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This is a famous poem by Mervyn Morris, i have provided you with a sample commentary to give you an idea about how to go about writing about a particular topic. It also talks about various literary devices, this will help you improve your vocabulary, to some extent. Unfortunately, in the SAT you will not be given a poem to write on, but this is an excellent way to build interest in writing and get some practice and have fun. You can either send your commentaries as a private message to me, or you can post a reply, to the lesson with the commentary in it.

Looking forward to getting some great responses...

Little Boy Crying

by Mervyn Morris

Your mouth contorting in brief spite and

Hurt, your laughter metamorphosed into howls,

Your frame so recently relaxed now tight

With three-year-old frustration, your bright eyes

Swimming tears, splashing your bare feet,

You stand there angling for a moment's hint

Of guilt or sorrow for the quick slap struck.

The ogre towers above you, that grim giant,

Empty of feeling, a colossal cruel,

Soon victim of the tale's conclusion, dead

At last. You hate him, you imagine

Chopping clean the tree he's scrambling down

Or plotting deeper pits to trap him in.

You cannot understand, not yet,

The hurt your easy tears can scald him with,

Nor guess the wavering hidden behind that mask.

This fierce man longs to lift you, curb your sadness

With piggy-back or bull-fight, anything,

But dare not ruin the lessons you should learn.

You must not make a plaything of the rain.

Little boy crying - Sample Commentary

"Little boy crying" is a poem which talks about the complex emotions between a father and his three-year-old son who has just received a spanking from his father. The boy's emotions are a mixture of sadness, anger, frustration and the urge to take revenge. The poem was written in the latter part of 20^th Century. The poem addresses a psychological phenomenon i.e. the internal thought process and the feelings of the child; the poem also brings out an accurate analysis of the father's contemplation behind all the sternness and severity.

The poem is written in second person and is addressed to the child; the father/adult is in the 3^rd person and the narrator is the poet himself. The themes of time, paternal love, and punishment are demonstrated in the complex pattern of word choice and shifts in point of view.

In the first stanza the child's mind is full of resentment, because of the heartless and cruel behavior of his father. The lines refer to a sudden change caused by a father's strictness. These lines highlight the perplexed mind of the child, due to the sudden change, 'His laughter metamorphosed into howls' and 'your frame so recently relaxed now tight'. The child just cannot hold back his tears, which explains that his agony is intense. He is very unnerved by this unpleasant slaughter of his hopes of an ecstatic pastime. The child is perturbed by the "quick slap struck" and his mind is full of spiteful feelings for his father. After this abhorrent treatment, he tries to catch a glimpse of the slightest hint of remorse or guilt in his father's eyes. He wants to make his father realize the anguish he is going through and that his father is the cause of this pain. In this stanza the poet uses enjambment (the running through of ideas from one line to another without a stop) as is evident by the fact that the whole stanza is of only one sentence. The poet uses imagery in the phrases "swimming tears" "splashing your bare feet" and in "angling for a moment's hint". The first few lines reach out to the readers as they take us back in time, to similar incidents in our lives and invoke a sense of sympathy towards the child.

Morris uses the second paragraph to allude to the language of fairytales, he specifically mentions the tale of "Jack and the beanstalk" and through this verbalizes the fact that this was the only way in which the child could see or comprehend his father's actions. With an ironic sense of humor he subtly tells us that the naïve yet agitated mind of the child could only relate to a fairytale which he might have read and he also thinks of avenging this ill-treatment by "chopping down the tree he's scrambling down" or by "plotting deeper pits to trap him in". In this stanza the language used is simple and connects easily to the child. This stanza is also adorned by the used of alliteration "grim giant" and "colossal cruel" along with, metaphorical references to fairytale antagonists "ogre" and "giant". The lines "ogre towers above you" and "grim giant" bring out the fact that the father is very dominant over the child who is comparatively extremely defenseless and vulnerable; they represent the father as a negative person and bring out the fact that right now the child hates him. Later in the paragraph enjambment is used by the poet and he shows how the child does not appreciate the action taken by his father for his wrong doing and takes the punishment too personally. The separation of the second and the third stanza symbolizes the rift between the emotions and thinking of the father and his child.

The third stanza is solemn and more serious than other two. In this stanza, unlike the second and the third, the theme changes from hate to the sensitive and sentimental issues of parenting and brings out to the child, the feelings of his father who he unequivocally hates and loathes. The paragraph brings out the fact that both the father and the son are suffering from the ordeal of punishment, the father because his has to fight back his ardent desire to reduce his son's sadness and plight and the son because he is the one who has been slapped by the man who he once idolized. The line "You cannot understand, not yet" shows us that the child does not acknowledge the fact that his father is teaching him a lesson, for his own benefit. The line "The hurt your easy tears can scald him with" shows the contrast between the water in "easy tears" and the burning sensation caused by them as they "scald" his father. It also makes the child aware of the fact that his father is extremely concerned about him and that he does not take any pleasure in making the boy cry. The phrase "wavering hidden behind that mask" tells the child that the parent is himself in a great dilemma, but here he chooses to teach his child a lesson than appeasing him. Morris says, the father longs to "lift you, curb your sadness" but in parenting, along with the love for your child comes the sense of responsibility wherein the parent must ensure that the child is brought up with the right morals and values, and that he learns the essential lesson of life.

The last line is a stanza of its own…it speaks volumes about the fact that using tears as an instrument to emotionally blackmail your parents is a foolish action, as this hurts your parents a lot. The poet compares the abundant tears of the child to "rain", to say that he should not harass his father, using his tears.

The use of childish language is explanatory; it is apt, keeping in mind the child's complex yet immature emotions. The language and diction isn't very simple but befits the circumstances and situation. The poem was no rhyme scheme i.e. the lines and not rhyming. The first stanza is of 7 lines, longer than the others: the second and the third verses are of 6 lines each and the last line is a stanza in itself. The rhyme "Little Boy Crying" has many sound and literary devices such as personification, alliteration, hyperbole, assonance, diction, onomatopoeia and metaphor. In this poem, Morris masterfully puts across the idea of learning from negative experiences by putting it in terms of a child's experiences. The poem teaches us that we must not cast aside negativities of life and curse the people who cause them; instead we should learn our lessons and grow as individuals.