Edexcel IGCSE Poetry Anthology Texts - Hide and seek

General themes of poem

- Childhood

- Loneliness

- Remeniscence

- Growing apart from friends

Structure of Poem + devices used throughout

- Free verse - one long stanza

- Direct speech - used at the start and end of poem - progression of innocence to abandonment, dramatic irony, empathise with speaker

- Rhyming couplets every so often

- Assonance and sibilance

- Personification

- Imperatives

Call out. Call loud: 'I'm ready! Come and find me!'

The sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside. [lines 1-2]

- Call out. Call loud - imperatives - throws the reader straight into the excitement of the game

- Direct speech + exclaimations - further excitemet

- Sibilance - fun, silly, brings everything together nicely

- Connotations of seaside - leisure, comfort

They'll never find you in this salty dark,

But be careful that your feet aren't sticking out.

Wiser not to risk another shout. [lines 3-5]

- Use of modal verb (they'll) + negative (never) - certainty, isolation

- salty dark - contrasts to the comforting seaside in previous line - more menacing and uncomfortable

- Rhyme - (out, shout)

- Tension is building.

The floor is cold. They'll probably be searching

The bushes near the swing. Whatever happens

You mustn't sneeze when they come prowling in. [lines 6-8]

- Short sentence followed by a caesura - discomfort

- Prowling in - predatory

And here they are, whispering at the door ;

You've never heard them sound so hushed before.

Don't breathe. Don't move. Stay dumb. Hide in your blindness. [lines 9-11]

- Other people referred to in the poem - nameless + ambiguous

- They seem to be plotting or planning against him as they are searching for the hiding person

- Listing of imperatives and caesura - dramatic tension.

They're moving closer, someone stumbles, mutters;

Their words and laughter scuffle, and they're gone.

But don't come out just yet; they'll try the lane.

And then the greenhouse and back here again. [lines 12-15]

- Assonance - representative of the struggle the hiding person is going through

- Sense of relief when the hider hears the seekers go away, yet is reminded not to celebrate too soon - imperative don't breaks celebration and creates sense of hesitancy

They must be thinking that you're very clever,

Getting more puzzled as they search all over.

It seems a long time since they went away. [lines 16-18]

- Positivity - the hider is proud that he has hidden so well and does not consider the seekers have stopped looking for him.

- Sense of doubt - hider realises that he has been waiting a long time.

Your legs are stiff, the cold bites through your coat;

The dark damp smell of sand moves in your throat.

It's time to let them know that you're the winner. [lines 19-21]

- Following the hider's initial doubt, there seems to be a growing sense of discomfort.

- Sibilance - uncomfortable, suffocating, claustrophobic feeling

Push off the sacks. Uncurl and stretch. That's better!

Out of the shed and call to them: 'I've won!

Here I am! Come and own up I've caught you!' [lines 22-24]

- Brushes off uncomfortable feeling by deciding to announce he has won

- Burst of excitement - repitition of exclaimations + direct speech

The darkening garden watches. Nothing stirs.

The bushes hold their breath; the sun is gone.

Yes, here you are. But where are they who sought you? [lines 25-27]

- Uncanny, unsettling atmosphere. - the day is over now and the seekers have abandoned him.

- garden watches + bushes hold their breath - personification, predatory, vulnerability

- Ends with rhetorical question - the hider won but at what cost?