FULL POEM - SCROLL DOWN FOR LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS
My parents kept me from children who were rough
Who threw words like stones and wore torn clothes
Their thighs showed through rags they ran in the street
And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams.
I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron
Their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms
I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys
Who copied my lisp behind me on the road.
They were lithe they sprang out behind hedges
Like dogs to bark at my world. They threw mud
While I looked the other way, pretending to smile.
I longed to forgive them but they never smiled.
LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS
STANZA 1
My parents kept me from children who were rough
Spender’s use of words saying that his ‘parents kept me’ immediately conveys his parents control and his weakness which sets the scene for his childhood.
Who threw words like stones and wore torn clothes
The simile ‘threw words like stones’ paints a careless picture of the rough children and describes their insensitivity to the boy.
Their thighs showed through rags they ran in the street
The imagery of ‘rags’ is a symbol of poverty (the boys are of a lower class than him) and the ‘running’ is a symbol of childhood and primitiveness
And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams.
The alliteration of ‘climbed cliffs’ stresses the haste of the boys and once again the imagery portrays them in an animalistic, undeveloped way.
STANZA 2
I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron
The Hyperbole here shows the extent of how afraid the boy is of these boys. The simile of ‘their muscles like iron’ further emphasises the intimidation he feels.
Their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms
‘jerking hands’ is an unnatural image of the boys which shows how far removed their lifestyles are from him. The ‘knees tight on my arms’ is imagery of a previous fight, the first hint that the boys are dangerous to him.
I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys
The ‘salt coarse’ image links back to the roughness of the boys and is an allusion to the phrase ‘salt in the wound’ and further emphasises the pain or potential pain they cause him.
Who copied my lisp behind me on the road.
The ‘salt in the wound’ phrase further links to his ‘lisp’ which is his exposed wound. We learn of the boys psychological torment on top of the physical torment.
STANZA 3
They were lithe they sprang out behind hedges
‘Lithe’ is defined as “(especially of a person’s body) thin, supple, and graceful” and, once again, elucidates the physical prowess of the boys and their indimidating nature as they ‘sprang out behind hedges’ which eludes to them jumping out and scaring the boy.
Like dogs to bark at my world. They threw mud
This simile describes the boys like ‘dogs’ and is an example of animalistic imagery which dehumanises them and further emphasises the divide between the boys and him. The use of words ‘my world’ symbolises how the boys are attacking his higher socioeconomic class rather than him himself, a class given to him by his parents.
While I looked the other way, pretending to smile.
This line illustrates how the boy is afraid to even confront the boys with eye contact and he attempts to lesser the divide between him and the boys by ‘pretending to smile’ and make them think he shares their humour and isn’t totally different.
I longed to forgive them but they never smiled.
Spender’s use of the word ‘longed’ shows the desperation of the boy to be accepted by them but ‘they never smiled’ which, in this case, is a metaphor for their acceptance of him, shifting the blame of their divide onto the boys.
