There are other instances: in the first stanza, « light » and « night », in the second stanza, « fully » and « less », in the fourth stanza, « impressions » and « facts ». « Blur » (line 3) is rhyming with « occur » (line 4) and they are antonyms. The vocabulary is also important because the poem makes associations of antonyms. It gives the impression of something vaguely or indistinctly perceived. The same idea is conveyed by some expressions like: « thdidn't occur » (line 4), « you seemed » (line 14), or « a blur » (line 5). Line 2, « the bad man (.) was only a movie you saw »: the words « only » and « movie » stress the theme of illusion. The adult is constantly denying the facts. The repetition of « nobody » for example, is the complete negation of what may have happened. The adult seems to deny everything that is to say what the child is talking about. So we can wonder if the poem is dealing with real events or if it is an illusion. The anaphora « nobody » gives the impression that the imagined dialogue (the monologue) is not real, that it is built, and not authentic. It is a mean to create some tension in the reader and to give more sense of poetics, with a refined language which emphasizes the mystery. It gives the impression of a hammering, which is latter on reinforced by the onomatopoeias « Boom. Three stanzas begin with a statement: « Nobody hurt you », « Your questions were answered », « Nobody forced you », « What you recall are impressions », « Nobody sent you away ». There are many pauses which create a slow and rather hacked rhythm. The poem is built on an irregular pattern. Moreover, the rhythm is very interesting. So the reader has an impression of mystery about the past: tlack of detail shuts us out. The reader is not aware of the entire story of the childhood which is described. There are also allusions to some events: « you wanted to go that day », « that was an extra holiday. » But the events are not organised, there are no rational link between them. The monologue evokes events of the past as we can see through the use of the past tenses and through the evocation of « pictures » (line 8) which shows an event they have taken a picture of. The reader doesn't really understand everything at the first reading. The child seems not to have the right to speak, and we can consider that it is a form of oppression for the child. It is not an exchange: we only have the viewpoint of the adult, but not of the child. But we also remark that in fact, it is a monologue of an adult (or maybe the two parents, we don't really know exactly). First, we can notice that the poem is a sort of dialogue since it is made of some occurrences of pronouns « you » and « we. » It is rather strange since it has also a poetic form. The poem is rather mysterious, for different reasons. Finally, how the poem conveys a poetic of the secrecy. Then, we will study how the poem is built on the ambiguity between illusion and reality. In a first part we will see that there are some devices used to create an atmosphere of mystery in the poem. Everything is filtered: both by the memory, and by the use of words. That's the principal interest of the poem: the adult speaks as if there was something to hide, as if there was a secret. Mistreating is only suggested, not really said. The adult seems to deny what the child – who has grown up now – says about the violence he has endured. This poem is a monologue of a parent (or two parents, we don't know exactly), who is talking to his child. ![]() « We remember your childhood well » is a poem of Carol Ann Duffy, an English writer of the twentieth century, who is still alive. On your soul and laid you wide open for Hell. What does it matter now? No, no, nobody left the skidmarks of sin There was none but yourself to blame if it ended in tears. They were firm, there was nothing to fear. The secret police of your childhood were older and wiser than you, bigger ![]() What you recall are impressions we have the facts. Laughing itself to death in the coal fire. Élodie Gaden (août 2007) Carol Ann Duffy, We remember your childhood well
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