Hide and Seek, Vernon Scannell

Question 1

Meaning

Answer 1

• 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

Question 2

Context

Answer 2

• Scannell writes about pains of childhood
• Time in army made him sensitive to injustice & cruelty

Question 3

Imagery #1

Answer 3

“Sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside”

• Smilie
  
  • Reminds reader of playful times at beach
    
    • Suggests boy is happy
• 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

Question 4

Imagery #2

Answer 4

“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

Question 5

Tone #1

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Tone #2

Answer 6

Reflective, fearful and somewhat pessimistic tone

“But where are they who sought you?”

• Rhetorical question
  
  • Story never gets resolved
    
    • No happy ending
• 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

Question 7

Structure #1

Answer 7

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)

Question 8

Structure #2

Answer 8

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
• When boy decides to emerge from shed = rhymes disappear
  
  • Implies jolly and child-like world is ending

Question 9

Comparisons 3x

Answer 9

• Blessing
• Half-past Two
• Prayer Before Birth

Question 10

‘Prayer Before Birth’ Comparison

Answer 10

Contrast between unborn child who knows human beings are cruel & this child in poem who has to learn this

Question 11

‘Half-past Two’ Comparison

Answer 11

Childhood + Loneliness

1. Child who is let down by grown ups only to learn positive session about life
2. OTHER boy (in this poem) = disappointed by other children & learns harsh lesson about life

Question 12

‘Blessing’ Comparison

Answer 12

Children enjoying themselves together in adversity

VS

Children who turn game into act of bullying