left of the world and dreams and music so the next poem in this collection is out out by Robert Frost so Robert Frost was born in 1874 in San Francisco and after the death of his father from tuberculosis when he was 11 years old he moved with his mother and sister to massachusetts he became interesting reading and writing poetry and he enrolled at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in 1892 and later in Harvard University although he never earned a formal degree now when it comes to the poem itself this narrative poem is set in one long stanza written in unriamed iambic pentameter in the absence of only formal rhyme scheme some rhyme can still be identified in the repetition of the word saw hand boy which are emphasized throughout this title of the poem is taken from mcbeth's liliquy out out brief candle in which he ponders the brevity and pointlessness of life and of course this is an act five of the play mcbeth now to begin with in lines one to six there's a very ominous tone that's created in the poem with a cacophonous sound of the buzz and it states that it snarled and rattled in the yard the use of personification serves to liken the saw to a dog or some creature possessed this line is in contrast to the next four lines which are more sensual with soft alliteration in quote made dust and dropped and the sibilant s sounds stove-length sticks more sonora still is a description of sweet-centered stuff when the breeze drew across it the inclusion of the view of the mountains in this poem beyond includes the beauty that begs to be noticed but the fact that it's almost sunset indicates how hard these farmers work in line seven to eighteen the poet reminds us that the buzz saw is still in action just time repeating snarled and rattled twice for emphasis the reader is almost lulled into a false sense of security that all will be fine with the line and nothing happened day was all but done frost hair employs a very conversational tone with the inclusion of the casual phrase call it a day and we sense this frustration that this accent could have been prevented as well as his empathy for the boy as frost clearly remembered the delight felt when offered a reprieve from work the bus saw is a character in this story made so by frost's use of personification it seems intent to do the boy harm when a sister goes to bring the boy for his supper we read that she stood beside them the fact that the poet uses this third person pronoun instead of him seems slightly odd the saw is given further human qualities in its seeming determination to draw blood and to hurt frost takes five lines to confirm that the boy does indeed lose his hand perhaps to show how time seems to move in slow motion in an accident the idea that the saw knew what supper meant could seem comical except clearly the repercussions aren't the verb leap again makes us think of a wild dog on the rampage and the speaker qualifies this with or seemed to leap from the poem which suggests that something nefarious and otherworldly is at work the boy's inability to pull away implies that there's something sacrificial in his offering and the full stop after the quote he must have given the hand again slows the pace down as though we're watching the scene unfold almost in terrified disbelief there's confusion about how it happened but at this point the speaker steps in again in almost conversational way to clarify the situation stating however it was neither refused the meeting by referring to this as a meeting it again is as though there was somehow drawn together as if predestined the short exclamatory sentence but the hand confirms the awfulness of the accident now in lines 19 to 34 the outcome has been established the aftermath follows frost appears to be master of pathos here as he states the boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh the strange reaction shows that he's clearly stupefied in shock and this is followed by the gruesome image of him holding up the hand half in a pill but half as if to keep his life from spilling this quote is a first indication that the boy may die as the word life has been used instead of blood the caesera pause after the word life slowed down the pace as though we look on aghast at the scene frost makes use of gentle illiterative h sounds and assonance in the soft a sounds in half and hand which again contributes a sense of time moving very slowly as the boy grasps the severity of the occurrence the repetition of the word boy and child emphasizes his youth and how it was unfair that he was expected to carry out a man's work it's worth noting that in this harsh environment one's worth may be judged by what one can contribute this to society by working thus if the boy loses his hand thus his inability to work he's now rendered useless by society and this is further suggested in the quote all spoiled the introduction of dialogue now changes the tempo of the poem and there's a palpable sense of separate desperation as the boy pleads don't let him cut my hand off don't let him sister again this quote highlights the brutality of the accident and illustrates the boy's terror and it's interesting that it's the sister who's mentioned not mother or father perhaps this indicates a closeness and solidarity since the older generations who force him to work the one word sentence so serves to allow us to process what we've already guessed that the hand has been severed this realisation seems hollow and impersonal and there's another shocking store perhaps the boy had a premonition that the doctor when he comes would only bring more grief for there seems something really anonymous in the literative line the doctor put him in the dark of ether frost uses pronunciation to good effect in this latter part of the poem the dashes build suspense as do the short sentences throughout the poem the speaker has suggested that the boy's parents are to blame for his untimely death and this seems to be confirmed in the abrupt ending it implies that the farmers and community don't have the luxury of time to stop and groove the loss of the child the must simply move on in one sense the speaker could be admiring the stoicism and commitment to their labour however given earlier statements in the poem it's more likely that he feels they're cold and indifferent the dominant feeling is one of sympathy for the lost boy now the next poem in this collection is red roses by and sexton now and sexton was an american poet from the 20th century whose love of writing stemmed from a therapeutic exercise that was advised to her as she struggled with mental illness specifically she wrestled with depression in her life as well as post partum syndrome which is essentially depression brought after a child birth