Through a child's recitation, I think the meaning of Longfellow's poem; "The Children's Hour" would be a little different. This would be a poem that a child would pick to recite because it has a constant rhyme scheme and it is also a little shorter in length. The length would matter to a child, if they were able to pick what they could recite, because it is less to remember.
This poem would be initially enticing to a child because it mentions children in the title. It would be equally enticing because it contains a rhyme scheme that could easily be made "sing song" by a child. This "sing song" quality would also make it easier for the child to remember, thus making recitation easier. I think a child could relate to some of the lines like, "I hear in the chamber above me/The patter of little feet, The sound of a door that is opened, And voices soft and sweet." If a child was to recite these lines, however, I think they would see it as a joyful type of childhood playing. Whereas, within the context of the poem it is a very weird thing; it is weird because this man is keeping children in his chamber. By having a child recite this poem it changes the context dramatically, because a child would not understand that the "Children's Hour" is not a good thing at all. I did not totally understand this element until we talked about it in class, so I would hope that a child would not fully understand the concept either, thus making the poem more light-hearted and "sing song" in tone.
Furthermore, a child would understand more of the words in this poem because they are less complex than some of the other poems by Longfellow. Depending on the age, the fourth stanza would be particularly easy for a child to relate to. "A whisper, and then a silence: Yet I know by their merry eyes/They are plotting and planning together/To take me by surprise." This sounds like a bunch of children playing a game or planning a party and I think that is what a child reciting it would see it as, and this greatly changes the meaning of the poem, because this stanza is not intended to have a happy tone to it but I think a child would view it that way.
Lewis could have used more elaborate words when describing the children’s state, but her description of the children as “laughing” and “wet” evokes a pleasant simplicity that is associated with childhood. The fact that the children come from playing in a river is an idyllic interaction heightens the poem’s connection to the natural world. The line that follows, “And all goes on as it should,” lends to the peaceful, idyllic tone in the poem. For the speaker, everything (“all”) is right in the
The idea of the innocence having been created or forced to exist is lost as the poem focuses on the children and how innocent they are. This stands out particularly in the second stanza which uses end rhyme and repetition to underline just how many children seemed to be going into the church. It is also in that same stanza that the children are referred to as lambs, which is a common symbol for innocence. It is not simply the multitudes of children, but the multitudes of the innocent that have been gathered. ...
Christopher Morley’s poem “Nursery Rhymes for The Tender-Hearted” is a simple poem it is a parody to the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. This poem is about a roach that is in the house. The speaker is the roach he is telling everything that happened while he was running and everything in the pantry. In “Nursery Rhymes for The Tender-Hearted” there was a roach who was very sneaky, fast and smart.
Stanza six shows how toys and presents mark the child’s life rather than love and affection.
When the poem is read aloud, the explicit rhyme and rhythm of the lines becomes extremely obvious. In fact, the bouncy rhythm is so uplifting, it occasionally makes the audiences feel like it is too predictable and straight-forward. An example would be “bright with chrysolite”, the word “chrysolite” feels like it is forcefully implemented for the sake of the rhyme. This is somewhat similar to a children’s tale. Most children’s tale as we know it, conveys messages straightforwardly and are easily understood by children, it also has an amiable tone and a merry mood that engages the children 's attention. Similarly, the rhyme and rhythm of this poem is very obvious and explicit, creating a delightful, casual mood that appeals to a young audience. Even though the legend dealt with deep insights about parenting that are intricate and puzzling, the father delivered it in such a gratifying, simple manner that made even the most dark and dreadful matters: like the description of precarious beasts and vicious monsters to sound like a blissful adventure of friendly animals. The sole purpose of this contradiction between the tone and message is to make this seemingly strong and serious topic more tolerable and captivating to the son of the father. Unsensible, impulsive youth is very similar to restless children, a long insipid lecture about deep insights is very difficult for them to buy into. In the same time, a harsh, threatening warning will only make them obey unwillingly, and creating a doubtful relationship will make them uncomfortable to communicate or appeal to their parents. Clearly, the percipient father recognized the ineffectiveness of these unsuitable parenting methods. Instead, he conveyed the message in a uncomplicated, friendly way that made his son to accept his teachings more comfortably. A
Imagine yourself lying in the sun, feeling the warmth on your skin, when a cloud cover the sun and you feel the sudden coldness that you can seem to shake? The feeling is similar when you love someone very much but they don’t return the feeling. The band, 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS), in their song, If You Don’t Know, sings about how a singer is in love with a person. The person seems to not be sure if they are in love with the singer, and the the singer wishes for the person to let them go. The couple that 5SOS wrote about was in love at one time, but the person is slowly falling out of love with the singer.
