"My Parents" by Stephen Spender is a poignant and emotional poem that explores the complex relationship between a child and their parents. The speaker in the poem reflects on the sacrifices and love that their parents have given them, and the ways in which their parents have shaped their identity and values.
The poem begins with the speaker describing their parents as "strangers" and "aliens," implying that they are mysterious and unknowable to the speaker. This sense of distance and disconnection is heightened by the use of the word "never," as the speaker laments that they "never knew" their parents and that their parents "never knew" them. This creates a sense of sadness and longing, as the speaker wishes for a closer and more intimate relationship with their parents.
However, as the poem progresses, the speaker begins to understand and appreciate the sacrifices and love that their parents have given them. They recognize that their parents have "suffered" and "endured" in order to provide for them and give them the best possible life. The speaker also acknowledges the ways in which their parents have shaped their values and beliefs, stating that they have "absorbed" their parents' "teachings" and "moods."
The final stanza of the poem is particularly poignant, as the speaker reflects on the passage of time and the inevitable loss of their parents. They recognize that their parents are "getting old" and that they will eventually "die," and this realization brings a sense of urgency and longing to the poem. The speaker expresses their desire to "know" their parents and to "love" them before it is too late, implying that they have not fully appreciated or understood their parents until now.
Overall, "My Parents" by Stephen Spender is a deeply moving and thought-provoking poem that explores the complexities of family relationships and the ways in which our parents shape our identity and values. It highlights the importance of cherishing and appreciating our parents while we still have the chance, and encourages us to strive for deeper understanding and connection with those we love.
My Parents Analysis
On one side of the grounds there were netball courts and playing fields and on the other was an enormous two-storey building defined by the word Administration. He is quick to show the misery of their situation. They were lithe they sprang out behind hedges Like dogs to bark at my world. The poem deals with the class system early in the twentieth century. The pointing by the boys would point and it would hurt emotionally for spencer. In his poem, Spender uses stark contrasts, ambiguity, and calculated narration to provide a vivid description of a troubled middle-class child suffering from a mixture of superiority and inferiority complex and pains of being kept from his desires by his parents: the people he trusts most. The second verse, it tells movement of a jerking action.
'My parents kept me from children who were rough' by Stephen Harold Free Essay Example
The persona and the children are of different socioeconomic classes; the children, lower class and the persona, middle-to-upper class. The speaker holds in apprehension their belligerent behaviour more than five tigers put together. This attribute of theirs enabled them spring out from behind hedges underlining their volatile and unpredictable nature. Depends on Money A. The use of the word ' kept' implies that sort of childish resentment that the persona would have felt as a child, wanting to experience the same freedom as these children but held back nonetheless. They threw mud While I looked the other way, pretending to smile I longed to forgive them but they never smiled.
CSEC English B: My Parents by Stephen Spender Poem Analysis (2022)
Therefore it also indicates the deed of holding a person "illegally". They had were not reticent on stripping as they were far from the realm of calculated sophistications. They threw mud While I looked the other way, pretending to smile. They were physically agile and active. The treatment of the subject is complex, dealing with themes of class, snobbery, freedom and restriction, bullying and delinquency, fear and alienation contrasted with secret envy. It is about a boy who longs to be part of a group of children who he looks up to.
My Parents by Stephen Spender Analysis
By saying salt coarse, it also alludes to a common phrase ' rub salt into the wound. While I looked the other way, pretending to smile. His superior social status is a likely cause, along with his disability mentioned later on in the poem. The persona seems deeply troubled by their endless torment and abuse. At the same time, the children cannot welcome him.
My Parents, Stephen Spender Poem Analysis/Annotations
Generally, the act of throwing stones is intended to provoke someone, to chase someone away or to articulate contempt. These street kids flung words just as they threw stones… their verbalizing was aggressive, impulsive and raw. Therefore, they are usually strong and stable. Tone is an important device that is used to mimic the motion of the waves. The reader can vividly see the picture of their iron-like muscles, their jerking hands, and their salt coarse pointing.
Poetry Analysis:Stephen Spender’s “My Parents Kept Me from Children who were Rough
Additionally, Spender points out that these children had unusual traits and abilities that most children from middle-class background do not have. The notion that the parents were obdurate on restraining the speaker from such company, implies that the speaker desired to befriend them. The children wear torn clothes, another indicator of their less than fortunate status. Spender admires their hurtful words that are meant to hurt him. This gives the idea that the children have a reckless nature, they are the lower class. The poem also describes the different world of the persona.
Stephen spender my parents Free Essays
They would be quick when they came out from behind the bushes, they may not have been noticed by Spencer until they started to tease him. I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron The Hyperbole here shows the extent of how afraid the boy is of these boys. Being of a lower working class, they would perform more manual labour and explore more, giving them physical strength far beyond the reach of the persona. Who copied my lisp behind me on the road. Nonetheless, they would tease him constantly, mocking his lisp while pointing reproachfully.
