Through the Eyes of Childhood

All of these poems deal with each speakers childhood experiences, each one different from the next, creating a reflective view, one of looking back on the past.

In the poem, “Bored,” the speaker starts out talking about the time she spent with her father. There are a lot of commas and periods, symbolizing the idea of dragging along, of being bored. Throughout the course of the poem, we see how the speaker comes to a sort of revelation—that being, she realizes that the time she spent holding strings and wood was time well spent with her father, rather than tedious, boring tasks.

The speaker in, “My Papa’s Waltz,” talks about his experiences with an alcoholic father and the abuse he had to endure. In the third stanza, the speaker describes how his father would grab him by the wrist, with dirty hands, and every time he missed a step, the speaker would get roughed up.

“The Video,” I found to have a lighter mood than the previous two. In this one, the speaker basically talks about Ceri’s jealousy toward her new younger sister. This poem, in a witty way, discusses the sibling jealously that is very much present with many siblings.

The speaker in the final poem, “Fern Hill,” looks back on his childhood with fond memories. Using a lot of similes, metaphors, and other literary techniques, the poet creates a feeling of splendor towards his childhood; and he lived “carefree.”

While all four poems talk about childhood experiences, they also show the simplicity, and innocence of childhood. The speaker in “Bored,” did not realize until older, that the time spent doing chores with her father was a positive experience. Likewise, the speaker in “Video,” is limited to the narrow-mindedness of a child, in that she only sees the bad in having a sister—she only sees how she now gets less attention.