Child and Insect is a lovely poem about the disappointment in life, which a little boy is just running into and starting to realize. Robert Druce has portrayed a simple but very appealing image of a very humane situation in a child’s life. The writer has delivered his massage to the readers trough a game of the little boy and the grasshopper. Child and Insect is a poem filled with great a variety of literary terms such as alliteration, symbolism, onomatopoeia, repetition, comparison, contrast, personification and run on lines which work all together in order to reveal three different stages in the poem characterized by a drastic change in the mood and the tone of the writing.
The playfulness of rhyme makes the texts violence and disturbing metaphors about the speakers father creates an even creepier tone that matches perfectly with the themes of the piece. The abundance and repetition of Oo is almost suffocating and gives a childish tone to the piece, although the subject matter is far from it: oo makes this poem seem more disturbing than a nursery rhyme – it 's not a bedtime story, but a howl in the night. Furthermore, the poem follows a free verse rhyme scheme in which allows Plath to show that perhaps the death of her father and husband has set her free, however, there is still some iambic rhythm that is carried in some sections of the piece. Many critics have argued that the rhyme gives lyricism to the piece, often associated with happiness in terms of poetry: Despite that she uses free verse, the poem has much musicality due to rhyme. It is this nursery rhyme style that gave the idea of a more rigid structure in the undone version of Daddy. Although not as fixed as Sonnet or Haiku form, the erasure of certain words makes the poems form look almost purposeful similar and removes the haunting and disturbing rhyme of the original. Not only does this allow the reader to see that there is love for the speakers father in the undone piece but it also shows the adoration for her father to be more developed than completely removed, like in the 1962 version. The undone poem reverberates hauntingly to Plath’s original work, both having their own distinctive beauty and
To being with, the poem “The Lamb” by William Blake fits into the category Songs of Innocence by using simplistic views and easy language. This poem is written using very simple words and English along with a rhyming scheme. For example, “Gave thee clothing of delight, Softest clothing wooly and bright, Gave thee such a tender voice, Making all the vales rejoice!” (Blake, The Lamb, page 784, lines 5-8) This poem is written for children since it uses a comforting tone and an almost soothing voice. From these examples it is for an educated reason that this poem shall be placed in Songs of Innocence. Due to the fact that this poem is made for the warm hearted, and for young children this poem shows the innocence of the lamb in its entirety. Th...
In both poems, disputes and disagreements were evident. For instance, the poem “Rites of Passage” primarily focused on what a mother observed during her son’s birthday party. Olds observations centered on how young boys actions result into violence when dealing with one another. The set of boys who ranged in the age of six or seven, lacked a sense of innocence and
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience are collections of poems that utilize the imagery, instruction, and lives of children to make a larger social commentary. The use of child-centered themes in the two books allowed Blake to make a crucial commentary on his political and moral surroundings with deceptively simplistic and readable poetry. Utilizing these themes Blake criticized the church, attacking the hypocritical clergy and pointing out the ironies and cruelties found within the doctrines of organized religion. He wrote about the horrific working conditions of children as a means to magnify the inequality between the poor working class and the well to do aristocracy.
William Blake wrote many poems during his lifetime. He had a set of poems called The Songs of Innocence and also a set called The songs of Experience. This paper is focusing on five poems from the Songs of Innocence, which are: “The Shepherd,” “The Echoing Green,” The Little Black Boy,” “The Blossom,” and “Laughing Song.”
The choice of words of the author also contributes to the development of the theme. For example, the use of words like "drafty," "half-heartedly," and "half-imagined" give the reader the idea of how faintly the dilemma was perceived and understood by the children, thus adding to the idea that the children cannot understand the burden the speaker has upon herself. In addition, referring to a Rembrandt as just a "picture" and to the woman as "old age," we can see that these two symbols, which are very important to the speaker and to the poem, are considered trivial by the children, thus contributing to the concept that the children cannot feel what the speaker is feeling.
Rollin, Lucy. Cradle and All: A Cultural and Psychoanalytic Reading of Nursery Rhymes. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 1992. HSU PR.976.R6
as a separate group to the "infant" in the poem as he refers to them