and the former issue led her to commit suicide ultimately now the poem itself is a story of child abuse told by a narrator but with the vernacular that represents their emotions and thoughts of the child undergoing their abuse the word choice and imagery is so contrary it's a negative phrasing a reader might expect it in a story of a toddler being abused that the atmosphere of work feels like a juxtaposition this juxtaposition as it happens is one of the primary strengths of the work because it showcases a struggle of a child who loves his mother and wants to stay with her but needs to make the situation right enough in his own mind to keep going with that love little tommy the toddler wants to believe that things are well with his mother though he seems to know better on a deeper level and that concept is a driving force in the work to the point that sexton's poem is sincerely haunting but also very heartbreaking now in 9s 1 to 5 the reader might initially have a smile on their face when they begin reading about the interaction between tommy and his mother picturing the two of them with bright smiles and happiness as they dance across the room even the notion that this happens when he's bad can be written off by the human mind as a therapeutic exercise for this child perhaps the reader might think tommy was misbehaved and dancing helps him channel his frustration to work through his issues this concept however falls to pieces in the fifth line when sexton notes that tommy's mother quote throws him across the room with this edition of information what fault that could have been a happy moment from mother and son experience is now tainted to a level that contradicts the innocence of the wording that occurs in the lines the child might rationalize that this happens when he's bad like a sensible form of punishment and that it's just dancing but the adult reading this understands that these are mechanisms for covering abuse his mother is not happily dancing with her child to a heartwarming song she's playing out that song to drown out the noise that occurs in consequence of throwing tommy across the room in line six to fourteen we can see the child continuing his rationale to explain away his mother's behavior he there are two possible explanations for this concept in regards to the mother never having laid a hand on him either he believes that she legitimately has never hit him with a hand rather choosing other items to inflict the abuse or tommy is so absorbed in the delusion that he's created through his dancing explanation that he does not see the person hitting him as his mother as he believes she's never laid a hand on him this latter option gains merit when he labels himself and his mother as blue lady and tommy this choice of wording shows he's chosen to deal with the situation with language that's more connected to the tune that plays during the abuse red roses for a blue lady then words that actually represents the situation without alternate reality guiding him the blue lady could be the one hitting him not his mother this is also supported in the notion that while his mother supposedly never laid a hand on him a diamond was responsible for causing him harm like one might expect on a ring that the mother was wearing at the time of the hitting evidence suggests that a hit with a hand happened perhaps to tommy the blue lady was responsible tommy's childish tendencies to try and explain away this abuse continue through the rationalization and childish comparisons he doesn't get bruises or cuts for instance he gets roses in different places and they can have different methods of delivery and consequences it seems one rose was harsh enough on his head to threaten his consciousness since he was asleep as a river after he had been hit whilst others caused damage that resulted in wounds that are explained as childish things like licorice and a scarecrow now in lines 15 to 19 the reader is presented with his mother's coaching in regard to what he should tell other people about these roses her advice to him is just remember you fell and he repeats the information to the doctors in the big hospital including the nice lady to which he spoke the innocence of this wording is so effective in creating the sensation that the child is having these thoughts and the concept is enough to tear at reader's heartstrings young tommy endured his injuries and faced those workers from the big hospital but he didn't want to be sent away he went along with his mother's lies but the detail that he didn't share his dance theory with the workers indicates that he knew something wasn't right in the way his mother treated him essentially the reader must face the grim reality that tommy on some level knew he was deluding himself but he loved his mother so much that he held to that delusion anyway that she's a good person now in lines 20 to 30 these lines continue with the admittance that tommy refused to tell anyone the truth although he could talk fine which seems like an admission once more that tommy knows more than he's trying to make himself believe still he loves his mother so much so he continues to lie to himself this concept is stated again and again in the final lines since sexton pushes aside the notion of saying that they dance and rather shifts the concept to include vernacular that confesses tommy does indeed know better the poem states that he pretends and tries to treat it as a ball game but this isn't enough for us as readers to support that effort tommy still as the poet states squashes like fruit showcasing that his efforts to believe the best are doomed and just as doomed as a relationship he has with the blue lady who's his mother an interesting to note thing to note in the final line is that the red roses are referenced as things he gives her there are again two possible explanations for this the first would be that the blue lady is bruising herself while hitting tommy and he's taking credit for giving her these roses the other possibility is that time has passed and tommy has now become the abuser in this relationship given that the poem starts and begins in present tense but journeys into past tense during the middle lines it's difficult to say what the time frame is to fully support or discard the latter possibility moreover the likely option could be that the blue lady is being bruised during her abuse of tommy since no other information beyond the present tense and past tense verbs and the final two lines of the poem hint that tommy has grown past the toddler years that came with such abuse whatever the method was for the blue lady gaining those roses the haunting delivery of the tale of abuse is a clever method of exploring the scenario from the perspective of little