Poetry Anaylze

Both poems Black Child by Maureen Watson and Child of Tears by Neilson, John Shaw explore the theme of innocent children having to suffer. They enhance this shared theme through effective use of language devices and atmospheric devices such as repetition, personification and symbolism.

Repetition is used throughout both of the poems. Child of Tears persistently repeats “your” and “you”, the significance of these gives the effect of the poem being personal. In the poem Black Child “he” is also repeated throughout the text and written in a way that it is present tense. This can impact the reader in a way that it is happening in real time and there is nothing to do about it, which could make the reader feel at fault or guilty. This enhances the theme stated in the thesis which is the suffering of children. The way repetition is used in the poems gives the feeling of it being personal.

Another language device which is effectively used in the poems is Personification. Maureen Watson in “Black Child” uses personification to leave a lasting impression on the reader and get the theme of the poem across to the reader. The line “anger in black brother’s fists” is the personification, fists cannot have anger and by saying that the fists have anger in them, tells you that the brother is very angry at someone or something. Instead of just having a simple line about the brother being angry this causes a greater effect and impression on the reader. In the poem Child of Tears Neilson, John Shaw has used personification as well in the line “His mother’s heart was false and black”, A heart cannot be false, but this gives the idea that the mother has been harshly judged. Both of the personifications in these poems were used in a negative way enhancing the atmosphere and theme of a child suffering.

The last language device which is used most often is Symbol. The words “Hell” and “Paradise” are used in Child of Tears which is most