In Dunmore’s poem, the poet uses various different
techniques to show the speakers identity. This is portrayed mainly by writing
about his youth and the way in which he has damaged himself. Dunmore cleverly
uses structure and form to reiterate this important message.
In “to my 9-year-old self”, Dunmore uses listing to show the
excitement which the child feels. “You would rather run than walk, rather climb
than run, rather leap from a height than anything.” This
quote systematically cancels out the previous verbs suggesting that the child’s
enthusiasm is always growing and is never ending. As it cancels out each of the
actions, the next action increases in danger, implying that the minor had no
sense of danger or fear. This is reinforced by the line “Do you remember how, three minutes after
waking, we’d jump straight out of the ground floor window, into the summer
morning?” This
act is a very dangerous which could inevitably cause pain and injury. The
abundance of joy is also shown by the listing as it activities which require
lots of energy and excitement. This further creates a higher ‘tempo’ due to the
use of commas. The excerpt also connotes that the child has no time for anybody
and wishes to enjoy his youth as much as possible. The poet is reminiscing the old times as well
as being disappointed in the way he treated his body. This shows that the poet
is looking back upon the things he has done and believes that the past has
shaped his identity.
The structure
of the poem is uneven and does not have a rhyme scheme. In the first stanza,
the poet focuses upon the happiness and joy in which is felt from the child.
Due to the stanza being the shortest, a factor may be that the child is
“eager to be gone”. This may show the child does not wish to hang
around and wishes to explore and be free. It may also be the shortest however,
because it may be implying that there were not many fun times as what was once
thought. The second stanza is largely
about the dangers which they have put themselves through. This may be longer as
he is reminiscing the old times and wishes to do the things he used to be able
to do. This is further supported by the oxymoron “careful of a
bad back or a bruised foot…we’d jump straight out of the ground floor window,
into the summer morning?” if you continually jump from high objects
then a bad back or a bruised foot is what’s likely to happen. The middle stanza
is the longest stanza; it talks about the impossible dreams and visions which
the juvenile had while growing up. “Dream we had…created an ice-lolly factory,
a wasp trap, and a den by the cesspit.” This is the longest stanza as
the poet is trying to grasp the best memories and keep them close to him,
because he had damaged himself so much, he may have wanted something to smile
upon. Another interpretation is that the imagination of this child was huge and
may have had lots of ideas which were never followed. This shows that his
identity now has been formed from what happened when he was younger.
The bard
uses conscious choices on form to help enhance his view on his past. The use of
commas creates a choppy, high paced poem. This may attribute to the great
amount of energy and pleasure which the child exhibits. Furthermore nearer the
end of the poem, the poet starts to slow the poem down using long sentences to
help coagulate the view that the adult is not wanted as is taking up time,
stopping the child having fun.
In
conclusion, the poet has used various different techniques to show how their
identity has been shaped by the previous years of his life. The main choices to
explore this identity were the listing to show the energy and the experiences
which has molded the identity of this speaker. The use of the different size
stanza was clever in making you feel sorry for this person and creating a
certain tone.
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