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    Little Boy Crying

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    Asma Abualhaija
    The poem is told from the perspective of a little boy who has been punished by an adult for crying. In the first stanza, the boy is initially described as bright and cheerful but then "contorting" and "howling" after being slapped by the grim-faced adult. In the second stanza, the boy plots revenge against the cruel adult by imagining transforming into a fierce animal from a fairy tale. The third stanza depicts the boy unable to understand why he was punished and longing to regain his previous rapport with the adult, though his tears now come easily. The poem explores themes of childhood, relationships between adults and children, and the use of fairy tales.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Little Boy Crying

    Uploaded by

    Asma Abualhaija
    663 views5 pages
    The poem is told from the perspective of a little boy who has been punished by an adult for crying. In the first stanza, the boy is initially described as bright and cheerful but then "contorting" and "howling" after being slapped by the grim-faced adult. In the second stanza, the boy plots revenge against the cruel adult by imagining transforming into a fierce animal from a fairy tale. The third stanza depicts the boy unable to understand why he was punished and longing to regain his previous rapport with the adult, though his tears now come easily. The poem explores themes of childhood, relationships between adults and children, and the use of fairy tales.

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    LittleBoyCrying

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    The poem is told from the perspective of a little boy who has been punished by an adult for crying. In the first stanza, the boy is initially described as bright and cheerful but then "contorting" and "howling" after being slapped by the grim-faced adult. In the second stanza, the boy plots revenge against the cruel adult by imagining transforming into a fierce animal from a fairy tale. The third stanza depicts the boy unable to understand why he was punished and longing to regain his previous rapport with the adult, though his tears now come easily. The poem explores themes of childhood, relationships between adults and children, and the use of fairy tales.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    663 views5 pages

    Little Boy Crying

    Uploaded by

    Asma Abualhaija
    The poem is told from the perspective of a little boy who has been punished by an adult for crying. In the first stanza, the boy is initially described as bright and cheerful but then "contorting" and "howling" after being slapped by the grim-faced adult. In the second stanza, the boy plots revenge against the cruel adult by imagining transforming into a fierce animal from a fairy tale. The third stanza depicts the boy unable to understand why he was punished and longing to regain his previous rapport with the adult, though his tears now come easily. The poem explores themes of childhood, relationships between adults and children, and the use of fairy tales.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
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    1

    Little Boy Crying


    Mervyn Morris

    Mervyn Morris was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1937, and gained fame as Professor of
    Creative Writing and Literature at the University of the West Indies. As a schoolboy, he wrote
    for fun and satirical reasons. Later, he said, he used poetry more seriously to ask questions
    about aspects of his life. He is known for the economy with which he uses his words. This
    might be borne in mind when approaching this poem.

    A) Warm-up exercise
    Why might the little boy be crying.

    B) Pre-teaching: vocabulary

    WORD DEFINITION
    1.CONTORTING A. seeking an objective by devious
    ways
    2.SPITE B. strike with the flat of the hand
    3.METAMORPHOSED C. planning secretly
    4.HOWLS D. ill will , malice
    5.FRAME E. stern and forbidding appearance
    6.ANGLING F. shakiness, faltering
    7.HINT G. twisting violently
    8.SLAP H. burn
    9.TOWERS I. indication, sign
    10.GRIM J. cries
    11.SCRAMBLING K. changed or transformed
    12.PLOTTING L. has strong desires / wishes
    13.SCALD M. restrain
    14.WAVERING N. body
    15.LONGS O. stands high and superior
    16.CURB P. struggling

    Fill out the answers below :

    1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
    6) 7) 8) 9) 10)
    11) 12) 13) 14) 15)
    16)
    2

    C. The Poem
    Stanza 1
    1. What is the incident and whose perspective do we see it from ?

    2. How is the boy described ? Contrast the before and after. Assess how far the boy’s grief is
    genuine. Look closely at the words to support your case. (Remember that the emotions of
    a small boy do not have to be straightforward .)

    3. Identify and comment on the effects of the following:

    Technique Example Comment


    Pronouns

    Alliteration

    Hyperbole

    Monosyllables

    Water Imagery

    Onomatopoeia

    5. Is there anything else which is interesting about the way the boy is described?
    3

    6. How might the word ‘bright’ have a double meaning?

    7. What is the boy trying to do in line 6? ‘angling’

    8. Can you make any conclusions about how the adult feels about the boy and the
    punishment?

    Stanza 2
    1. How is the adult perceived and from whose perspective? Comment on this.

    2. The adult is described metaphorically. Fill in the table below with words used to describe
    the adult.

    NOUN VERB ADJECTIVE

    3. What kind of word is ‘cruel.’ How is it unexpected?


    4

    4. Consider the way


    i) the fairy-tale has been used
    ii) the sounds of the words
    iii) the way the poet presents the child’s plans for revenge.

    5. Identify and comment on:

    Techniques Examples Comments


    Hyperbole

    Alliteration

    6. Is there any suggestion of humour in the way the poet has presented the child’s response?

    Stanza 3
    1. What can’t the child understand?

    2. Is there any unhappiness about the loss of rapport between them, however short-lived it
    might be?

    3. In line 15, who does ‘your’ and ‘him’ refer to?

    4. Why are his tears ‘easy’?


    5

    5. Why doesn’t the poet call himself I or me at any time in the poem do you think?

    6. Consider the force of the feelings behind the ‘hurt’, ‘easy’, ‘fierce’, ‘longs’, ‘anything’,
    ‘dare’. What are the poet’s feelings?

    Stanza 4
    1. Why do you think the last line of the poem stands by itself?

    2. Who has ‘you’ referred to in the poem so far? Is this the case here?

    3. Why has the child been punished?

    4. Do you think it is sometimes necessary to be cruel to be kind?

    THEMES LINKS
    Relationships between adults and children

    Portrayal of children - CHILDHOOD

    Fairy tales

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