My parents

Question 1

STEPHEN SPENCER

Answer 1

“My Parents” by 20th-century British poet Stephen Spender delves into the speaker’s heartbreaking reflections on an unhappy boyhood. It illustrates childhood games, bullying, making friends, parent’s love and their protective instinct for their children.

Question 2

Born to middle- or upper-class parents, the speaker was deliberately kept away from “rough boys” (working-class children) by his parents, who feared that these boys would mistreat him.

Answer 2

Born to middle- or upper-class parents, the speaker was deliberately kept away from “rough boys” (working-class children) by his parents, who feared that these boys would mistreat him.

Question 3

Envious: jealous or resentful (you want what someone else has.

Answer 3

Envious: jealous or resentful (you want what someone else has.

Question 4

This poem is written from the perspective of a young child. The child’s parents restrict him and keep him away from the rough children, fearing they will make fun of him.
They are rough in their manners and appearances. However, the speaker is envious of their freedom. He adores the way they play freely in the street without any restrictions.

Answer 4

This poem is written from the perspective of a young child. The child’s parents restrict him and keep him away from the rough children, fearing they will make fun of him.
They are rough in their manners and appearances. However, the speaker is envious of their freedom. He adores the way they play freely in the street without any restrictions.

Question 4

SOME THEMES

Answer 4

Bullying
The gap between social classes
Parent’s love
Envy

Question 5

Who would you feel sorry for and why?

Answer 5

-The poor kids that wear rags, are filthy and have to work or the rich kids that eats well every night, wears proper cloths, but cannot do what they want?

Question 6

1. My parents kept me from children who were rough

Answer 6

kept: The fact that Spender states that his parents ‘kept’ him from the other boys shows us that he felt like he was being forced to stay away from them.

rough: They are rough in their manners and appearances

Question 7

2.Who threw words like stones and worn torn clothes

Answer 7

Simile: Comparison with like. Words are hurtful. This tell us that the speaker was a victim of verbal abuse. Children who wield their word as weapons

torn clothes: An indication of poverty. This tells us that they may be from the working class. These children, rough and unkempt, wear tattered clothes and exhibit a shameless demeanor.

Question 8

3. Their thighs showed through rags they ran in the street.

Answer 8

Their thighs peek through ragged fabric as they dash through the streets.

Question 8

4. And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams

Answer 8

This line indicates the freedom that these boys have and the lack of freedom the speaker has. They are allowed to do all these things, but the speaker’s parents does not let him join in these boys indevours.

Alliteration: climbed cliffs, stripped streams

Question 9

6. Their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms

Answer 9

Spender states that he feared their knees on his arms which shows that perhaps he had fallen into a scrap with them before, or he had seen them fighting in such a manner with each other.

Question 9

5. I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron.

Answer 9

NOTE LINES : Spender goes on to describe the boys in an almost exaggerated fashion

Simile: comparison using ‘like’. This highlights the strength of these children and the speaker’s admiration for them. compares the bullies’ physical strength to that of tigers

Hyperbole: Shows the speaker’s exceeding fear for these children.

Naturally, being of a lower class meant the boys had to do more labor, therefore, they had muscles that he could not even dream of having.

Question 10

7. I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys

Answer 10

Not only did Spender fear their physical strength, but he also feared their words, mocking him and pointing at him. The fact that Spender states he feared their pointing shows his insecurity of being left out due to his very different life style.

SALT: Like rubbing salt on a wound – it stings.
COARSE: Rough or harsh texture

Question 11

8. Who copied my lisp behind me on the road.

Answer 11

Lisp: When you can’t make the ‘s’ sound.

The ‘salt in the wound’ phrase further links to his ‘lisp’ which is his exposed wound. We learn of the boy’s psychological torment on top of the physical torment

Question 12

9. They were lithe they sprang out behind hedges

Answer 12

He describes them as fit and springing up from behind bushes. Spender uses Imagery to show the boys are like some form of predator (tigers). Springing from behind hedges to harass him for being different than they were.

Referring to a person’s body: thin, supple and graceful

Question 13

10. Like dogs to bark at my world. They threw mud

Answer 13

Spender uses a Simile again to compare the boys to dogs, barking at his world. This means that they have their own opinions about the upper/middle class the boy came from. Dogs can both be an enemy or close friends.

The boys did not hate Spender himself. but rather, they hated the class distinctions and they were more likely envios of Spender’s privleged life,

Question 14

11. While I looked the other way, pretending to smile.

Answer 14

This line illustrates how the boy is afraid to even confront the boys with eye contact and he attempts to lesser the divide between him and the boys by ‘pretending to smile’ and make them think he shares their humour and isn’t totally different.

Question 15

12. I longed to forgive them but they never smiled

Answer 15

Spender’s use of the word ‘longed’ shows the desperation of the boy to be accepted by them but ‘they never smiled’ . He was longing for their acceptance of him, shifting the blame of their divide onto the boys and not on him.

Question 16

Activity:

Answer 16

Activity:

Question 16

Let’s look back on this question: Who would you feel sorry for and why

Answer 16

-The poor kids, that wear rags, are filthy and have to work or the rich kids that eats well every night, wears proper cloths, but cannot do what they want?

Question 17

This is the irony:

Answer 17

We now feel sorry for the boy who is not allowed to go and have fun.

The rich boy wishes to have the poor boy’s life, and the poor boy wishes to have the rich boy’s life.

Question 18

1.2 Describe the physical appearance of the boys by quoting lines from the poems.

Answer 18

“worn torn clothes”, “thighs showed through rags”, “their muscles like iron”, “They were lithe”

Question 18

1.4 Quote ONE line from the poem than indicates that the boys have some sense of freedom.

Answer 18

“And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams”

Question 18

1.5 Did the boy react on the things the other boys did to him? Quote to substantiate.

Answer 18

“while I looked the other way”