Hide and Seek, Vernon Scannell Flashcards
Meaning
- Exploration of isolation/loneliness & anxiety
of childhood- Imitating wider experiences when an adult
- Extended metaphor: Child thinks he’s won titular game BUT experiences flood of anxiety
- Imitates complexity of adult emotions
- & Nature of life’s challenges & disappointments
- People you’re close to aren’t what they seem
Context
- Scannell writes about pains of childhood
- Time in army made him sensitive to injustice & cruelty
Imagery #1
“Sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside”
- Smilie
- Reminds reader of playful times at beach
- Suggests boy is happy
- Reminds reader of playful times at beach
- Sibilance
- Sinister + unsettling
- Foreshadows change in tone
- Harsh consonantal ‘t’ + stress & then unstressed
- Jarring upon 1st reading
- Convey claustrophobic environment
- Mood = things aren’t exactly they seem when first in shed
Imagery #2
“Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb.”
- Triplet of imperatives
- Builds tension = shows effort child wanting to win
- “Stay dumb.” = sinister connotations
- Remain silent
- Voice wishes boy could remain innocent or ignorant of cruel pranks forever
- Colloquial meaning: ignorant
- Boy foolishly not understanding trick his friends
are playing on him
- Boy foolishly not understanding trick his friends
- Remain silent
Tone #1
Excited, happy, jubilant
“‘I’m ready! Come and find me!’”
- Dialogue = boy’s character
- Excited, friendly & happy
- Makes poem seem dramatic & immediate
- Drama enchanted by present tense
- Written as though it’s happening as we read it
- Tranports reader to moment of game = places us within action
Tone #2
Reflective, fearful and somewhat pessimistic tone
“But where are they who sought you?”
- Rhetorical question
- Story never gets resolved
- No happy ending
- Story never gets resolved
- Reader discoveries truth that friends had deserted him
- Wider implication = growing up involves realising people will not always support you
- & world will not necessarily be your friend
Structure #1
Single stanza + free verse
- Conveys anecdotal tone
- OR mimics stream of consciousnes
- Gives sense of concentration & focus
- Reader must pay attention to details of game (which become increasingly signifiant)
Structure #2
Occasional patterns of rhyme but no coherent scheme
- Mirrors increasing sense of uncertainty + boy trying to cling onto the familiar when hiding
- Occasional rhymes = moments of clarity
- “they’ll try the land / And then the greenhouse and back here again.”
- Amongst sense of chaos
- Occasional rhymes = moments of clarity
- When boy decides to emerge from shed = rhymes disappear
- Implies jolly and child-like world is ending
Comparisons 3x
- Blessing
- Half-past Two
- Prayer Before Birth
‘Prayer Before Birth’ Comparison
Contrast between unborn child who knows human beings are cruel & this child in poem who has to learn this
‘Half-past Two’ Comparison
Childhood + Loneliness
- Child who is let down by grown ups only to learn positive session about life
- OTHER boy (in this poem) = disappointed by other children & learns harsh lesson about life
‘Blessing’ Comparison
Children enjoying themselves together in adversity
VS
Children who turn game into act of bullying