How Poets Describe the Ending of Childhood Innocence :: Childhood Poetry Poems Essays

How Poets Describe the Ending of Childhood Innocence Firstly Seamus Heaney is a poet I have studied. He was from a rural catholic background in Castledawson, County Derry, however he did live in a mainly protestant area. He addresses issues such as childhood, familial relationships, particularly his relationship with his father and also the identity crisis of becoming a poet. For example in his poem, â€Å"Death of a Naturalist† he draws largely on his experience and the experience of his community in an attempt to represent the troubles in a new and analytical manner. In contrast to this, another poet I focused on, Carol Ann Duffy, grew up in an urban environment. She was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1955, however grew up in Staffordshire, England and attended university in Liverpool before moving to London. She also addresses issues involving childhood memories in such poems as Litany and In Mrs Tilscher’s class. Another poet studied was Ronald Stuart Thomas. He was born in Cardiff but moved from place to place after his father got a job in the Navy. He finally settled in Holyhead in 1918. He began to seriously learn the Welsh language, as he wanted a sense of Welsh identity. It showed importance of being Welsh. Many years later R. S. Thomas was alienated from much of Welsh country life by his status as a priest in the Church of Wales. He felt the exclusion keenly, saying once that an anglicised upbringing like his prevents one from ever feeling one hundred percent at home in Welsh Wales’. He is similar to Heaney due to his rural and religious backgrounds and is also a nationalist. All three of these poets frequently write about a personal experience they had when growing up and how it affected them, or about the experience of the child or children and how they think it affected them. Seamus Heaney wrote Mid-term break, which describes a personal experience for him when his brother died in a car accident when he was young. He is recalling a childhood memory. Carol Ann Duffy also recalls a childhood memory in her poem Litany. She remembered the day when she thought her mother and her mother’s friends were excluding her. Also R. S. Thomas wrote the poem Children’s song, which speaks about how children live in a world of their own in which no adult can never be a part of. When writing about childhood the poems are retrospective and look into the past, which concern memories of the child. Some poems by these three poets present a child’s perspective of the world, while others show how an adult views their past.