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Guest Posted 21 years ago

Spender Analysis

0 I have to analyse the following poem for an exam on Thursday. My teacher says the poem is about rich vs poor kids, and the rich kid's desire to be accepted by the adventurous poor kids. I thought Stephen Spender might be making a social distinction between 'normal' society on one hand, and street kids on the other. Especially the use of words like 'rags' and 'torn' and sentences like, 'ran in the street', 'stripped by country streams'etc. 02br
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00Also, I don't get the meaning of, 'the salt coarse pointing of those boys'. 02br
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00Any assistance would be appreciated. 02br
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00My parents kept me from children who were rough 02br
00Who threw words like stones and who torn clothes. 02br
00Their thighs showed through rags.. They ran in the street 02br
00And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams. 02br
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00If feared more than tigers th.eit: musdes like iron 02br
00Their jerkirig hands and their knees tight on my arms. 02br
00I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys 02br
00Who copied my lisp behind me on the road. 02br
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00They were lithe, they sprang out behind hedges 02br
00Like dogs to bark at my world. They threw mud 02br
00While I looked the other way, pretending to smile. 02br
00I longed to forgive them, but they never smiled. 0-
  

Top answer

0 Your teacher is right, Guest. 02br 02br 00Spender was one of the "Left Wing" poets of the 30's & 40's, and was very aware of class distinctions. Here he is writing about a middle class boy who envies the freedom of the lower class boys, although he is also afraid of them.

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34 Answers
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0 Your teacher is right, Guest. 02br
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00Spender was one of the "Left Wing" poets of the 30's & 40's, and was very aware of class distinctions. Here he is writing about a middle class boy who envies the freedom of the lower class boys, although he is also afraid of them. His parents will not allow him to play with the boys because of the difference in their social class. 
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0 Do English boys fear tigers? I doubt it. 02br
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00MrP 0-
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0I'll bet you a fiver they would, if one jumped out of a hedge! 050010id5
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0 Oh, I'm sure they would. But I mean, as a rule? Strange men who invite you into their front seats, or the wrong brand of trainers, or being made to recite poetry in class, maybe; but 'tigers'? 02br
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00I don't think so. 02br
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00But then, Spender is a pretty ropey writer. 02br
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00MrP 0-
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0Context is everything Mr. P. Maybe his Mummy & Daddy had just taken him to the circus, where he had seen the tigers which were then permitted. Having observed the terrible mess they made of their poor whip-wielding trainer, Adolph Pinker, the young lad naturally bore emotional scars the rest of his days. 050010id9
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omg thank you soo much for those posts you have like helped me sooo much with my english homework
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Abbie, thank you so much even if you didn't post it for me in the first place. ***, I keep on telling myself that the best people to teach English poetry are its native speakers , not like these I have in here , sorry, I'm not impolite but I really don't enjoy poetry except in this very forum so thank you all
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0 Thank you so much even if you didn't post it for me in the first place. ***, I keep on telling myself that the best people to teach English poetry are its native speakers , not like these I have in here , sorry, I'm not impolite but I really don't enjoy poetry except in this very forum so thank you all05000. In class and whenever I try to add any point or when I to explain the salvati
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according to what i can remember when i did this poem couple years ago it means the perspriration of the boys the water was salt and the smell remain with them something like that not too sure just trying to help[
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suggestion? my teacher said that by saying he longed to forgive those kids who were rough, it was also implying that he was a haughty kid who felt that he had every right to forgive them.but then again there are many interpretations to a poem i guess =/
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