From your study of “Piano” by D.H Lawrence, “Half-past Two” by U.A Fanthorpe and “Hide and seek” by Vernon Scannell, and with reference to another three poems from wider reading, discuss how the poets present feelings about childhood.

Childhood is a common experience that we all have been through; however this experience is not the same for everyone. There are always common aspects in our stories but our feelings are completely different. As memories start to fade, the overall feeling of the experiences start to become predominant in our minds. It might have been a scar or a sweet dream, but every poet was shaped by those memories described in the poems. Although the subject is common, these poems are different. Each one portrays aspects of childhood viewed by the feelings of the poet.

“Hide and Seek” by Vernon Scannell tells the story of a little boy who was playing hide and seek with other children but he ends up being left alone in the dark. Writing about the same theme, “My Parents Kept Me from Children who were rough” by Stephen Spender describes the story of a boy that is overprotected by his parents and constantly bullied by the other children because of his social class. It explores the contrast between the social classes and how it affects both the behaviour and life of the children. Both of the poems are focused in different aspects of childhood including that children can be cruel and that childhood is not always perfect.

In Hide and Seek, the poet narrates the apparent cruelty of other children who left the child alone in the toolshed. By using a variety of sound related words such as “mutters; /their words and laughter scuffle, and they are gone”. a sense of conspiracy is created because of the way that the children speak undertone reveals that perhaps they are concealing a secret that can’t be heard by the boy. It reveals the idea that