Poems Of The Decade
To My Nine Year Old Self
Title:
The personal link of “my” and “self” helps to communicate with a reader that this is a
personal poem, likely to look back on and reflect on previous experiences that the
narrator has had; even to the extent of wanting to send a message to themselves as
a child with new thoughts and feelings that have developed in the years since
To past self
Personal pronoun equally separates the two. Persona adapted from this time
Structure:
The rhythm of the poem is almost immediately broken in the beginning, with a
caesura after “forgive me”. This helps to create a reflective tone, perhaps hinting to a
reader that the subject matter will have negative elements or that some kind of
betrayal has taken place.
The frequency of commas, and therefore breaks in the rhythm throughout the poem
can be interpreted as moments of reflection and contemplation.
There is also a transition in the poem in terms of how changes between stanzas
occur. Initially there are complete end-stopped lines with full stops and question
marks, however as the poem continues this changes to commas and hyphens
These punctuation devices enable a more constant flow of speech with less
separation, which helps a reader to understand the narrator’s growing emotion and
lack of clarity in this ‘letter’ as they become more consumed by memories and
nostalgia.
‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ has frequent changes in line length. The differing lengths
of the lines can be interpreted as the growing and changing of stories and memories
that the narrator has, which would likely feel more ‘natural’ to a reader than a very
controlled and refined structure.
differing lengths of the lines can be interpreted as the growing and changing of
stories and memories that the narrator has
To My Nine Year Old Self
Title:
The personal link of “my” and “self” helps to communicate with a reader that this is a
personal poem, likely to look back on and reflect on previous experiences that the
narrator has had; even to the extent of wanting to send a message to themselves as
a child with new thoughts and feelings that have developed in the years since
To past self
Personal pronoun equally separates the two. Persona adapted from this time
Structure:
The rhythm of the poem is almost immediately broken in the beginning, with a
caesura after “forgive me”. This helps to create a reflective tone, perhaps hinting to a
reader that the subject matter will have negative elements or that some kind of
betrayal has taken place.
The frequency of commas, and therefore breaks in the rhythm throughout the poem
can be interpreted as moments of reflection and contemplation.
There is also a transition in the poem in terms of how changes between stanzas
occur. Initially there are complete end-stopped lines with full stops and question
marks, however as the poem continues this changes to commas and hyphens
These punctuation devices enable a more constant flow of speech with less
separation, which helps a reader to understand the narrator’s growing emotion and
lack of clarity in this ‘letter’ as they become more consumed by memories and
nostalgia.
‘To My Nine-Year-Old Self’ has frequent changes in line length. The differing lengths
of the lines can be interpreted as the growing and changing of stories and memories
that the narrator has, which would likely feel more ‘natural’ to a reader than a very
controlled and refined structure.
differing lengths of the lines can be interpreted as the growing and changing of
stories and memories that the narrator has
