Boland: Child Of Our Time

Question 1

What event discussed in the poem contrasts starkly with ‘this moment’?

Answer 1

Personal motivations responding to Dublin bombings 1974.

Question 2

What themes are emphasized

Answer 2

Tragedy, innocence, vulnerability, responsibility, urgent need for societal change.
Polemical poem

Question 3

4 quotes

Answer 3

“we who should have known how to instruct”
“Names for the animals you took to bed”
“And living, learn we must learn from you dead”
“Child of our time, our times have robbed your cradle/ sleep in a world your final sleep has woken”

Question 4

Analysis of “we who should have known how to instruct”

Answer 4

Technique: Collective pronoun, irony
Effect: Criticises adult society for failing in its duty to protect. Highlights guilt and responsibility.

Question 5

Analysis of “names for the animals you took to bed”

Answer 5

Technique: Childlike imagery, contrast
Effect: Emphasises the innocence and tenderness of the child’s world - focusing on the small, gentle details-, sharply contrasting with the violence that ended it.

Question 6

Analysis of “and living learn we must learn from you dead”

Answer 6

Technique: Paradox, repetition
Effect: Urges adults to learn from tragedy. The unnatural reversal (learning from the dead) stresses the seriousness of the loss. Moral awakening

Question 7

Analysis of “child of our time, our times have robbed your cradle, sleep in a world your final sleep has woken”

Answer 7

Technique: Personification, oxymoron, repetition
Effect: Blames society for the child’s death. The child’s “final sleep” becomes a wake-up call — a powerful call for change.