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Lacy Kitchin Ms. Jessica Camargo English 2100 May 5, 2013 Where Children Live: Growing up is a State of Mind Aging is a natural part of life. Growing old is inevitable. The poem Where Children Live by Naomi Shihab Nye, allows the reader to recapture some of the joys of childhood with various literary devices. This poem explores the theme of generational differences. The use of personification and imagery reveal a tension between the ideals of carefree childhood and the realistic details of adult life. The happy tone represented in the poem initially masks the sadness one experiences with the realization that childhood, and life in general, is fleeting. Personification in the second stanza details the secret to regaining ones youth and approaches the most significant point of the entire poem. The heart is the key to remaining youthful. The heart of the individual is personified by being dressed in childrens clothing of hooded coats and mittens and going outside just to play or find something to do. The key difference between the childs heart and the adults heart is its approach to life. A child will approach things with a sense of wonder and amazement while an adult allows their heart to be burdened with the details of daily life. An adult can regain a youthful outlook by shedding the worries that weigh them down emotionally. To be a child again one would need to shed details Till the hear found itself dressed in the coat with a hood.

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Now the heart has taken on gloves and mufflers, The heart never goes outside to find something to do. (2-5)

Allowing the heart to venture outside of its normal routine and view life from a different perspective is the first step to regaining a youthful attitude. The varying descriptions between a childs yard and the yard of an adult emphasize the generational differences. A lack of children affects the yard as well as the house. The house is described as taking on a dignified face once the children are grown. This personifies the house by implying that it too has grown up. It is somehow more dignified without the objects carelessly left in its yard by the children. Personification continues by detailing the family members of the yard. The trees speak in clearer tongues. (14) The trees speak to the children, enticing them to play, climb and swing on their branches. The ants have more hope. Squirrels dance as well as hide. (15) The ants feel hopeful around children because they will often feed them crumbs or just watch them, where adults would view them as a pest that needs to be exterminated. Both of these act as playmates and sources of entertainment to the children. The fence is personified by having a reason for existing, saying The fence has a reason to be there, so children can go in and out. (16). This implies that the fence actively keeps the children in the yard, guarding them like a parental figure. Also, it suggests that a fence can merely exist to act as an effective boundary between the children in the yard and the outside world. The yard is personified as being receptive to emotions, stating that the yard glows with the leftover affection of the children while they are at school with the roots of the tiniest grasses, curling toward one another/ like secret smiles. (19-20) The children bring the yard so much joy that even the roots of the smallest blades of grass smile at one another.

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There is a great deal of imagery throughout the poem. The vivid descriptions portray the differences between homes with children and those without children. It begins by saying Homes where children live exude a pleasant rumpledness, / like a bed made by a child, or a yard littered with balloons. (1-2). The words pleasant rumpledness are significant because they are not describing the yard as being messy or dirty but as having a happy chaos about it. A home without children is described as having a dignified face and No lost shoes blooming under bushes./No chipped trucks in the drive. (8-9) These descriptions paint a picture of a neat, organized yard that lacks the carefree attitude of childhood. The poem continues with the imagery with the following: Grown-ups like swings, leafy plants, slow-motion back and forth. While the yard of a child is strewn with the corpses Of bottle rockets and whistles, Anything whizzing and spectacular, brilliantly short lived. (10-13) These descriptions add emphasis to the theme of generational differences. The yard of home without children is calm, clean and filled with leafy plants since adults prefer a slower, more relaxed pace as they age. The adults yard is described as a place used for aesthetic purposes, meant to be manicured and observed while the childs yard is a playground with endless possibilities. The imagery found in the description of the childs yard lends a more somber tone to the poem. The yard is described as being filled with toy wrappers, referencing them as the corpses of things that are short-lived. This parallels childhood which is something equally, if not more, spectacular and short-lived. Life often seems to be very long to children, and adults often realize too late that life should be enjoyed while it lasts. Life should and can be

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lived with the joy and exuberance of a child, if one can effectively shed the boring details of adulthood. The poems use of imagery and personification make it an ode to childhood and offers a valuable life lesson to adults everywhere. If an adult can find a way to enjoy the small things in life, such as a yard, then they can maintain the youthful perspective of a child. They too, will become members of this secret club. This perspective offers every adult the ability to grow old without actually growing up.

Work Cited Nye, Naomi S. "Where Children Live." 2005. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. Seventh ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005. 1217. Print.