Hide And Seek Poem

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

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.