Blog Week 5

In the poems “Fern Hill” ‘by Dylan Thomas, “The Video” by Fleur Adcock, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke, and “Bored” by Margaret Athwood there is a common theme of relationships during childhood. In each of these poems the speaker recalls experiences from when they were younger.
In “Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas he brings the reader back to his childhood. He implies throughout the poem in lines 1, 10 and 40 that he lived a very carefree happy life during his childhood. He had a content relationship with the farm around him and in lines 28-30 it states how he felt like every day he woke up to the Garden of Eden. In the last stanza he reflects on his life now and how it is no longer as carefree as in his youth. During his childhood he didn’t realize how lucky he was to live such a carefree life and that his lifestyle would eventually wear out.
In “The Video” by Fleur Adcock the speaker is reflecting back on his childhood experience of when his baby sister was born. The whole family was there to witness the birth. His father was video taping it with his camcorder. In the second stanza it describes how life returned back to normal, “and Mum had gone back to being thin”. Since there was another child in the family their mother had more work to do around the hosue and, Ceri, the speaker’s sister was being ignored. In lines 9-12 it shows that Ceri liked things better when the baby wasn’t around and wants her to go away.
In “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke the speaker is reflecting back his father and him waltzing. The description of the poem shows that the father had a dominate relationship over the speaker. This is shown in lines 4 and lines 9-12. The way his father is grasping his hand by the wrist shows dominance. His father is moving him around violently and taking him to bed.
In the poem “Bored” by Margaret Atwood the speaker is looking back on her childhood. The title of the poem is present throughout the entire poem. The first line of the poem, “All those times I was bored out of my mind” sets the stage for the rest of the poem. Throughout the poem she explains all the boring experiences she had with her father. Examples were helping him in the garden and riding with him on a boat. Towards the end of the poem the speaker realizes now that she is older she would rather be bored and that she would take advantage of her carefree childhood.
These literary works all deal with the speaker reflecting back on a childhood experience. Each poem dealt with internal and external relationships during their childhood. In each poem the speaker would change this relationship if they were able to go back in time.