Blog #5: Childhood Relationships

Dylan Thomas’ “Fern Hill,” Fleur Adcock’s “The Video,” Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” and Margaret Atwood’s “Bored” all share the common theme of relationships. The relationships portrayed in these works are being relived from each of the narrators’ childhoods. “The Video,” “My Papa’s Waltz,” and “Bored” all have to do with parent/child relationships, where “Fern Hill” is based on the speaker’s relationship with his farm. As a reader, interpreting what these speakers are recalling from their pasts, their relationships with either nature or their parents could have been handled differently if looked into them with a different perspective.

“Fern Hill” portrays the speaker during his younger days on his farm. In line 1 the speaker refers to himself as “young and easy under the apple boughs.” This proves to the reader that he had not a care in the world. Line 6 refers to the speaker as “prince of the apple towns” giving the reader the impression that the speaker walked around town as if he owned it. As a child the speaker characterizes himself as “green and carefree (line 10).” Looking back on his childhood he compares it to the sun by stating in lines 12-14, “In the sun that is young once only, time let me play and be golden in the mercy of his means.” By looking back on his childhood he realizes how simplistic and easy life was and the fact that life will never remain how it once was. Because of his youth, “time held me green and dying though I sang in my chains like the sea (lines 52-53).”

“The Video” has to do with the birth of Ceri’s baby sister Laura. When the birth was about to take place everyone gathered around the bed to see Laura being born. It was when Ceri’s dad asked to “Move over a bit” so he could get the birth on camera that she knew she was no longer her parents only child. After the birth the narrator tells us in lines 8-9 that “Mum had gone back to being thin, and was twice as busy” to prove Ceri now had to share her parents with her baby sister and all of the attention was no longer on her. To be reminded how nice it was to be an only child Ceri constantly replayed the video of Laura’s birth. “She watched Laura come out, and then, in reverse, she made her go back in (lines 11-12).” Assuming that Ceri has now matured with age, she most likely looks back on the memories of her sister’s birth and laughs at how she wanted her to “go back in.” Instead of sulking about the birth of her new sister and the lack of attention she was receiving from her parents she could have helped out with the baby and maintained the relationship with her parents that she had before Laura arrived.

“My Papa’s Waltz” is based on a father-son relationship. The speaker of this poem portrays his father as an alcoholic stating in lines 1-2, “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy.” While waltzing, his father would swing him around so quickly that he could barely hold on. His mother did not approve of her husband’s behavior therefore she had a constant frown on her face. To support the fact that his father was an alcoholic the speaker states, “The hand that held my wrist was battered on one knuckle” allowing the reader to create images of bar fights in his or her head. During the waltz the father was highly under the influence that he would occasionally miss a few steps causing his son to fall and scrape his ear on his father’s shoe buckle. Lines 13-14, “You beat time on my head with a palm caked hard by dirt” proves to the reader that the speaker’s father was abusive. Lines 15-16 allow the reader to know that the speaker still loves his father even though he does have a problem with alcohol by stating, “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt.” By clinging to his father’s shirt it proves to the reader that the speaker was simply trying to gain his father’s love and affection. The speaker’s father does have his issues; however, he will always be his father.

“Bored” tells the story of the speaker, a young girl, who went to work with her father everyday. As a child it is uncommon to find a young kid who actually enjoys doing manual labor. The speaker portrays her boredom stating in lines 1-6, “All those times I was bored out of my mind. Holding the log while he sawed it. Holding the string while he measured, boards, distances between things, or pounded stakes into the ground for rows and rows of lettuces and beets, which I then weeded.” Now, looking back on her past she remembers those times as “sunnier” however, during those times it often seemed to “rain”. As a child, working with her father she was bored out of her mind, however, looking back as an adult she would rather be bored with her father than be bored with anyone else. From her father she learned the ways of life, ways that she would have never been able to learn from anyone else, anywhere else.

Each of these works portrays to the reader childhood memories from the speakers’ pasts. Now, looking back on their childhoods, each speaker wishes he or she could go back into their past to relive those memories and do things differently. However, they are unable to go back into their pasts therefore they must live with their history and work to improve their relationships from here on out.