Hide and Seek

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

• Free verse - show the uncertainty of the child and how childhood expectations are frequently disrupted by reality
• Narrative poem - written in second person from the perspective of his older self

Question 2

Main themes

Answer 2

• Childhood innocence and naivety
• Realisation (childhood innocence must end)
• Loneliness

Question 3

Stanzaic structure

Answer 3

• One long stanza
• Shows the building in tension due to his naive expectations, only for it all to collapse as he descends into the harshness of realisation

Question 4

Rhyme scheme

Answer 4

• Irregular, sometimes half rhyming
• Creates a sense of childhood innonence, but the irregularity disrupts this by making it seem unsettling

Question 5

Many small, descriptive details integrated throughout the poem

Answer 5

Show how extended the time the child was hiding for felt from the childs perspective

Question 6

‘Call out. Call loud: ‘I’m ready! Come and find me’’

Answer 6

• Two imperatives
• The tension between the innocence of the child and the harsh realisations of growing older is created as we are faced with two options on who is speaking: His older self, or the child

The exclamation marks show how, at this time, the child feels excited playing this game

Question 7

‘The sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside’

Answer 7

• Reported speech
• Sibiliance
• Creates a pleasant undertone, showing that the child is, at this moment, enjoying the game and revelling in his innocence and naivety

The sensory imagery of the seaside is additionally symbolic of childhood innocence

Question 8

‘They’ll never find you in this salty dark’

Answer 8

• Modal verb
• Emphasises the childs initial confidence in himself and the integrity of the game they are playing - shows his innocence and naivety

Question 9

‘The floor is cold’

Answer 9

• Volta
• Changes the tone to a slightly more unpleasant and uncomfortable one

Question 10

‘They’ll probably be searching’

Answer 10

• Adverb ‘probably’
• Shows that the child is starting to develop a sense of uncertainty - he is slowly losing his naivety and innocence

Question 11

‘The floor is cold . They’ll probably be searching by the swings .’

Answer 11

• Two caesuras
• Develops a blunter, less pleasant tone

Question 12

‘When they come prowling in’

Answer 12

• Predatory lexis
• Furthers the unpleasant and sinister tone, and shows how their later abandonment of the child is almost harmful, like a predator

Question 13

‘And here they are, whispering at the door’

Answer 13

• Ambigious pronoun makes them seem sinister
• ‘Whispering’ creates the sense that they are plotting against the child, further showing how the child felt attacked by their actions as they challenged his innocence and naivety

Question 14

‘Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb. Hide in your blindness.’

Answer 14

• Repeated imperatives from the older narrative voice
• The almost satirical tone shows how his older self understands the insignificance of the game and how the seekers do not care about him, but is feeding the child’s naivety in an attempt to highlight it
• ‘Dumb’ is polysemous - shows how the older voice sees the childs naivety as ‘dumb’, yet is satirical as it would be advantageous for the child to not talk when playing hide and seek - this further emphasises the tension between the younger and older version of the poet

Question 15

‘Moving…stumbles…mutters… scuffle’

Answer 15

• Verbs of action and movement - yet mostly meaningless and inconsequential actions
• Makes the seekers appear uninterested in who they are actually looking for, instead they are simply laughing amongst themselves - this goes against the impression the boy has

Question 16

‘and they’re gone.’

Answer 16

• End stopping
• Places emphasis on ‘gone’, which juxtaposes the earlier movement of the seekrs
• This accentuates the childs solitude

Question 17

‘but don’t come out just yet’

Answer 17

• Imperative
• Makes the child seem naive and even delusional as he still believes the seekers care about him

Question 18

‘They must be thinking you’re very clever’

Answer 18

• ‘Must’ is a modal verb
• Accentuates the childs delusion as he is ever confident that the seekers care about him

Question 19

‘Thinking’ and ‘Getting’

Answer 19

• Present participles
• Further shows how the child wrongly assumes the seekers are still actively looking for and caring about him

Question 20

‘cold bites through your coat’

Answer 20

• Personification of cold
• Darkens the imagery, juxtaposing the pleasant imagery at the start - shows the child is developing an unsettling feeling that things might not be how he thought

Question 21

‘The damp smell of sand moves in your throat’

Answer 21

• Synaesthetic imagery (mixing multiple senses)
• Adds to the darker and bleaker tone which represent his realisations

Question 22

‘Out of the shed and call to them: ‘I’ve won’’ and ‘The darkening garden watches’

Answer 22

• Juxtaposition
• The child’s excitement (shown by exclamation marks and certainty that he won is contrasted with the stillness of the garden - encapsulating the main tension in the poem

Question 23

‘The darkening garden watches. The bushes hold their breath’

Answer 23

• Personification
• Emphasises how still and lonely it is for him in this moment that it seems as if only the vegetation is alive
• This contrasts with his expectations of what would happen once he revealed himself

Question 24

‘The sun is gone’

Answer 24

• Sun is symbolic of innocence, joy and happiness, especially in relation to childhood
• The fact that it is gone is symbolic of his revelations, maturity, and move away from childhood innocence and naivety