A Mother In A Refugee Camp Comparison

How the poems ‘Once Upon a Time’, ‘Hide and Seek’ and ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ explore the change of perspectives of childhood throughout the development to adulthood

As we progress through life, our perspectives of childhood change over time. These poems may have great effects on the reader such as ‘Once Upon a Time’ by Gabriel Okara, which establishes strong feelings of reminiscence from the eyes of an adult looking back to childhood. On the other hand, the poem ‘Hide and Seek’ describes a child’s experience of a game that may be portrayed as intimidating and quite frightening as it is a child’s perspective of childhood itself. The last poem ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’ shows an adults view of a child itself, describing it as precious and vulnerable.

Firstly, ‘Once Upon a Time’ is voiced by an adult looking back to his childhood and reminiscing about the contrasting way of life. In the title, the phrase “Once upon a time” is usually used to start a fairytale, perhaps connoting that the writer believes childhood was like a fairytale. The poet describes different situations and the contrast them between when he was a child and now. In the second stanza, the voice states there was a time where he metaphorically “used to shake hands with their hearts;” then goes on to say how nowadays handshakes don’t have meaning while “their left hands search my empty pockets”, suggesting adults take advantage of you while showing kindness. In the end, the voice is nostalgic and wants to learn how to laugh meaningfully, without superficiality, as he describes in the second line “they used to laugh with their hearts”. The point of superficiality links to the fact that the voice “learned to wear many faces” depending on the situation he is in, l...

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...efugee Camp’ and ‘Mid-Term Break’ both exhibit that a child from an adult’s point of view is seen as precious and vulnerable.

Childhood is a major part of development into adulthood as children gain new experiences which may seem slightly intimidating at first, as shown in ‘Hide and Seek’ but as life progresses, these negative experiences are suppressed. As portrayed in ‘Once Upon a Time’ and ‘Piano’, adults may emotionally reminisce back to their own childhood remembering how great it was, while dealing with the struggle of not being able to return back there. Finally, an adult looking at a child itself may view him or her as precious and vulnerable. In ‘A Mother in a Refugee Camp’, there is a very strong sense of pride of a mother towards her own child, and is willing to continue caring and loving even through a brutal time depicted in the poem.

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