The Power of Memory

Memories enable people to escape reality and venture back to a place where they felt most comfortable. The poems “Fern Hill" by Dylan Thomas, "The Video" by Fleur Adcock, “My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke and "Bored" by Margaret Atwood are about memories the speakers hold on to, to escape reality. It is through memories that the speakers find comfort because they have the power to decide when and where to escape. The four poems happen to return to the happiest or more innocent times of their lives: their childhoods.

In “Fern Hill,” the speaker tells of his innocents and happiness by discussing the “carefree” attitude he possessed as a child. Like any other child, he had the ability to be a “prince…huntsman and herdsman” all in the same day. Also, as children do, they observe their surroundings utilizing all of their senses. The senses stimulated in the poem provide a chance for the reader to escape reality alongside the speaker and share the memories together on the sunny hill with the daisies, rivers, clouds and animals. The memory in the poem is so full of warm things like the sun, hay fields and horse stable that it clearly helped the speaker escape the “chains” of reality.

“The Video” really expresses the innocents of children. It is through Ceri that the speaker portrays a typical scenario of an only child being “de-throned.” This poem reminds me of the stories my mother used to tell me about my brother, when my sister was born. As a four-year old he would torment her so badly that my mother couldn’t leave the two of them alone for any amount of time. It eventually grew so bad that my sister had to be locked in the bathroom with my mother when my mom took a shower. As young adults now, we look back and laugh but at that point in my brother’s life, he enjoyed making my sister’s life miserable. Just like the poem, my brother and mother talk about those memories to escape the realities that coexist with getting older. They enjoy talking about those childhood days because that seemed to be the worst of their problems. Looking back now, they realized those were some of the happiest times they spent together, no matter how jealous or torturous my brother, like Ceri, had become.

Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz” definitely exposes the innocents of children through his memory. From the very first line, the speaker begins to tell the tale of horror his father forced on him as a child. Although the speaker grew up with an abusive alcoholic father, he innocently clung to his shirt when he brought him to bed.

Lastly, in the poem “Bored,” the speaker admits to one of her happier memories being when she was doing things she didn’t really care about, like holding the string to be measured. This poem really allows the speaker to escape reality, which unfortunately is her father’s death, to return to her happy memories with him, even though she was “bored” when she was with him. After escaping to her memory she realized that she would rather be bored than in reality.

A memory is only one of the many escape routes of reality, however the poems “Fern Hill,” “The Video,” “My Papa’s Waltz,” and “Bored” all reflect on their childhood memories that they hold dear to their hearts for some reason or another. In the end, they all have the capability to find comfort whenever or where ever they desire, simply by returning to their memory.