tommy who's abused one without using tommy as a narrator sexton has managed to provide the reader with a vivid and innocent take on the matter that is befitting a child still even in his youth and innocence he reaches to make things sound all right in his mind however we also get the sense that tommy knows that something is not right now the next song in this collection is baby song by tom thom gun now tomson william gunne was born in 1929 and died in 2004 he was an anglo-american poet and his works were both critically acclaimed in england and america now when it comes to the poem itself gunne depicts the experiences emotions and thoughts of a baby who's been born recently the poem portrays a different perspective as well as seen through the baby's eyes thus the poem introduces the baby's perceptions and feelings in order to vividly portray a child's mind a few moments after being born gunne's poem consists of seven stanzas formed by rhyming couplets this structured and consistent rhyme scheme represents an innocent way of speaking related to lullabies and nursery rhymes hence the form of the poem constructs a constant and soft childlike rhythm which imitates cradle songs nevertheless baby's words and thoughts emphasize the child's uneasiness in the contrast with the soothing rhythm of the poem the poem baby song builds two main spaces that contain contrasting images on the one hand there's the room on the inside where the baby feels safe and protected however on the other there's a room on the outside where the child is uncomfortable and feels in danger constantly now on the first stanza the scene is set and the poem stone is also set the vocal voice starts by describing the child's primary state the poem quotes from the private ease of a mother's womb the room is described as secure uncomfortable and is the place where the baby feels at private ease nevertheless the first picture of comfort and safety is disturbed by the outside world the baby feels forced to go from the inside of the room to the outside world the poem states i fall into the lighted room almost echoing the fall of adam and eve into the real world this is described in a very unsettling passage where we get the harshness and violence of the world that the baby meets moreover these the verb fall can also be read religiously as the fall of mankind from paradise now in the second stanza there's a question that's presented which expresses the baby's thoughts the lyrical voice communicates a very simple message they want to be where they were before the poem states what don't they simply put me back this previous stage as it was mentioned the first stanza is a warm and secure place that's further described in the second stanza the womb is described as warm wet and black notice the litteration of this line and how the monosyllabic rhythm of the stanza portrays the security and the womb in a simple and direct way the baby doesn't understand why they're in such a place and they express its simple desires just go back to this happy euphoric place which can never be retrieved the third stanza depicts a realization that the baby has there's a powerful force in life that can't be controlled time doesn't stop and it only goes forward thus the baby becomes aware of all of this and they'd realize that this is inevitable they can't do anything to stop it there's a huge difference between the uneasiness the child feels towards inevitability and security of the mother's womb the lyrical voice constructs this important difference by stating things were different inside mother the fourth stanza describes what the baby felt before they were born the voice emphasizes the qualities of the womb by stating that padded and jolly i would ride the womb is just a comfortable place the lyrical voice also emphasizes what the baby is lost it states the perfect comfort of her inside the mother's womb was the most comfortable place and after birth it's impossible to go back notice how the tone of the poem intensifies through the stanzas in order to portray how hopeless the baby feels outside the mother's womb the fifth standard builds on this outside world and the voice mentions how they're tucked into a rustling bed a bed that's not comfortable and it's very different from the mother's womb the contrast between the womb and the outside world intensifies as the lyrical voice continues to depict the outside world with more dramatic impressions than the soft images that portray the womb moreover the lyrical voice says quote i like there raging small and red the baby is in their cradle and they're unable to do anything about the surroundings in prison situation notice the difference between the adjectives and the previous stanza in this one the outside is unsettling and really rough for the baby the sixth stanza explores the possibilities of the lyrical voice the child says i may sleep soon i may forget presenting the possibilities of the outside world in a very simple and longing tone the child establishes their regret of the previous comfortable and secure place they state but i won't forget that i regret this is accentuated in order to make an emphasis on the lesson of the inevitability that the child was learning in the seventh and final stanza there's a powerful image that summarizes the entire poem the lyrical voice talks of a rain of blood which poured around her womb this powerful and very vivid image portrays the comfort and security that the baby feels wrapped in the womb moreover it provides a sustaining bond between the mother and the child generating strong emotional attachment that child has towards the womb however this image is contrasted in the second line as the poem states all time roars outside this room the image of the rain in the previous line is substantially different to that of roars which are painful and unpredictable this quote implies the future events that will happen in the child's life creating an unsettling connotation notice the rhyme of these two stanzas how the inside womb plays methodically with the outside room this outlines perfectly the distinction that the poem constructs between inside and outside furthermore this final stanza is an emotional climax as the baby is now aware that their control over things has been taken away the next poem in this anthology is your by sylvia plath now plath was a 20th century american poet whose works often mirror the sadness that she felt in her own life in fact one of the most notable aspects of her poetry is linked to the forlorn concept that plagued her life and this quality is reflected in the struggle of the mother in mourning song experiences while progressing into a more maternal frame of mind through her life plath wrestled with depression and eventually