Hide and Seek analysis - Vernon Scannell

call out call loud

command which throws the reader into the game and back to their own childhoods.

i'm ready!

excitement an childhood enthusiasm and memories enhanced by direct address.

smelled like the sea side

sibilance and olfactory image of seaside putting the scent of holiday fun in reader's head

they'll never find you

internal dialogue sense of isolation and discomfort: is he is alone and dramatic irony because we guess he will not win the game; the negative is exaggeration increases tension while showing confidence and showing the positive tone and self-belief will be destroyed, the child disillusioned about never losing.

the floor is cold

discomfort and lack of love of friends symbolized in the temperature

they'll probably be searching

third person plural pronouns make the other children nameless, sinister and threatening building the tension; the future tense emphasizes the child's wrongness in predicting the game's outcome.

prowling in

Personification emphasizes cruelty of predatory seekers and vulnerability of 'victim' but still isn't scared yet and still has confidence

whispering

plotting against him secretly so he still has the confidence but building tension as they are closer and his isolation is become clearer

never heard them sound so hushed

alliteration and onomatopoeia mirrors breathing and tension you have when playing the game so it engages the reader

don't breathe, don't move

imperatives show his presumed expertise and confidence

short sentence shows urgency of time and stillness

alliteration shows urgency

stumbles, mutters

assonance shows struggle as friends try to find him

they must be thinking that you're very clever

positive tone shows that he is full of himself as he thinks he has won

it seems a long time since they went away

contrast of previous confident tone

cold bites through your coat

personification shows growing discomfort which builds tension and leaves the reader with questions

that's better!

positive tone but so still enthusiastic

exclamations and excitement and certainty of his win

Call out > who sought you?

unanswered question emphasises loneliness and uncertainty contrasting with previous assured tone of imperatives

Themes

think you are the one and other's don't think about you

childhood

innocence

time

isolation

memory

negligence

loneliness

ironies in life

structure and form

free verse

inconsistent rhyme scheme - uncertainty

one stanza is one moment of increasing tension and stream of thought when alone

Volta at end sudden change shows how scared he is and how the persona of the child is positive and confident until then

Change in tone

First direct address 'I'm ready!' happy/jubilant then also in inner monologue 'they'll never find you...they must think you're very clever' but after second direct address 'Here I am!' change to sinister 'darkness'.

Present continuous tense enhances drama and makes the poem seem more immediate; wider implication

growing up involves gradually realising people will not always support you with 'ing' verbs showing this disillusionment slowly dawning in the child's head, a process of isolation.

'sacks in the toolshed smell like the seaside'

reminds reader of playful times at the beach, positive connotations; Sibilance = sinister and unsettling. Use of the harsh t in 'toolshed' with the soft s makes it quite jarring upon the first read.

Use of synaesthesia to convey sense makes the experience more vivid. 'seaside...salty dark, in the end emphasising the loneliness. What is synaesthesia?

the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.

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

Opening line is childlike and give the impression of an innocent gave of hide and seek.

The darkening garden watches.

personification makes us feel the depression of disillusionment and isolation is out to get him arousing greater pity

Nothing stirs.

hyperbole makes us feel the tension as the realization of being completely alone in the stillness takes hold

The bushes hold their breath;

personification suggests god is in anticipation of the boy realizing their own failure

the sun is gone.

symbolically, the light of childhood innocence and friendship has gone from his life forever

Yes, here you are. But where are they who sought you?

the answer to the rhetorical question is 'Your friends have left you so hurt, you will feel this loneliness forever (as the adult Scannell telling the story clearly does)

Come and own up I’ve caught you!

example of situational irony: He doesn’t understand the situation that they have left him thinking they are still looking when they knew where he was hidden and they left him waiting there and they went off (cruelly) to play another game without him. When he says ‘own up’ he means ‘admit I’ve won’ and ‘I’ve caught you’ meaning ‘I caught you out’ (i won against you).

mutters...you’re very clever...as they search all over

The adult Scannell gives a sense the child Scannell's feeling is half-right, confused because of the half-rhyme while the reader can see the irony because he is not half clever enough to understand he has been tricked.

stumbles, mutters; / Their words and laughter scuffle

The assonance and onomatopoeia come just as the trick is being played on the boy so we feel the moment of confusion but also the coming disappointment he will feel when he realizes he's been tricked.

Hide in your blindness.

The boy is deprived not of vision with his eyes but of foresight - being able to see where the game of life is going and this will lead to his feeling of loneliness as an adult who regrets not having 'seen' and avoided the trick which ended his childhood innocence.