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Anthology Part 3: childhood and memory
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Three anthology poems look at childhood: its strange sense of time, its games, and how it lives on in memory.
Piano (D H Lawrence)
"Softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me; / Taking me back down the vista of years, till I see / A child sitting under the piano, in the boom of the tingling strings".
The speaker is pulled back to memories of his mother and, against his will, is overcome: "I weep like a child for the past."
Rhyming couplets and long lines create a flowing, musical feel.
The speaker is pulled back to memories of his mother and, against his will, is overcome: "I weep like a child for the past."
Rhyming couplets and long lines create a flowing, musical feel.
Half-past Two (U A Fanthorpe)
A young boy is kept in after school as a punishment, and the teacher forgets him. The poem uses capital letters for the grand-sounding phrases adults use.
The boy cannot yet tell the time, so he drifts into a timeless world of his own until the teacher remembers and lets him go.
The poem shows how children experience time and adult rules differently.
The boy cannot yet tell the time, so he drifts into a timeless world of his own until the teacher remembers and lets him go.
The poem shows how children experience time and adult rules differently.
Hide and Seek (Vernon Scannell)
A child hides in a shed during a game of hide and seek. The poem uses the second person ("you"), placing the reader in the child's position.
He waits, excited, but the others have given up and gone home. When he comes out, the garden is dark and empty.
The ending can be read as a lesson about growing up and being left alone.
He waits, excited, but the others have given up and gone home. When he comes out, the garden is dark and empty.
The ending can be read as a lesson about growing up and being left alone.
Compare how memory is presented in Piano and Half-past Two.
- Piano shows an adult overwhelmed by a memory of childhood with his mother.
- Half-past Two shows a child's experience of time from the inside, with the adult rules presented as strange.
- Lawrence presents memory as powerful and emotional; Fanthorpe uses humour and a child's view.
Answer: Lawrence shows an adult swept back into emotional memory, while Fanthorpe recreates a child's puzzled sense of time with gentle humour.
Piano: adult overwhelmed by memories of his mother, couplets. Half-past Two: a child kept in, lost in timelessness, capitals for adult phrases. Hide and Seek: second person, excitement turns to abandonment.
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