she committed suicide when she was only 30 years old now in the poem your there are two stanzas which we find that the poet abandons a definite rhyme scheme to fully embrace the uncertainty of the topic the poem is addressing and it involves the varying emotions of a woman awaiting the birth of her child though the layers of description in the work can feel vague enough to apply a number of scenarios small pieces of evidence throughout the lines provide confirmation that the imagery portrayed is intended to describe the state of a child who's yet to see the world and the emotions of the expectant parent once that notion is solidly in mind the joy anticipation and love that plath is expressing for this unborn child is almost tangible through her use of happy visuals and words essentially yore is an ode to that unborn child now in the first answer the words chosen to begin this stanza speak of light-heartedness and playfulness which can be associated with children since plath labels this child as clown-like while some might argue that a clown is a negative concept for comparison the definition of a clown is technically someone who dresses up and performs in elaborate ways to entertain others this is a concept that's easily connected to children as the mannerisms often stand out to provide those watching them with a laugh or a smile at their antics for plath this quality extends to pregnancy where the child has the same carefree quality of overlooking the possibility of ridicule which is clown-like an unborn child is concerned with his or her own entertainment and comfort as is notable through moments when they change postures to fall into unusual positions like on their hands with their feet to the stars and the lack of concern regarding that ridicule is what brings this clown-like quality to the scenario a child's tunnel focus on their own interests can be so innocent and unique that it sparks laughter and smiles amongst those who are watching now in this stanza too there's this tactic of calling on jovial objects for comparison which is extended further into the stanza when plath brings up a dodo using the term dodo in this way accomplishes two things first it links the pregnancy an unborn child to a noun that has a connotation of something that's nonsensical and whimsical as if commenting that the growing child is bringing plath amusement but just existing the second thing the dodo mention accomplishes is to compare the life of the unborn child to a species that's gone extinct by humans continuing to be born a thumbs down is giving to the dodo's mode meaning humanity is continuing rather than becoming extinct like the dodo this concept is concrete evidence that plath is in fact referring to an unborn child since only a continuation of humanity could contradict extinction in this manner additional evidence of this poem's mother child theme follows in the next line when it's stated that the person being addressed is the poem states wrapped up in lack of spore this is because this imagery is parallel to a child in the fetal position inside the womb beyond this physicality this notion builds on the idea that the child is amusingly only concerned with their own comfort plath finishes this stanza by noting that the person being addressed is mute and as an unborn child would be but possibly the greatest piece of evidence to support the idea that plath is referring to an unborn child is in the time frame she gives for this muteness specifically as the poem states from the 4th of july to all aprils falls day this time frame is about nine months which is a number linked to a standard pregnancy using that number of months to depict the time before the addressed person can speak connects it more strongly to pregnancy than possibly any other word or phrase in the poem since only after that pregnancy is over in nine months will the child be able to move on from being mute with this evidence scattered throughout the lines plath ends this stanza with a term of endearment for the child that is so full of soft syllables and the same joviality quality brought on by the clown in the dodo that reinforces the affection plath is expressing by lovingly declaring the unborn child as her little oaf she's again stressing the happiness that a child brings to her by being so carefree and entertaining now in the second stanza the poet shifts their attention from what the child is doing to her own reactions in regards to the pregnancy and these concepts are so common that an expectant parent reading this poem can relate very strongly to these varying emotions this curiosity since what the child will be is vagus fog as the poem states this similarly is an interesting choice because the term fog blurs and hinders perception but it doesn't necessarily remove every bit of detail for the person trying to view through it general shapes for instance might be distinguishable through the fog just as a waiting parent understands certain concepts of the child before the birth with modern technology images might be taken might have already been provided to parents and things like gender and heartbeat could have already been detected still various unknowns loom over the child and will continue to do so until the baby has been born to lift the fog things like the eye color and the sound of their laugh given the unsure details it's no wonder that the expo what expectant parents would look for in the childlike male that one day it will be delivered which brings the concept of anticipation into the discussion however like the male the baby won't be rushed from their delivery moment and all those waiting on the arrival can only wait in contrast however the child is unaffected by this concept as they are snug at home as things are and this concept these quotes supports the idea that the baby is only concerned with their own welfare the baby doesn't matter whether the parents are eager they don't care whether the parents are anticipating indeed until the time is right the child will continue in their home inside the mother's womb without a care of how it impacts their mother in place within this stanza are notions of curiosity anticipation and amusement but also love is showcased through plot labeling this child as a well done sum a perfect blend of their heritage and a clean slate with their own face on there's so much possibility in new life in Plath is clearly looking forward to seeing what her own child will become from the poems quote your then the reader can experience elements of joy curiosity and anticipation that the expectant mother feels and there's a playful use of ideas and words which build the concept of happiness no matter the uncertainty and discomfort there's still such love prevalent in the scenario