Charming Childhoods?

Whether it was that new, hot pink bicycle, your favorite stuffed animal, or playing mini-munchkin soccer, we all have our own memories of childhood. Some of our memories are recorded on film and or pictures. However, some of our fondest memories are locked safe away in our minds. “The Video”, “My Papa’s Waltz”, “Bored” and “Fern Hill” are four different poems that all have the similar theme of childhood woven in.

Fleur Adcock’s, “The Video” is a very comedic poem that deals with the birth of a new baby sister. However, jealousy sometimes arises with the introduction of another sibling. A third person speaker tells the poem’s story. The first stanza deals with the family’s eager anticipation of a new child. “They all gathered around Mum’s bed,” (Adcock 2). Ceri is the oldest sister and is the narrator's focus. The second stanza deals with the other half of having a little sister. Ceri realizes that having another sibling may not be all that great. “After she had a little sister, and Mum had gone back to being thin, and was twice as busy…” (Adcock 7). Ceri had lost all the attention she had once received. The only part of having a little sister that Ceri found enjoyment it was making her new sister “disappear”. Ceri watched a recording that her father had made of her sister’s birth. “She watched Laura come out, and then, in reverse, she made her go back in,” (Adcock 11). The video memory that Ceri had of her sister made her childhood that much better.

“My Papa’s Waltz” deals with a father being viewed through his son’s eyes. The poem moves faster than the first one due to a distinct rhyming pattern. The way Theodore Roethke’s poem flows can be compared to that of an actual waltz. The speaker uses harsh words and paints a negative picture of his father. “The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy,” (Roethke 1). The first two sentences of each stanza give a pessimistic connotation. Yet, the final two sentences of each stanza show that the speaker will not stop loving his father. “Then waltzed me off to bed still clinging to your shirt,” (Roethke 15). This shows how much love the speaker has for his father even though he has had some unfortunately lifestyle choices. The speaker remembers the high and the low points of his childhood.

In Margaret Atwood’s poem, “Bored”, the speaker does not talk about happy memories of her childhood. The speaker remembers, “Holding the log while he sawed it,” (Atwood 2) and “The boring rhythm of doing things over and over, carrying the wood, drying the dishes,” (Atwood 21). Many of the speaker’s memories involve physical chores that her father made her do. The word ‘bored’ is used consistently throughout the piece. Many of the tasks the father made his daughter do on a daily basis may have seemed “boring” at the time. On the other hand, towards the end of the poem, the speaker reflects back and says, “Perhaps though boredom is happier,” (Atwood 35). The speaker might be missing these tedious tasks of her childhood, or more importantly her father. By doing these chores and helping her father, the speaker learned valuable lessons that she could use later on in her life.

Finally, “Fern Hill”, is a poem that is more of a child’s fantasies while he was in his youth. From the beginning of the poem, the audience learns that the speaker is talking about his past. Most of the speakers days were spent while playing in vast farmland. “And I was green and carefree, famous among the barns…” (Thomas 10). The speaker was allowed to run around and he pretended to be anything he wanted to be. “And green and golden I was huntsman and herdsman…” (Atwood 15). The poem goes on to talk about how the speaker would play from sunrise to sunset. “And nothing I cared, at my sky-blue trades, that time allows,” (Atwood 42). His childhood consisted of carefree and relaxed days and nights. Now all the speaker can do is want to back to the days, when his agenda consisted of playing with the sheep, trees, and endless amounts of farmland.

As these four works depict, most childhood memories can be pleasant. Whether it is remembering a relationship between a parent, the birth of a sibling, or the imaginations thought of and games once played, memories can provide an outlet to the past. Recollections of the past define who we are today and allow people escape to places they once called home.