Saturday, July 18, 2009 . 9:30 AM
The loner poem
1a) what are your impressions of the boy, as well as of the children in the poem? Support your answer with relevant lines from the poem.
1a) what are your impressions of the boy, as well as of the children in the poem? Support your answer with relevant lines from the poem.
The boy
My impression of the boy is that he is silent, lonely and anti-social. “His loneliness is his shell and shield” shows that he is very lonely, with no friends. He longed to play but he was fearful of being dejected. It was because he had experience some sort of abuse and fears. He is unwilling to accept the truth of take afresh and continue to avoid people in order to protect him and the society as he felt that everyone is cruel to him. Therefore, his only friend was the wall that he leans against to. With the wall, he felt a sense of security and support. It was his only company. He was envious of the other children playing but he could not join in. The place around the wall was probably his second home, “Back against the wall he stays and never plays” suggests that he never leaves the wall everyday but he does not plays. He does not express his emotions.
The children
The children
My impression of the children is that they are having fun and doing well with their peers. “The playground’s quick with life, the beat is strong.” In the second stanza suggests that the playground is filled with children’s laughter. They were all lively and energetic. There is a stark contrast between the loner and the children. They ignored the loner completely. They might be fearful that the boy would ignore and refuse to accept being in their cliques, they might also not ask the boy to join in as they felt that he should be the first to ask and they consider lost when they make friends with him first. “ We pass him by and never speaks” suggested that the children had no means and hesitation of making friends with the boy. Therefore, they are being ignorance and selfish for not wanting the boy to be in the clique to share the happiness together.
