Kipling-- A Child's Garden

[jennakearns]

This week in lecture and tutorial we looked at the work of Rudyard Kipling. I decided to find one of his less traditional poems to analyze for this weeks blog

Comments

Bonjour...

[hintzen]

T.B sucks. My sister managed to come into contact with it, and it made her the most frail thing ever (and my sister's pretty tough so seeing her out of action like that was pretty scary). I had to be tested for it too and that hurts sooooo much (I hate needles).

I really like this poem. Not because it reminds me of my own contact with T.B, but also because the child's voice is very clear, and Kipling does a great job at highlighting the imagination of a kid who has difficulty leaving his bed. It is his bed, right? He's not in a grave and I'm reading this wrong?

[noellemorris]

The first stanza, awful as it is in its subject matter, made me laugh. I like the innocence and naivety in the poem -- it reminds me of myself when I was a child (except I didn't have TB). The child is naive of his/her illness. Because of this, the poem has a certain charm. I never felt sorry for the child because he/she never asked for pity -- the child simply stated the facts and his/her desires for the future.

Dreams!

[shali1]

Hey Jenna,
I found this poem to be very refreshing in the sense that the message was very simple and straight forward. Its simplicity brings out the beauty of the poem. The reader is able to look beyond the poetic structure and digest the words while creating their own interpretation. The poem shows how a very sick boy can still dream. It’s an inspirational poem that challenges us to realize the positives in life, rather than always seeing the negatives. I enjoyed reading this poem.
Shali

[beth_may]

This poem is interesting. The title, "A Child's Garden" and the descriptions in the poem for me all point to the notions of freedom and captivity. For the boy, the ultimate form of freedom is an areoplane. But instead he is in a garden where he becomes trapped all day. Likewise, he is trapped in his body. His sickness governs what he does and what his life is like. His illness causes him to experience things that he doesn't like such as the noises of cars.
Beth

So Many

[amymc1986]

There are so many kids out there who could most likely identify with this poem in some way. I can't even imagine what it would be like to be trapped in my body, a body that's so young and with so much potential, and that could grow just like a nurtured garden into beauty.