Little Boy Crying

by Mervyn Morris

Your mouth contorting in brief spite and hurt,

your laughter metamorphosed into howl,

your frame so recently relaxed now tight

with three-year old frustration, your bright eyes

swimming tears, splashing your bare feet,

you stand there angling for a moment's hint

of guilt or sorrow for the quick slap struck.


The ogre towers above you, that grim giant,

empty of feeling, a colossal cruel,

soon victim of the tale's conclusion, dead

at last. You hate him , you imagine

chopping clean the tree he's scrambling down

or plotting deeper pits to trap him in.


You cannot understand, not yet,

the hurt your easy tears can scald him with,

nor guess the wavering hidden behind the mask.

This fierce man longs to lift you, curb your sadness

with piggy-back or bull-fight, anything,

but dare not ruin the lessons you should learn.


You must not make a plaything of the rain.

Activity


  1. What is the poem about?

  2. Identify all literary devices in the poem and comment on their effectiveness and use in the poem.

  3. Identify the theme of the poem

  4. Identify any important words or phrases in the poem and comment on their meaning

  5. What is the mood of the poem?

  6. What is the tone of the poem?

LitCharts-little-boy-crying.pdf

Stanza 1

The poem begins with a description of a child crying. However, his cries seem harsh and fierce “Your laughter metamorphosed into howl”. This also suggests that the child is normally a happy one and something happened to have changed his happiness. The last line in the stanza informs us that the reason why the child is crying is because he has been beaten “the quick slap struck”. The little boy is also staring at the parent hoping that he might be feeling guilty for hitting him. This might mean that the child is trying to play on the parent’s emotion “you stand there angling for a moment’s hint”.

Stanza 2

It is important to note that the stanza is giving the point of view of the parent. The parent is imagining that the child is demonizing him for hitting him “The ogre towers above you, that grim giant,// empty of feeling a colossal cruel”. From this, we can understand that the parent thinks that the child believes that he is cruel and evil for hitting him and therefore is thinking of ways to overcome or get away from the parent.

Stanza 3

Poet makes it clear that the father loves his son. However, he is slapping him for is own good. He also suggests that the father is hurt by the son’s tears and would do anything to make him stop crying. “This fierce man longs to lift you//……” Yet, the lesson must be taught.

THEMES

Parent – Child Relationship

The father seems to be firm and strict with his son. Although he loves him he does not allow him to have his own way.

Childhood Experiences

The little boy experiences pain and resentment for his parent. Unlike Ana, his childhood is not one that is carefree without any consequences for undesired behaviour.

Parenting

The father tries to be a good parent. In his eyes there are some lessons that his son must learn. Therefore, he carries out physical punishment so that he can learn these lessons.

LITERARY DEVICES

Personification - 'the hurt your easy tears can scald him with'. This emphasises how much the parent can be hurt by his own actions in disciplining his child.

Imagery - stanza 2 - imagery is used to draw readers to an understanding of how the child saw his father when he was being disciplined. The child saw his father as somethings scary, out of a book that he might have been read, which in the poem is 'Jack and the Beanstalk'

IMPORTANT WORDS/PHRASES

'laughter metamorphosed into howls' - this here means that the boy was laughing and having fun while he was playing but the laughter changed into crying/howling as his parent caught him and disciplined him.

'the ogre towers above you' - to the child, his once loving parent now seemed like a scary monster that is standing over him. To a three-year old, an adult will appear to them as very tall in height, which is why it is easy to see that the child was scared by his now angry parent.

'soon victim of the tale's conclusion' - every fairy tale story ends with the monster or villain being defeated. To the child, when his parent is disciplining him, he imagines defeating him, just like how Jack defeated the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk.