Analysis of the poem, ‘My Parents’ by Stephen Spender

Nature/Situation

The persona recalled his childhood days. He remembered how his parents shielded him,
“from children who were rough”. As a result of their overprotective nature, he never learnt
how to deal with their bullying and taunting. This is illustrated in line 5, “I feared more than
tigers their muscles like iron...” The speaker grew to fear them, although ironically he longed
to forgive them (line 13) and be their friends.

Structure

The poem is written in free verse. This offers the poet the ability to write freely and express
his thoughts without the constraint of rhymes and rhythms. The poem is stanzaic in nature
with three regular stanzas of similar lengths. The orderliness of the structure makes us think
of the orderliness of the speaker’s world. The poem is written in quatrains (four line stanzas),
which again alluded to how orderly the persona’s life is. Additionally, there are no end
rhymes in the poem, perhaps this hints at the lack of harmonious relationships in the
speaker’s life.

Themes

 Poverty
Poverty was observed in lines two and three where the children wore torn clothes and
their thighs showed through rags.
 Family life and Parenthood
These were demonstrated because the persona declared that his parents deliberately
kept him away from the other children.
 Childhood
This was also outlined throughout the poem when the persona described his
experiences as a youth, as well as the childhood activities that the boys engaged in.
 Classism
This is also permeated the poem because the persona’s parents kept him from the
other boys because they were deemed as rough.

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Figurative Devices

Simile

 “Threw words like stones” shows how harsh and cruel the boys’ words were.
 “Their muscles like iron”, shows how athletic, strong, firm and toned their bodies
were.
 “Like dogs to bark at my world” shows how fierce and intrusive the boys were.

Metaphor

 “Salt coarse” shows how uncouth and rough the boys were.
 “Bark at my world” compares the boys to dogs, ready to attack him.

Hyperbole

This was also used in the poem when the persona claimed that he feared the boys more than
the tigers.

Irony

This was also observed because although the boys were very uncaring, the persona longed to
be their friend.

Imagery

Animal imagery was also observed in the poem. The persona compared the boys to tigers
and dogs. These are fierce, predatory animals.

Caesura

 Line 3 allowed the readers to see how poor and wild the boys were.
 Line 11, the caesura outlined how crude and devious the boys were.

Diction

The diction in the poem contributed to its meaning. The use of the words and phrases
relating to animals and animal imagery allowed the readers to visualize how dangerous the

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boys were. “Thighs showed through rags” allowed the readers to truly realize how
impoverished the boys were. These are only a few examples of use of diction.

Point of View

The poem is written in the first person point of view. This has the advantage of providing the
readers with first-hand information that was observed by the persona, for example, “they ran
in the street and climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams”. However, the first
person point of view has the disadvantage of being limited and biased. The persona
compared them to dogs who wanted to bark at his world- this is the persona’s opinion and
therefore very subjective.

Mood

The speaker’s mood is varied in the poem. His mood was sometimes apprehensive and filled
with terror when he described the physical attacks and rudeness of the boys as they mocked
his lisp. At other times, the persona’s mood was reminiscent when he recalled longing to
forgive his peers.

Tone

The tone in the poem is not static. The persona was sometimes disgruntled when he spoke
disdainfully about the torn clothes and the rags that the children wore. At other times, the
speaker had an envious tone when he spoke of their freedom to run in the street, climb cliffs
and bathe in streams. The speaker’s tone was also agitated when he spoke of his fear of the
boys.

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