'' 'My Parents' and Little Boy Crying' explore childhood experiences.

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Write an essay in which you:

 Describe the experience of EACH child.
 In this essay, you must also discuss how the child in EACH poem feels about the other
persons involved in the experience, and
 Examine ONE device that is used to present the child's experience in EACH poem.

Childhood is one of the most delightful stages in a person's life, and is the phase of life, from which
most individuals could recall their most memorable experiences. In Stephen Spender's ' My
Parents' and Mervyn Morris' 'Little Boy Crying', we can traverse two different chronicles of
childhood experiences. In each poem, the child's sentiments concerning other characters involved
in the experiences are effectively conveyed. Literary devices were also present in each poem,
which presented each child's experience.
To begin with, in the poem '' My Parents'', the persona (a child), recalled his attempts
to fit into a group which he admired, but he was kept away from this group by his parents, this is
evident in the quote '' My parents kept me from children....'' The child was warned against the
children of this group by his parents, because he was of a higher social class than the children
Spender described. These children were seen as eccentric and free-spirited as "they climbed cliffs"
and "played at the country stream." Perhaps, this free-spirited characteristic of these children, was
the reason why the persona seemed to have admired them. Perhaps he too longed to be just like
them, but he was deprived of doing the things they did by his parents, as suggested by the lines "
he longed to forgive them but they never smiled. "
On the other hand, in the poem " Little Boy Crying, " we examine a three-year-old's view of
his father, who scolded him for playing in the rain, apparent in the quote "the quick slap struck."
We see the typical emotive nature of a beaten child in the lines " swimming tears " and " splashing
feet " in the offense to his father's actions which hurt him. The infant sought to soften the heart of
his father but described him as "empty of feeling" when he was unsuccessful. In both poems, it
was evident that the parental figures had the child's best interest at heart.
The child in " My Parents " had mixed sentiments towards the other children involved. He
seemed to be afraid of their physical strength, evident in the lines " I feared more than tigers their
muscles like iron, " and " their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms. " The persona also
appeared to be offended by the other children teasing and copying his lisp. But notwithstanding
their cruelty and mud throwing, he " looked the other way." This indicates to the reader, that
perhaps he longed to acquit them and craved to be their friend, so he disregarded their indifference
towards him, in the hope of one day becoming one of them. He, however, was urged against this
by his parents, who might have thought that they were better than these lower classed children.
The fact that the boy " longed to forgive them " tells us how soft he was in his admiration of these
children.
On the other hand, the child in " Little Boy Crying is hurt by his father's punishment
of him, presaged by the zoomorphic expression " his laughter metamorphosed into howls. " The
infant wept because he thought his father's punishment was resolute. This is evident when the boy
referred to his father as " fierce " and viewed him as an "ogre" which towered over him. The
perception created here relates to us the readers, that the child felt impotent and helpless in the
circumstance. Though the father loved him, evident in the expression " longed to lift you, " he was
adamant on teaching him an essential lesson in life.
Finally, several literary devices were artfully consolidated into each poem. For one
thing, dramatic irony was present in " My Parents." It was ironic that the little boy, who was
viciously treated by the other children longed to forgive them. This is evident in the quote " he
smiled at them " but they " never smiled back, " maintaining the barriers between them. This tells
us that he surreptitiously admired them and wanted to be their friend despite the warning his
parents gave him about these children.
On the other hand, an allusion is very evident in the poem " Little Boy Crying." It confers
to the reader, how a three-year-old infant views the world. He utilized fairy tale allusion to Jack
and the Beanstalk to portray his emotions. In this sense, he regarded himself as little Jack and
compared his father to the giant in the sky. This served to emphasize how helpless the young child
was at the hands of the giant. In the allusion, we also see that the child resented his father
temporarily, and wanted to hurt him by hewing down the beanstalk, again alluding to the fairy-
tale.
In conclusion, childhood could be one of the most impactful and complex stages in a
person's life. The two poems entitled " My Parents, " by Stephen Spender and " Little Boy
Crying," by Mervyn Morris both describe two different chronicles of childhood experiences.
With the utilization of literary devices such as dramatic irony and fairy tale allusion, readers of
each poem are better able to understand the child's notions about other characters in each
poem, and well as each child's individual experiences.

Giovanni A. Slack