Post by Admin on Oct 3, 2016 20:17:53 GMT
Section I
· This poem deals with the magic, mystery and innocence of childhood. It describes how the most ordinary, everyday things can appear wonderful to children.
· Kavanagh recalls sights and sounds from his own childhood that filled him with wonder. He remembers the following things:
-white frost on one side of the potato pits
- the musical sounds of the paling post
- a ray of light beaming between bales of hay and straw
- tracks made by cattle
- “a green stone lying sideways in a ditch”
Kavanagh can remember what it felt like to be a child, a “gay garden”, a happy and innocent time filled with wonder. He believes that in the eyes ofa child, “any common sight” can be “transfigured” or filled with mystery and beauty.
Section II
The poet remembers a particular Christmas morning from his childhood. We know it is very early as the stars are still in the sky. It is so cold that ice has formed in the potholes.
The poet specifically remembers his father playing the, melodeon and his mother milking the cows.
The poet conveys something of the anticipation and excitement that he felt on that morning: “as I pulled on my trousers in a hurry, I knew something strange had happened”
As he looks out the door, his imagination takes over: to him, the stars seem to be dancing to his father’s music; the noise of the cows being milked also has a musical quality; to the poet, the stable is compared to where Jesus was born. The light that his mother uses is compared to the star of Bethlehem: “the light of her stable lamp was a star and the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle”: three bushes on the horizon swaying in the wind remind the young child of the “Three Wise Kings”
The magical nature of this specific memory is interrupted by the screeching of “a water-hen” and by the sound of “mass-going feet” crunching “the wafer-ice on the potholes”.
We are reminded that even as a child, Kavanagh was already viewing the world through a poet’s eyes: “my child poet picked out the letters on the grey stone, in silver the wonder of a Christmas townland”
After his vision of the three wise kings on their way to worship the baby Jesus, the poet is again interrupted with reality, an old man passes by who comments on his father’s skill as a melodeon player.
The child is proud of the penknife he possibly got for Christmas. It makes him feel grown up: “I was six Christmases of age”.
As he looks over this winter townland, he says a prayer to the Virgin Mary. He sees the prayer as his gift like the gift of a “white rose pinned on the Virgin Mary’s blouse”
Imagery
This poem is dominated with sentimental/powerful/biblical/striking/strong/effective/descriptive imagery.
Light (stanza 1) symbolising a ray of light from heaven
Fruit tree (stanza 1) symbolic of the tree of knowledge.
Eating fruit (stanza 1) symbolises temptation = loss of innocence
“The gay garden that was childhood’s” is symbolic of childhood innocence
Stars in the morning east symbolise the Star of Bethlehem, create a sense of happiness
Light of his mothers stable lamp becomes the star of Bethlehem
Three whin bushes become the Three Wise Kings
Six nicks are symbols of his age
His prayer is symbolic of a gift to the Virgin Mary.
Childhood
The power of a child’s imagination is movingly illustrated when the young poet sees the story of Christmas come alive in the fields before him.
This poem captures the magical nature of Christmas in the eyes of a child. He describes waking excitedly on Christmas morning. He seems delighted with his penknife and proud to understand the meaning of Christmas.
This poem also laments the fact that childhood innocence cannot last forever. The poet suggests that as we grow older and acquire more knowledge of the world around us, we lose the ability to see the world as a wonderful, magical place.
The poet compares the loss of this childhood innocence to the banishment of Adam Garden of Eden. Childhood is seen as a lost garden of innocence to which the poet can never return. We can remember what it was like to be a child but we can never experience childhood innocence again.
· This poem deals with the magic, mystery and innocence of childhood. It describes how the most ordinary, everyday things can appear wonderful to children.
· Kavanagh recalls sights and sounds from his own childhood that filled him with wonder. He remembers the following things:
-white frost on one side of the potato pits
- the musical sounds of the paling post
- a ray of light beaming between bales of hay and straw
- tracks made by cattle
- “a green stone lying sideways in a ditch”
Kavanagh can remember what it felt like to be a child, a “gay garden”, a happy and innocent time filled with wonder. He believes that in the eyes ofa child, “any common sight” can be “transfigured” or filled with mystery and beauty.
Section II
The poet remembers a particular Christmas morning from his childhood. We know it is very early as the stars are still in the sky. It is so cold that ice has formed in the potholes.
The poet specifically remembers his father playing the, melodeon and his mother milking the cows.
The poet conveys something of the anticipation and excitement that he felt on that morning: “as I pulled on my trousers in a hurry, I knew something strange had happened”
As he looks out the door, his imagination takes over: to him, the stars seem to be dancing to his father’s music; the noise of the cows being milked also has a musical quality; to the poet, the stable is compared to where Jesus was born. The light that his mother uses is compared to the star of Bethlehem: “the light of her stable lamp was a star and the frost of Bethlehem made it twinkle”: three bushes on the horizon swaying in the wind remind the young child of the “Three Wise Kings”
The magical nature of this specific memory is interrupted by the screeching of “a water-hen” and by the sound of “mass-going feet” crunching “the wafer-ice on the potholes”.
We are reminded that even as a child, Kavanagh was already viewing the world through a poet’s eyes: “my child poet picked out the letters on the grey stone, in silver the wonder of a Christmas townland”
After his vision of the three wise kings on their way to worship the baby Jesus, the poet is again interrupted with reality, an old man passes by who comments on his father’s skill as a melodeon player.
The child is proud of the penknife he possibly got for Christmas. It makes him feel grown up: “I was six Christmases of age”.
As he looks over this winter townland, he says a prayer to the Virgin Mary. He sees the prayer as his gift like the gift of a “white rose pinned on the Virgin Mary’s blouse”
Imagery
This poem is dominated with sentimental/powerful/biblical/striking/strong/effective/descriptive imagery.
Light (stanza 1) symbolising a ray of light from heaven
Fruit tree (stanza 1) symbolic of the tree of knowledge.
Eating fruit (stanza 1) symbolises temptation = loss of innocence
“The gay garden that was childhood’s” is symbolic of childhood innocence
Stars in the morning east symbolise the Star of Bethlehem, create a sense of happiness
Light of his mothers stable lamp becomes the star of Bethlehem
Three whin bushes become the Three Wise Kings
Six nicks are symbols of his age
His prayer is symbolic of a gift to the Virgin Mary.
Childhood
The power of a child’s imagination is movingly illustrated when the young poet sees the story of Christmas come alive in the fields before him.
This poem captures the magical nature of Christmas in the eyes of a child. He describes waking excitedly on Christmas morning. He seems delighted with his penknife and proud to understand the meaning of Christmas.
This poem also laments the fact that childhood innocence cannot last forever. The poet suggests that as we grow older and acquire more knowledge of the world around us, we lose the ability to see the world as a wonderful, magical place.
The poet compares the loss of this childhood innocence to the banishment of Adam Garden of Eden. Childhood is seen as a lost garden of innocence to which the poet can never return. We can remember what it was like to be a child but we can never experience childhood innocence again.