ipl-logo

Hide And Seek Poem

1936 Words8 Pages

Turning points and transitional moments are key moments in many people’s lives, and as such are the focus of many texts exploring childhood experiences. Both Scannell’s ‘Hide and Seek’ and Fanthorpe’s ‘Half-past Two’ explore a turning point in a child’s life which occurs during early childhood. Each poem features the antithetical juxtaposition of a childlike and more adult perspective, and a shift in the balance of power between these perspectives is catalysed by a climactic moment of epiphany. However, while both poems express the importance of these experiences their moods differ drastically. In ‘Hide and Seek’ Scannell seeks to show the harsher side of childhood, examining the cruelty that children inflict and endure, breaks the illusion …show more content…

The fact that the poet has chosen to write a continuous text without stanza breaks suggests the rapidity of the transition between childhood naivety and the bitter adult knowledge. In addition, the poem also employs the use of repeated rhyming couplets at equidistant intervals is a means to express his regular expectations, and as a child he is ignorant of the hardships of the world. The disruption of this regulated rhyming couplets at the turning point in the poem is mimetic of the disruption of the central character’s trust in the reliability of his friends. Furthermore, the frequent use of enjambment in ‘Hide and Seek’ is a very effective as it speeds up the implied transition process from naive childhood to knowledgeable adulthood. For instance, the fact that ‘they’ll try the lane’ isn't end-stopped and is rather an example of enjambment, gives us a sense of excitement, which contrasts with the up coming revelation therefore making it seem very bitter at a second glance. Additionally, caesura is best used in order to create short abrupt sentences as seen when the boy is ordered by what we presume to be the matured boy looking back, creating a dual narrative, ‘Don’t breathe. Don’t move’ and so on. Short sentences are used to build up tension. ‘Don’t breathe.

Show More
Related
1274 Words | 6 Pages

The essence of great poetry lies with the author’s ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Most poets use universal themes to connect their audience through emotion and experience, making the written theme relatable. But it is only when combined with the use of carefully placed literary techniques that this connection is enhanced and the work transforms from simple words on paper to an art form. Gwen Harwood uses a number of her poems to connect us with the universal journey from childhood innocence to experience and adulthood. Harwood also weaves the idea of memory into her writing, as a way to trigger emotion through a connection to the past, a connection to feelings that transcend through time.

Read More
214 Words | 1 Pages

It is wholly recurrent to blindly skim through a detailed piece of literature and be unconscious to the likeness it shares with other pieces of literature. I am surely guilty of this ignorant practice, however. As I was reading “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde and “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, I didn’t truly perceive the connection right away. The obvious was already divulged in my mind; they’re both in the points of views of children. They, however, both have a mutual theme; growing up brings uncertainty and disappointment.

Read More
168 Words | 1 Pages

The formulistic construction and simplistic language echo a child’s understanding of the world, enhanced by the synecdoche “beak and claw”. Harwood’s repeated references to literal and figurative blindness through “daylight riddled eyes”, are metaphoric of the child’s ignorance. The child belief of “death clean and final not this obscene” is left reeling, highlighted through alliteration and grotesque imagery “stuff that dropped and dribbled through loose straw tangling in bowels”.

Read More
100 Words | 1 Pages

The appeal of adulthood and independence reaches its apex in fervent children. However, Maria Mazziotti Gillan, poet of My Daughter at 14, Christmas Dance, 1981, conveys the paternal perspective of viewing one’s own kin experiencing the “real” world through her daughter’s first relationship. The Family of Little Feet, written by Sarah Cisneros, illuminates the negativities of young girl’s eagerness to physically develop in hope of acquiring attention from possible suitors. While both pieces of literature possess varying perspectives of epiphanies, Gillan and Cisneros divulge the significance of cherishing one’s youth, as the realities of maturity divest children of their innocence.

