To My Nine-Year-Old Self Flashcards
What form is used?
Dialogue - between present self and past self
What themes are in the poem?
Consequences, age, childhood, identity, time, innocence, freedom
‘You must forgive me’
Pronouns - emphatic of the separation/divided between past/present self. Imperative - now adult, in control/serious tone - compromised dreams and freedom she had as a child
‘perplexed’
latinate/formal tone - contrast with informal/unhindered freedom of a child
‘balancing on your hands’
Metaphor for the fearless nature of children/unaware of consequences
‘you would rather run than wall, rather climb than run, rather leap from a height than anything’
anaphora emphatic of her child-like energy/ restless - juxtaposition. between part and present - parallel phrasing. end stop emphatic of impatience of children
‘look’ ‘watch’ ‘careful’
semantic field of vigilance/caution to emphasise adult now taken responsibility - serious tone portrays escaping idyll of childhood
‘bad back or a bruised foot’
plosives - harsh damage caused in childhood - now facing consequences
‘we’d jump out of the ground floor window into the summer morning?’
juxtaposition between serious adulthood and freedom of youth/childhood/hope
‘it’s as fresh in your mind as the white paper to write on’
simile + enjambment -conveys idea of possibility (full of potential) + colour imagery to show innocence
‘a baby vole, or a bag of sherbet lemons-‘
polsyndeton - emphatic of how childhood is characterised by almost arbitrary activities - unstructured. caesura- time interrupted by social activities
‘we’ and ‘I’
Juxtaposition from previous - from collective pronouns to personal - separating past/present self, sense of disconnect
‘we could be friends/but the truth is we have nothing in common’
enjambment - constant movement, displaying an unstructured freedom found in childhood
‘long buried in housing-‘
Caesura - brought back to the present, shift back to serious tone
‘I shan’t cloud your morning’
Juxtaposes ‘summer morning’ - connotes vibrancy, instead adulthood is seen through the metaphor of clouds, depicted by burden/anxiety/trouble - complex
