1.

Subject
2. Form (number of stanzas, lines, discussion in each stanza)
3. Themes (Identify and flesh out into a complete thought, good vs evil is a subject, not a theme)
4. The effectiveness of sound devices
5. The effectiveness of literary devices
6. Other language devices and their effectiveness (punctuation and parts of speech)
6. What is the tone? How was it determined?
7. The effectiveness of the poet's diction
8. Atmosphere/ Mood (How does it make the reader feel/ how do you feel?)
9. Rhyme scheme
10. Who is the persona? How do you know?

“Little Boy Crying” Poem analysis

1. Man vs man; children and life events

2. 20 lines and 4 stanzas

Stanza 1- The narrator describes the emotional response the three-year-old boy goes
through as he reacts to being ‘struck’ with a ‘quick slap’. The once happy boy with bright
eyes now ‘swimming tears’, and his laughter has turned to howls. It conveys very vividly
the physical transformation the child endures as he deals with the situation.

Stanza 2- In this stanza, the narrator describes the situation from the eyes of the little
boy; where the perpetrator is seen as an ogre, who towers above him - obviously an
adult. He examines this colossal for any emotion and finding none, he hates him plots
his childish revenge.

Stanza 3- In stanza 3, the narrator juxtaposes the balance between love and discipline.
Where the father is hurting as much as his son but resist comforting the child to deliver
the lesson.

Stanza 4- Speaks clearly to what the lesson is - don’t play in the rain.

3. Identity/self - the poem speaks to the changes the child has gone through as described
here: “your laughter metamorphosed into howls”

Love and Discipline - Difficulty of Parenting:

In Stanza 3 the narrator juxtaposes the difficulty of balancing love and discipline as the
father wrestled with teaching his son a lesson and wanting to ease his pain. The narrator
points to the boy’s inability to understand the impact his crying and howling has on the
father, tears seem hot enough to ‘scald’ as they fall, and there is ‘wavering hidden
behind that mask’, yet he holds out to teach the lesson he thinks important.
 Youth/Innocence: The poem describes the innocence of the 3-year-old child and his
inability to control his emotions. It describes the quick transformation from happy to sad,
angry and spiteful. In the first Stanza it spoke of the boy’s “bright eyes” now, swimming
with tears and his relaxed playful mood now rigid and tight with grief. It also a playful way
of looking at an enemy that might resemble childrens’ stories that may have been read to
him. For example, the “ogre” and the colossal and cutting down the tree (like Jack and
the Beanstalk story) and setting traps to capture the enemy.

4. The effectiveness of sound devices

a. Consonants - the rhythmic use of ‘Your’ throughout the poem makes the reader
adopt the boy’s experience.

5. The effectiveness of literary devices -

Juxtaposition - where ‘laughter’ gives way to ‘howls’; ‘relaxed’ frame gives way to ‘tight’. This is
used throughout the poem to allow the readers to weigh the emotional extremes being
experienced by both the father and the son.

Personification - ‘Bright eyes swimming tears’ - this image is effective at conveying the vast
amounts of water pouring from the boy’s eyes.

Metaphors - The ogre towers above you; colossal; grim giant - the use of metaphors here
emphasize the vast difference between the three-year-old and his father. It is a very effective
use of language in that it also conveys the fact that the boy, despite his spite and frustration
really has no chance against his enemy that he would soon see ‘dead at last’. It actually brings
some humour to the poem in a dark way.

Onomatopoeia: howl; splashing; slap; struck

6. Other language devices and their effectiveness (punctuation and parts of speech)
The poem is full of other language devices - the ones I can most easily identify is perspective;
as we switch from the eyes of a neutral narrator in the first stanza to the eyes of the child in the
second stanza and then what could be the eyes of the parent in the third stanza.

The send one that jumps out is hyperbole - the poem is filled with images of exaggerated pain,
howls and swimming tears. The hatred the boy now feels for his father, over a slap - again
exaggerates the three-year-old response to discipline

“You cannot understand, not yet” This comma is effective because it gives a pause between the
little boy’s understanding at three years old and later when he matures.
“With piggy-back or bull-fight, anything”
7. The tone is one of emotional conflict. The father feels guilty but feels it is important to
discipline the child. The child loves his father but hates the ogre.

8. Very effective as it is easy to understand and the language conveys emotion.

9. It feels very realistic and it reminds me of how I must have behaved when I was a child. I
have seen this situation many times as a playful cousin who is 4 years old. Very relatable.

10. There is no rhyme scheme.

11. The persona is the child. The mind of the child.

Point
Evidence
Technique
Analysis
Link

The author describes the exaggerated anguish of a child who has just been disciplined by his
father. This is evident by the “laughter metamorphosed into howls”. He uses metaphors,
juxtaposition, onomatopoeia, hyperbole and perspective as his primary techniques in conveying
the story. The writer’s use of perspective is perhaps the most potent technique applied. Where
in the second stanza, from the little boy’s perspective the father is a grim giant ogre, colossal
and cruel. All of us have seen stories like Jack and Bean Stalk, Three Billy Goats and Shrek
with these fearsome and monstrous characters that wreak havoc only to be stopped by a hero.
This is a very useful illustration that conveys the fear, uncertainty and spite the boy feels.