that the mother scarcely grudges any of the uneasy moments instead she loves and she waits through her pregnancy now the next poem in this collection is called nap lake by jillian clark now clark was born in cardiff and she still lives in wells her work has been on the gcc and a level syllabus for over 30 years and she performs a poetry regularly for student audiences at poetry live in several european cities she's also written radio and theatre drama and translated poetry and prose from welsh now when it comes to this poem although clark published cold nap lake during her post-1970s poetry career the events described therein based on a two story occurred when she was a very young girl the poem describes an event that took place during clark's childhood described years later to the best of her recollection it seems likely then that clark is the narrator of the poem reflecting on the nature of her own memory by placing herself in the narrative the accuracy of the story can only be based on clark's own memories and by admission of the poem itself are only so reliable cold nap is a pebble beach on south wells and is the most likely royal life setting for the story this poem captures the essence of a memory and nothing more just its essence it's formed with the edges blurred its finer details hidden and it's a powerful poem that beautifully captures the atmospheric tones of memory from long ago now the first stands of the poem begins by immediately bringing on a very intense atmosphere there's no rhyme in barely any structure in this first verse there's only simple facts once the speaker along several others like family and friends or neighbors watched as a drowned child was wrought out from the lake she's described as blue-lipped which is a symptom of hypothermia and dressed in the poem states water's long green silk suggesting she's covered by seaweed or perhaps drenched so thoroughly it's impossible to tell or remember as this poem was written in past tense what the girl was wearing the atmospheric value of this first verse structure can't be understated and the pulling of a dead child out of the surface of the lake is truly a dark image and it's only augmented by the simplicity of the telling the poet states once watched almost casually though there's nothing casual about this topic it continues she lay for dead without any further description and it's easy to imagine a dark cloudy bad day the panic of the crowd upon discovering this dead girl in the second stanza there's a heroine who appears to attempt to save the life of this drowned girl and the atmosphere however remains very grim by describing the woman the speaker's mother as having her head bowed or by wearing a wartime cotton frock this reminds the reader that this story is a telling of what is not a very good memory even the crowd is remembered as being silent noting the utter horror of the moment once again the details given a vague the narrator just records the emotions present far more than the actual details that the girl was dressed by the sea in the first verse now followed by the war-torn appearance of the speaker's mother in this one and the sense of dread that hangs over the crowd the mother's attempt at resuscitation is successful and the child wakes up gasping however this can hardly be considered lived in the atmosphere as the speaker remembers her father took the girl home and once she got there she was beaten for the event we don't know why the girl was beaten perhaps she was being punished for something dangerous perhaps she was considered an asset to the family or maybe they couldn't bear the thought of losing her and were desperate to instill a fear of disobedience in her whatever the case the impression left on the narrator are clearly significant the verses recited with the same grim factual tone as the rest of the poem a child's rescued from drowning and subsequently beaten by her own relatives and it seems a rescue has only been a different path for a different pain now in the fourth stanza the narrator asks was i there the story is over but there's been very little in the way of a story there've just been three events a drowned girl a resuscitation and a beating and there've been very little in the recollection beyond this return to the imagery of this poem the narrator wonders about the nature of memory the troubled surface of the lake is used as a metaphor for memory beneath the surface lies what can't be seen or remembered ripples caused by sparsing swans and budding plants shadows caused by nearby willow trees or obscure the image of what lies beneath the lake where a young girl nearly died by drowning yet the speaker feels removed from the events as though they know the story but can't properly recall being there the story is an impression and image in a darkened lake blurred by shadow and ripple in all manner of obstruction the same way the girl must have been covered in the silky green of the lake she was found in in the fifth stanza there's a haunting metaphor for memory and it's interesting choice to relate the memory metaphor to the events being remembered for the narrator the story is as dark in its literal recollection as its dark atmosphere so it makes sense that the atmosphere is the most prominent aspect of the poem as its what stood out in a memory for so long that impart impression of a dark day a dark lake and a very dark event the one that stays with a person long after the forgotten the actual minute details of the day this is reflected in the final verse of the poem which states all lost things lie under closing water in that lake with a poor man's daughter now the next poem in this collection is my first weeks by Sharon Olds now Sharon Olds is a contemporary poet who was born in 1942 in San Francisco and her first book of poems Satan Sticks says was published in 1980 her poetry is known for its intense emotion and personal depictions especially when it comes to family life and global events now when it comes to the poem itself my first weeks is a free verse poem and it's written in one solid block of text without breaks for stanzas and it's 37 lines long the lines do vary in length but they're not less than four and don't exceed 12 words long the poem is written in first person by an narrator who recounts the first weeks of life before they were born and also right after the backbone of this poem is a number of images described so well they become very visually engaging and they capture the universality of the human experience so let's begin with lines one to eight so the first two and a half lines of this poem reintroduce the memories that the first person narrator is going to be relaying the speaker when she wonders about the meaning of her life thinks about