Where does the child hide?

Behind the sacks in a tool shed

What is the effect of the second person ("you") in Hide and Seek?

It places the reader inside the child's position

Why are there so many short commands in the poem?

They show the child's excitement and his instructions to himself

Hide and Seek by Vernon Scannell: context, form and key methods

A child hides in a tool shed, sure of winning, but when he comes out the others have gone home. This poem is in copyright, so it is described mainly in our own words.

International GCSE · 4ET1 · Paper 1 Section B: Anthology Poetry
About 18 minutes

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Context and themes

Vernon Scannell (1922 to 2007) was an English poet who served as a soldier in the Second World War.
Themes: childhood games; excitement turning to isolation; growing up; being forgotten or abandoned; the gap between what we expect and what happens.

Form and structure

One unbroken stanza, which feels like a single, tense stretch of waiting.
Written in the second person ("you") and the present tense, so the reader is placed inside the child's head.
It is mostly unrhymed, with occasional rhyming couplets. Many lines are imperatives the child gives himself (keep still, do not sneeze, do not come out yet).
The structure moves from excitement, through the long wait, to the moment he comes out and finds no one there.

Language and key methods

Sensory imagery: the sacks in the shed smell of the sea, the floor is cold, the damp creeps into his throat. The longer he waits, the more uncomfortable it becomes.
Short sentences and imperatives create tension and show the child's excitement.
Dramatic irony: he thinks the seekers are baffled by how clever he is, but the reader begins to suspect they have given up.
Personification and pathetic fallacy: at the end the garden is darkening and silent; "The bushes hold their breath".
Rhetorical question: the final line asks "where are they who sought you?", leaving the child, and the reader, alone.

Compare with: Half-past Two and Prayer Before Birth

Half-past Two (Fanthorpe): both show a child alone and forgotten while waiting. Fanthorpe's boy finds wonder in it; Scannell's triumph turns to loneliness.
Prayer Before Birth (MacNeice): both present a vulnerable young person facing a frightening world. Scannell's child discovers isolation; MacNeice's unborn child fears cruelty before it is even born.

Exam tips

Paper 1 Section B gives you a choice of two questions. One question usually names both poems; the other names one poem and asks you to choose a second from the anthology (30 marks: AO2 15 for language, form and structure; AO3 15 for links between the poems).
Strong points for Hide and Seek: the second person and imperatives that pull the reader into the child's mind; the shift from excitement to discomfort to isolation; the ending as a possible metaphor for growing up or for being left alone in life.
Offer more than one reading of the ending: it can be read literally (a game gone wrong) and symbolically (a lesson about life).

Worked example

How does Scannell present a change in the child's feelings?

Start: excitement and confidence, shown through exclamations and commands to himself.
Middle: discomfort as the cold and damp build up through sensory imagery.
End: the empty, darkening garden and the final question show isolation.
Effect: the second person makes the reader share the shock.

Answer: Scannell moves the child from excitement to isolation. At first the child gives himself eager commands and is sure of winning, but as he waits, sensory details of cold and damp show his growing discomfort. When he finally comes out, the garden is dark and silent, and "The bushes hold their breath", as if nature is waiting with him. The final question, "where are they who sought you?", turns his triumph into loneliness, and because the poem speaks to "you", the reader shares the shock.

Key idea

Scannell (1922 to 2007). One stanza; second person; present tense; imperatives; occasional couplets. Sensory imagery of the shed; dramatic irony; darkening garden: "The bushes hold their breath"; closing question "where are they who sought you?". Excitement turns to isolation.

Key words

Context: The circumstances in which a text was written and set, such as historical events, social attitudes and the writer's life (AO3 in the GCSE, AO4 in the International GCSE).
Form: The type and shape of a text: for example sonnet, ballad, free verse, tragedy, comedy, novel or play.
Stanza: A group of lines forming a section of a poem (a verse).
Imagery: Language that creates a picture or appeals to the senses, including similes, metaphors and personification.
Dramatic irony: When the audience or reader knows something that a character does not.
Irony: A contrast between what is said and what is meant, or between what is expected and what happens.

All GCSE and International GCSE English Literature key terms and definitions →

Common mistakes

Not “Up a tree in the garden”. He hides indoors, in the dark of a shed.
Not “Under his bed”. The game is outside, in the garden and shed.
Not “In the greenhouse”. The greenhouse is somewhere the seekers might look, not his hiding place.
Not “It shows the poem is a letter”. There is no letter; the 'you' is the child himself.

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Sources and references

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE English Literature (4ET1) specification, topic Paper 1 Section B: Anthology Poetry

Last updated 6 November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us and we will fix it.