Relationships

Fleur Adcock’s “The Video,” Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz,” Margaret Atwood’s “Bored” and Dylan Thomas’s “Fern Hill,” all deal with relationships formed in childhood. While “My Papa’s Waltz” “Bored” and “The Video” deal with family relationships, “Fern Hill” deals with a relationship formed with the innocence of being a child, and what is lost with time.

Fleur Adcock’s “The Video” is told from a 3^rd person omniscient narrative. This allows us to assume that the speaker is unbiased in what we are being told. The poem tells of a young girl witnessing the birth of her younger sister. “When Laura was born, Ceri watched.” (Line 1). The sentence structure of this sentence shows us that Laura is first in importance. The sentence could have easily been written “Ceri watched when Laura was born”. The diction of “watched” gives the reader the sense that Ceri is not a part of the experience, as the rest of the family is, but is a spectator. The first 3 lines give a misleading tone of anticipation and excitement, but in line 4, the tone changes to one of jealousy and confusion. “… ‘Move over a bit,’ Dad said-” This line shows that Ceri felt she was being moved out of her parents attention and love. The second stanza shows the after affects of Laura’s birth. “and was twice as busy, Ceri played/ the video again and again./ She watched Laura come out, and then,/ in reverse, she made her go back in.” (lines 9-12) These lines demonstrate Ceri’s feelings of replacement. By watching the video in reverse, it expresses her desire to go back to a time when things were better. Watching the video could also show an attempt to make a connection with the experience, and to better understand its importance to the other members of her family. The rhyme scheme in this poem is ABCBDB CEBFFE. This choice of rhyme scheme demonstrates a desire for connection. This connection appears to be reached in the last stanza, however when looking at the content you see that the connection is only reached in watching the video over and over of Laura “coming out”.

Similar to “The Video”, “My Papa’s Waltz” by Theodore Roethke tells of a relationship between a young boy and his father. “The whiskey on your breath/ Could make a small boy dizzy” (Lines 1-2). The speaker immediately chooses to let the reader know that the person he is addressing was drinking alcohol, implying a possibly alcoholism problem. By telling such a fact in the first line, it causes the reader to look deeper for other hidden problems. The diction of the word “small” has many meanings. One could interpret the word small in its literal sense, that the boy himself is small, or one could interpret it in a more abstract sense, meaning the boy is young, shy, intimidated, or not in control. The poem tells of a young boy despereate for attention from his drunk father. Although he does not enjoy the “waltz” they are having, he is willing to stay just to be with his father. “ But I hung on like death/ Such waltzing was not easy.” These lines attempt to tell the father that he cares about the father to such an extent that even death itself could not change it. It also implies that the relationship is not a pleasant one. “The hand that held my wrist/ Was battered on one knuckle.” (Lines 9-10) When one thinks of dancing, one does not usually think of a person holding someone’s wrist. This gives an image of the father controlling the boy, while telling that the fathers hands have been in a fight. The diction of the word “battered” gives a hint that there might have been some possible abuse to the boy. The author could have easily written scraped or cut, but chose to use the term “battered” for a reason. This idea of abuse is repeated in line 13 “You beat time on my head”. The diction of the word “beat” as opposed to kept, alludes to possible abuse. As a child, you look through different eyes than you would as an adult, and this poem greatly portrays that.

Margaret Atwood’s “Bored” takes a different approach on describing her relationship with her father. As opposed to the first two poems, written from a child’s perspective, Artwood chooses to look back into her childhood with a new found perspective on its events. The poem starts out with the line “All those times I was bored/out of my mind.” This first line almost seems like it is answering a question. On its own, the sentence seems awkward and out of place, giving a sense of unsure ness and tentativeness. The poem goes on to list many reasons why the speaker was bored with her father. The author uses alliteration to emphasize repetativeness. “… Or sat in the back/ of the car, or sat still in boats/ sat, sat, whole at the prow, stern, wheel/ he drove, steered and paddled.” (lines 9-12) The repetition of the words, creates a slow moving tone and gives the reader a insight into the speakers emotions at the time. Throughout the poem, the speaker discusses all of the things that would bore her about the father, but contradicts this boredom by showing interest and insight into the things she is describing and borring. Line 35 shows a dramatic change in tone. “Perhaps though/ boredom is happier. It is for dogs or/ groundhogs. Now I wouldn’t be bored./ Now I would know too much./ Now I would know.” (Lines 35-39) This is when the speaker changes from the viewpoint of her childhood to the viewpoint of her adult life. Looking back, she wishes she could have appreciated time with her father more, and understands that knowing what she knows now, would have changed the experience. Upon researching the Author, I discovered that her father died early in her life. This could add to the meaning of “Now I would know” by showing her desire to have spent more time with her late father. While “My Pappa’s Waltz” showed a negative relationship with a father, “Bored” shows an underappreciated relationship.

“Fern Hill” by Dylan Thomas tells a story of a man looking back into his childhood with envy of his imagination and the world of possibilities he once possessed. The rhyme scheme and tone of the story almost makes the reader feel like they are listening to a story teller. The tone is a flowing magical tone, an the structure of the poem itself represents this. With line breaks, and indentations, you get a sense of travel and time. “Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs” (line 1). This line shows that being youthful is simplistic and “easy.” The “apple boughs” have a religious context referring to the story of Adam and Eve. This gives us a sense that the childhood is a time of innocence. The poem tells of stories the child imagined such as “ And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves/Trail with daisies and barley/ Down the rivers of the windfall light.” (lines 6-9) Throughout the poem, there are constant reminders that time does not last forever, and that youth must come to an end. There is a great concentration on nature, which also gives an urgency to time and life, for all things living must eventually die. “All the mood long I heard, blessed among stables, the nightjars/ Flying with the ricks, and the horses/ Flashing into the dark.” (Lines 25-27) The poem concentrates on the magic and innocence of being a child, and gives a great sense of longing. The tone of the poem changes in lines 51-54. “ And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land./Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means,/ Time held me green and dying/ Though I sang my chains like the sea.” These lines show the speakers longing for his childhood. “Time held me green and dying” shows that the speaker felt that the world, nature and time took his childhood from him.

All four poems deal with ideas of past relationships. Whether it be relationships with your sister, father, or remembering your childhood, I believe these four poems are meant to show us to cherish the relationships and experiences we have, while we are experiencing them, and not with hindsight. I think that the poems also want us to know that it is important to be reflective on your own life and own relationships. These poems immediately made me think of a speech given by a Jesuit. Jesuit’s greatly stress self reflection, and I realized how important reflection is by these poems. Anyone can reflect on an experience years after it has occurred, but to be able to reflect on something as you are experiencing it, will heighten the experience and better prepare you for experiences to come. I think it is important to keep this concept in mind especially when dealing with Baltimore and our experiences here. It is important to reflect on every relationship you form, and every experience you have in order to better understand them, build on them, and improve them in the future.