her first two weeks when she was still in the womb and drenched only with happiness life starts simply but becomes more complicated as the poem describes the next six lines describe her birth and this gives a reader perspective on this important event that's very uncommon for the child from the child being born the speaker describes how the wall that held her in the womb opened like liquid just as is in the most common in births her head slides through first followed by her legs she describes herself as taking action as well she's not just being buried along but she's being pushed off she's able to control herself minimally and it's at this point she's pushed out into the cold certainly from a change from being within the warmth of the womb now in lines eight to 14 doctors and nurses handle her and she's wrapped up and washed she falls asleep and then is passed on to her mother her first real memory of the world is her mother's breast pressed against her the speaker and by default the poet themselves are giving a very vivid description of something that's normally considered extremely personal indeed for many the act of breastfeeding is something of a taboo that's not to be practiced in public here though it's being relayed by someone who's not old enough to realize this or be embarrassed about this action the speaker describes how the breast feels against her it's hard and full as the poem describes it she feeds and then sleeps and the next line shows the pattern of this child's life a simple and one beginning to life is described and something that anyone reading this piece wouldn't be would be able to understand the desire for the reader now gets more details about what her day-to-day life is going to consist of in her first two weeks she describes how every day her mother holds her waves her hand for her to her big sister on the streets and it's up to the child's mother to help create her relationships in her life in lines 14 to 23 the speaker's memories of her first two weeks continue to increase and we get even more vivid descriptions she can remember seeing her sister walking down the street and waving back at her and whilst it's implausible the speaker could remember all of these events the reader doesn't question this moment other than this distinctive memory the child's life appears to be very simple and every day she does the same things sleeping and nursing in lines 24 to 31 after the two weeks are up in the hospital she's taken home where a nurse and her mother take care of her she gets water from the nurse every four hours which she shrieks for they leave her in the meantime allow her to cry until she stops on her own this is the speaker states as an attempt to build up her character while it makes her life harder and more difficult it's for the best and she seems to understand that she doesn't stop crying and to give up in lines 31 to 37 these lines make up the conclusion of the poem and they give an even broader take on the life of this child she describes the life as glorious and lays her legs and arms out and feels the happiness of being this age without any requirements placed upon her it's this emotional memory that the speaker is going to be pulling from from the rest of her life even when the speaker is older the age she's now and even further in the future she can draw happiness and peace from remembering what her life used to be like she remember when she had unlimited milk every four hours her life was kept so solely by cream and flame or the heat of the closeness with the mother this is what the speaker refers to as heaven it's a paradox you'll never forget and can always mentally return to now the next poem is venus's fly traps by yusef komunyaka now yusef komunyaka was born in 1947 in the quiet mill town of bogalusa louisiana he's the son of a carpenter and he was raised in a house of few books at the beginning of the civil rights movement in the us his grandparents were church people and he said in an interview that the old testament informed the cadences of this speech it was my first introductory to poetry during his youth he read the bible all the way through twice and he also borrowed james boldwin's nobody knows my name and this influenced his writing however in other respects the town that he grew up in in louisiana offered him very limited opportunity so in 1969 he joined the army and he was sent to vietnam where he became a combat reporter and managing editor and he was later rewarded for his work now when it comes to the poem itself this poem is a 60 line semi-autobiographical poem and it focuses on the poet's youth and upbringing the poem speaks on the adventures and tragedies of childhood as well as the influence of one's heritage the poem doesn't conform to a specific pattern of rhyme but it's kept the text unified through the similarities of line lengths and the alternating patterns of indention while making one's way through this poem one should take note of the fact that the entire narrative is told from the perspective of a five-year-old the questions come from the probing mind of a child and reflect the curiosity of the age finally there's a title of the poem to consider the poet has selected this title so that it may exist as many lines of the poem do with the dual meaning the words refer both to the meat eating plant and the goddess of love venus the combination leads one to an image of violent or at least dangerous love now to begin with in lines one to seven the speaker states that he is five at the time of this narration everything will be described from the perspective of a young but intelligent child the speaker remembers how when he was young he used to wade into the deep and sunny grass this was a time in his life when he didn't consider the consequences of his actions he didn't fear the snakes nor did he worry about the yellow jackets which lived amongst the yellow flowers this whole scene that the speaker relays is one of pastoral peace and happiness it's a pure and innocent childhood memory now in lines eight to sixteen we dive deeper into the adventures of the child the boy sees himself as being courageous and powerful he states as a poem states that no one is messing with him because he has his lone ranger six shooter the boy carries around a gun suited to his age and pretends that the world is at his command he plays mate believe is all children too and the land all around him becomes a land on his own he speaks of the tall flowers which as a poem states eat all the people except the ones a lot these flowers like the ones he sees in the field are vital to his imagination in line 17 to 24 the speaker continues to describe the flowers from the field they take a whole other meaning in relation to the speaker's