To My Nine-Year Old Self -Dunmore
- Created by: MJ
- Created on: 18-03-22 13:40
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- "You must forgive me."
- Starting sentence of the poem, suggests that the speaker feels a strong sense of guilt for something.
- To My Nine-Year Old Self - Dunmore
- "Look at the scars,"
- Scars may be a way to show a sense of ageing that the body the speaker and her younger self share.
- "Do you remember how, three minutes after waking we'd jump straight out of the ground floor window into the summer morning?"
- this depiction of child-like eagerness to go out and play every day
- to highlight this implies a change in behaviour - perhaps the speaker is at a point where they cannot experience that same motivation and energy as they had all those years ago.
- the use of the pronoun "we'd" almost sounds like the speaker was there with their younger self, which is impossible.
- presents a feeling of lonliness - perhaps they're an only child? And wish they had experienced this moment with someone else.
- this depiction of child-like eagerness to go out and play every day
- "That summer of ambition created an ice-lolly factory, a wasp trap and a den by the cesspit."
- Another emphasis placed on ambition, again reinforcing the idea that the speaker has changed drastically in terms of behaviour to when they were younger.
- "time to hide down scared lanes from men in cars after girl-children."
- An extremely dangerous and scary situation.
- as the poem is about an adult speaker looking back on core memories of her childhood, there's a sense of true comprehension and realisation of what was really happening, where as she would've most likely misunderstood the situation.
- An extremely dangerous and scary situation.
- "balancing on your hands or on the tightrope."
- Emphasises a child's agility, something that is lost as we age.
- Also could stand as a metaphor for the risks that children may take. The younger we are, typically, the more adventurous and reckless we become.
- "a baby vole, or a bag of sherbet lemons,"
- "sherbet lemons"
- sour middle, sweet exterior
- a metaphor for the speaker and her younger self.
- sour middle, sweet exterior
- "a baby vole"
- a baby animal
- representation of harmlessness and innocence
- a representation of how the adult speaker perceives her younger self.
- representation of harmlessness and innocence
- a baby animal
- "sherbet lemons"
- "slowly peeling a ripe scab from your knee to taste it on your tongue."
- Yet another core memory of the speaker's childhood.
- some may find this imagery disturbing,
- others will be able to relate, looking back on their own experience with fondness.
- Yet another core memory of the speaker's childhood.
- "Look at the scars,"
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