Childhood Reminiscence In Poetry

How do poets portray childhood reminiscence?

By dictionary definition, reminiscence is the act of remembering things in the past. It could be good things or bad things. Childhood reminiscence therefore, is remembering things from your childhood. A number of poets frequently used this theme to portray their longing for the past, mostly, their childhood. In this essay, I will demonstrate with selected works from both anthology and non-anthology poems, how some poets reminisced about the past by dwelling on their childhood. I will discuss three anthology poems, namely : Once upon a time by Gabriel Okara, Poem at thirty-nine by Alice Walker, and Piano by D.H. Lawrence, and three non-anthology pieces of work: We remember your childhood well by

The only difference is that in this one the father is alive whereas Poem at thirty nine has the father dead. The poem is written in first person and has a rhyming scheme but this is different compared to Piano by having ABAB scheme: for each stanza, the first line has the same number of syllables as the third and the second, same as 4th, though the last one is ABAA. The poem is about the poet reminiscing about his father ploughing in his farm. The title, Follower, portrays the poet in his childhood with the intention to follow his father’s footsteps .We can remind ourselves with Poem at thirty-nine where the poet is taught by her father how to manage finances. Similarly the father is also a farmer, though it does not say much in the poem. Sibilance is used in the first stanza “his shoulders….. sail strung …shafts” to emphasize on the ease his father has to plough. The speaker sees his father as a very strong man during his childhood he compares him with a great ship in “full sail strung” in addition to alliteration for the emphasis. The poet also uses enjambment to emphasize on his father’s strength. We continue to the next stanza that begins with a short and direct speech “an expert.” Additionally, “The sod rolled over without breaking” goes back to the idea of the poet’s father ploughing with ease and brings more emphasis to how good of an expert he really is. This expertise could also be compared with the poet of Poem at Thirty-nine’s father: “cooked like a person dancing in a yoga meditation” .This, the poet expresses this idea as if it is a hobby to him. We move to the boy describing how he was. He wanted to be like his father: “grow up and plough” and continues two lines later to quote “all I ever did was follow”: this shows a sign of guilt, that he can never be like his father and it is backed up by the beginning