life not only are they tall and in a position of power they also have women's names as a poem states they also take the personas of women in the poet's own life and have as a poem states mouths where babies come from this entertaining and strange phrase makes one wonder in what way the young speaker means this and what understanding he really has of what he's saying i.e. the process of making the baby in given birth after this phrase the speaker turns to his listener and says he's willing to dance for you if you close your eyes this is the first time he's acknowledged having a listener since the first lines in which he introduced himself the speaker is once more playing a game making sure the reader knows how interesting and entertaining he is the child is wracked with a number boy's self-consciousness though and asks the listener to keep the ears the eyes closed in line 75 to 33 the speaker recalls a time when he saw what a train did to a cow this is the moment that stands out in his memory as a reader doesn't know exactly when or where but while standing close to the tracks the reader gets the understanding that the narrator saw a train hit a cow this would be part of the reason he's no longer allowed near trains and the memory could be something which continues to bother him the trains are also described as having men hiding in box cars these are likely vagrants attempting to move from one location to another they see the boy and holler at him to get back even they who have no reason to think about this child see he's in danger where he is the train tracks are a central part of the community they're also an area of clear danger which runs through the community in an effort to lighten the mood but stay on the topic of the train the speaker mentions how entertaining it's here it is to hear how the trains make the dogs how the sound is said to hurt the ears and the speaker finds this amusing in lines 34 to 41 the speaker moves away from the train to describe a higher and more peaceful scene even though these two things are true there are still bees in the landscape the contrast which exists in the title of this piece is utilised again this time the speaker says he knows how bees can't live without flowers a beautiful thing can't exist without something a little dangerous to care for it this thought leads the speaker to another regarding his parents he associates the honey the bees make with the fact that his father calls his mother honey his thoughts then travel to the idea that all bees except the ones in these flowers are living in little white houses and this is a representative of his ideal life now in lines 42 to 49 the poem begins to conclude and the speaker's thoughts become somewhat deeper he muses on what it would be like to taste death the speaker's tried in the past to overcome it by tossing butterflies back into the air that have died the next lines are darker and they hint at the childhood the speaker is living and the fact that not everything sets it should be he has a music in his head perhaps a reference to the circular thoughts that make him scared the speaker knows his heard things is not supposed to know and shouldn't have been told at such a young age in lines 50 to 60 the speaker in his childish ways describes his desire to escape from his world he sees the flowers as a place of peace away from his home and believes if he could never stop walking the flowers would go on forever they would lead him to as the poem states almost a Detroit or most of the sea the following lines reference one of the things the speakers overheard his mother once said he was a mistake and that he had made her a bad girl these things have been overheard and interpreted from his playhouse underneath our house it's a place below his family world he can escape to and he's still a part of his home but nothing can touch him now the next poem in this collection is Love by Kate Clancy now she was born in Glasgow in 1965 and this poem is featured in her anthology Newborn now in terms of the poem it's set out in five stanzas of five lines each and the poet makes use of andromeda repetition and succeeds in capturing the strangeness and wonder of her first confusing few weeks with a new baby now in the first stanza the first stent sentence is short and straight to the point it states I hadn't met this kind before this sentence grasps the otherworldly quality of a newborn child and the mother's complex reaction to this child by including the dashes in the second and third lines it suggests to the speaker is staring at the new son and taking in the son's appearance with stunned amazement the poet herself recognizes the oddness of her choice of word misericord to describe her baby's face but when we imagine the squashed and complete look of a new baby her choice of word seemed quite apt she notes the peculiarity of seeing the features of an adult and printed on someone so small her observation that these are as the poet states blurred as if from here's a polish shows that though a little indistinct the resemblance to his father is clear even if it does seem like a joke the simile of hands like cold dry leaves is effective in achieving the look of the paper-thin skin on the tiny cold fingers now in the second stanza the energy ensures sense of life pulsing within the child is conveyed now anyone with a new baby would appreciate the warmth they emanate and the the poet describes this as profligate heat a new baby bears many similarities to a hot bottle although it's decidedly noisier the rhythm of this baby's breathing is effectively captured in the repetition of gave out gave out the use of these one syllable words suggesting his shallow careful breaths the poet hints at the terror that new mothers feel staring at the baby's inferring that every breath will be their last her use of metaphor she compares his head to a light bulb is sharp and perspective perceptive when imagined that newborn we picture the almost translucent skin and the blue veins pulsing at the baby's temples as they gently throb we can visualize exactly what the poet means when she states in the quote i thought his filaments would blow now in third stanza we find that new babies are something at which to marvel and there's an image of him as a poem states an emperor drying on silk cushions in which we sense novice parents can surely identify by mentioning silk which is a luxurious material we get the sense that while the mother wants to give the child nothing but the best she's struggling to address all his needs as he lies imperious and oblivious she feels inadequate to do basic things such as keeping him wrapped in bed by using the rather archaic phrase to give him sark the poet conjures up the image of women nursing