Read More
669 Words | 3 Pages

Exhibited across all three works of literature, children’s identities are often shaped based off of their parents’ level of care and commitment, and the community that surrounds them—whether it be good or

Read More
1015 Words | 5 Pages

The piece revolves around the subject of motherhood, portraying a women who feels smothered and consumed by her children. Poetic devices were used by Harwood to emphasise the affect that change had on the woman and her life progression, whilst illustrating the negative response which became evident as a result. In the poem, whilst taking her children to the park, the woman encounters an ex-lover, briefly discussing their life progression and stating to herself after his departure, that her children 'have eaten [her] alive’. Harwood’s use of this metaphor and hyperbole, shows the affect of the change her choices created, and its impact. The use of symbolism, to a large extent, also portrays the woman’s feelings derived from her sense of imprisonment.

Read More
1788 Words | 8 Pages

The “c”, “b”, “d”, and “t” sounds create a sharp diction that provides attention to the chaos that the author provides. In making a cartoon setting harsh, the roughness expands to the entire cartoon, which often represents childhood. Describing the children as “Ten-year-olds” puts emphasis on how young they are and how they shouldn’t be exposed to the harsh environment around them. Events such as “burning houses” and “car wrecks”, often have irreversible damage, which can relate to the irreversible damage of losing innocence. Cacophony ruining childhood innocence is present in both poems as Flynn uses the literary device to represent destruction of childhood innocence while Webb uses it to enhance the idea of death.

Read More
627 Words | 3 Pages

Everyone in life has their own unique hobbies they enjoy, and life is so big at times that it’s hard to put it all into words, so we use symbols to represent the major things that describe who we are. In Edgar Allen Poe’s story called “The Masque of the Red Death”, we see symbols representing ideas and concepts like the ‘’Red Death’’ symbolizing the plague. Everyone has their own symbols, and they can represent many characteristics of their lives, and I have my own symbols that sum me up very well in my opinion. The symbol on the forehead of my mask is a football which represents the sport I love the most and have been playing for as long as I can remember.

Read More
98 Words | 1 Pages

Great Advancements and Discoveries During the Age of Exploration Why explore? Expeditions across the world were very long and expensive. Europeans risked dangerous ocean voyages to discover new sea routes. Many sailors died on the way and some ships never returned. Nonetheless, countries longed to be in the lead for power and control.

Read More
718 Words | 3 Pages

Through the Eyes of a Child There is a loss of innocence when a young child is exposed to societal truths. That being said, it is not uncommon for a child to feel a need for change in themselves when they are made aware of the flaws of the world as well as their own. This loss of innocence is found in the following short stories through a specific literary device. Although a wide array of elements is used in a work of literature, denotation is an assertive approach that puts more emphasis on the meaning.

Read More
500 Words | 2 Pages

Also it is depicted how the father is cruel and at the same time gentle. Booby Fang , a literary analyst, showed how this poem can have mixed feelings of interpretation. He mentions how the poem is like a seesaw where the elements of joy, which Fang notes as the figure of the waltz and the rhythm it has, balances with elements of fear which he mentions happens through the effects of diction used in the novel such as the words like romped, scraped, beat, and whiskey. The narrator in the poem is remembering an incident in his childhood which shows that thet there were qualities in his father that were good and bad. He mentions that the achievement of this poem is that it permits readers to access such powerful memories in their own lives in ways consistent with the words and construction of the

Read More
470 Words | 2 Pages

That violent, crazy act was the last act of childhood” (Collier, Pg.4). Most of the time there is a moment in life where one realizes they have lost all innocence and gained some compassion. “Marigolds” shows how one young girl transferred from a child to young adult through her life experiences. Introduce quote (give background information). "She never left her yard and nobody ever visited her.

Read More
524 Words | 3 Pages

Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.

Read More
869 Words | 4 Pages

An example of an enjambment from the text is, “There is/ no way to know how easy this/ white skin makes my life, this / life…” (Olds 26-29). The enjambments, although simple, give the poem a much more powerful meaning, by showing the harshness of the reality for blacks during this time period. They seem to reflect the thoughts and emotions of the poem and the author. It shows that she feels somewhat guilty, because of what she has in life because of her skin color, as opposed to what the boy has because of his skin color.

Read More
1811 Words | 8 Pages

With the novel being read from a ‘twelve’ year old whose history motivates his understanding, perception and interpretation of the events he encounters and interprets to the reader,

Read More

More about Hide And Seek Poem

Related Topics

Open Document