the babies as they've done for centuries yet this particular mother feels in the dark she's confounded as to how to look after her baby and wonders whether she'll be able to meet the needs of her new role as a mother in the fourth stanza they're rich descriptions and we get a sense of the intimate relationship that's going between mother and child the language takes on a dream equality bringing the at the end of the stanza three when the speaker states at night i try to remember before making the series of comparisons the imagery is predominantly tactile we can almost feel the warmth of the child's head as he nozzles her neck the simile is employed to describe the baby's head perfectly conveys delicacy and the soft spot is hot as melted coin as the poem states and this is an accurate way of depicting the indentation at the very top of a baby's head where the bones have not yet closed over there's a soft rush of sibilants and the combination of this with the assonance of the compact o sound seem to convey the mother's growing excitement and fascination with her son in the fifth stanza there's a cyclical aspect to the poem as the speaker refers to the baby again here possessing a mythical sort of quality the speaker considers the soft down of his skin while she likens him to a rare snow creature and she's fascinated by him almost daring not to believe that such a beast is hers the repetition of if you could shows the speaker daring to dream inch and closer to forge this relationship in the concluded three word sentence i started there is full of gentle triumph and it starts out starkly after the long description although everything seems strange and new there's a tangible sense of wonder as both baby and mother embark on this journey together now the next poem in this collection is father by owens shares now owens shares was won in 1974 in fiji but raids in south weles he's been included in the top 30 young british writers after the first publication of his book of poetry called the blue book and he's won several awards including the walsh book of the year award and the gregrie award now when it comes to the poem itself father is a free verse poem written in the form of a single stanza the lines vary greatly in length and syllable count and there's no distinctive pattern in rhythm the poem begins by giving the reader an exact time of the year and physical setting the action in this piece takes place on the day after boxing day this will be the 27th of december two days after christmas and one day after the british brand holiday boxing day the speaker speculates on what to call this particular day of the year a day that comes after a day that's after the largest christian holiday of the year yet he decides he doesn't know what to call it the displacement of the action on a day that's almost significant but isn't at all speaks about the relationship between the father and the son that's explored they are attempted to become closer through this december excursion but they've just missed their chance at experiencing what's important as christmas has already passed it's on this day that the speaker feels that his father decides to climb the scurrid again they have done this walk in the pass and are recreating it in an attempt to reconnect scurrid hill comes from the walsh for ye skid far which means shattered mountain and it implies the detail about the father and son relationship this phrase can also mean separated as these two clearly are as the poem states for the walk they have chosen the long way around through the wood simplified by snow father and son have not chosen the easy path and nothing seems straightforward they have a long way to go just as their relationship does and the only simple part is the snow that makes the ground a single color the spaces between the stones on the floor are filled with moss and while this way makes it seem like a steady wall the moss seems to just be a place holder this could be a reference to how they've managed to patch up the relationship in the past the father and son reach a resting point on the mountain thus described as being a cleft of earth that was split into two by the grief of a father whose son is becoming a man this gives the impression that the reason the two have drifted apart is because the sun is growing up they rest for a moment perhaps contemplating why this fact of life has split them and they watch the dog disappear over the hill and to the distance continuing along this path as they follow it nothing seems to have been resolved as both father and son progress the hill becomes steeper their more treacherous territory the ground is unsteady and rocks slip under their feet the speaker gives the impression that they're being observed as the poem states and the broken stone giving under our feet a crowd size the crowd is reacting to the near accident the snow halfway up the mountain as the son expects to observe his father whose head appears the same as the color of the rocks and the son is able to relate the feeling of his father's breath the speaker and father are growing apart because of the changes that come with age it's then becoming more similar and the both grown men now the dog comes back to them without having caught anything another non-resolution that seems to bring them closer together and the climb the top of the mountain together and see there as the poem states country unrolled before them they can see the edge of worlds and the frills breaking at the coast dropping off into water and they're able to see how small the world is how close they are to the edge atop this mountain and even though they've climbed it before it's still a shock the speaker then sets up his camera and joins his father for a picture the moment they that the two are attempting to share is captured however he needs evidence and proof that they're there and they did everything they could to fix a relationship and this is captured of course through the camera the poem states that they are together against the view and here the speaker is attempting to find some way to grasp the idea that the two of them have taken a step closer this isn't a happy ending however they haven't resolved anything on the journey except perhaps made the problems a little clearer while the sun is hoping that they become closer there's no handhold to show that this has truly happened so that's all if you enjoy this video do subscribe to our channel and give this video a thumbs up but also make sure you visit our website which is www.firstreetteachers.com there you can find useful revision guides model answers written at an A grade level and exam papers that you can use to practice and improve your skills in English literature thank you so much for listening