My Parents – Stephen Spender

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課程筆記

The poem at a glance

  • "My Parents" by English poet Stephen Spender (1909–1995), published in the 1930s.
  • An adult speaker remembers how his parents kept him from children who were rough — working-class boys who bullied him.
  • Three quatrains in free verse move from description of the boys, to fear, to a final longing for connection: "I longed to forgive them, but they never smiled."
  • Key ideas: class division, fear and bullying, envy of freedom, isolation, and the effect of upbringing.

Stanza 1: the rough children

  • "My parents kept me from children who were rough": the parents' protection is also separation — the title points at them.
  • "Who threw words like stones": a simile making insults physical and dangerous.
  • "wore torn clothes. / Their thighs showed through rags": poverty seen through a middle-class child's eyes.
  • "They ran in the street / And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams": a list of freedoms — outdoor, physical, unsupervised. The speaker may envy them as much as fear them.

Stanza 2: fear

  • "I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron": hyperbole and a simile — the boys seem wild and machine-strong.
  • "Their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms": remembered physical violence; the harsh verb makes the reader flinch.
  • "the salt coarse pointing of those boys": "salt" suggests rough, stinging, working-class; pointing singles him out.
  • "Who copied my lisp behind me on the road": the humiliation is personal — they mock the way he speaks.

Stanza 3: longing

  • "They were lithe, they sprang out behind hedges / Like dogs to bark at my world": animal imagery — agile, sudden, aggressive; "my world" shows the class boundary.
  • "They threw mud / While I looked the other way, pretending to smile": he hides his hurt, perhaps wanting to be accepted.
  • "I longed to forgive them, but they never smiled.": the last line turns from fear to a wish for friendship — but the barrier remains.
  • The caesura at "but" sharpens the disappointment: reconciliation is wanted, and refused.

Form and methods

  • Three quatrains, no regular rhyme, loose rhythm — orderly stanzas, unsettled lines.
  • Monosyllables and heavy stresses ("threw words like stones") make lines hit hard.
  • Similes of violence and animals (stones, iron, tigers, dogs) show how the child saw them.
  • Retrospective voice: the adult speaker recalls a child's fear — and perhaps sees his parents' role more critically.
  • The ending's echo of "smile" ("pretending to smile" / "they never smiled") ties the last stanza together.

Themes and comparisons

  • Class: the boundary between "my world" and theirs, built by the parents.
  • Fear and bullying: physical and verbal.
  • Envy and freedom: the rough boys have a physical liberty the protected child lacks.
  • Forgiveness and isolation: he wants connection, but the division holds.
  • Comparisons: "Childhood" (a child's-eye view), "For Heidi with Blue Hair" (young people and authority), "Follower" (parents and children).

投影片

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練習題

免費預覽——37 題中的 8 題。註冊即可查看全部。

  1. 1.Who wrote 'My Parents'?

    Easy
    • AStephen Spender
    • BSeamus Heaney
    • CPhilip Larkin
    • DA E Housman

  2. 2.What did the speaker's parents do?

    Easy
    • ASent him to a boarding school abroad
    • BEncouraged him to fight
    • CForbade him from reading
    • DKept him from children who were rough

  3. 3."threw words like stones" is an example of…

    Easy
    • Aa rhetorical question
    • Balliteration only
    • Ca simile
    • Donomatopoeia

  4. 4.What does 'threw words like stones' suggest?

    Medium
    • AThey were building a wall
    • BTheir insults hurt like physical blows
    • CThey were good at throwing
    • DThey spoke softly

  5. 5.Which detail shows the children's poverty?

    Medium
    • ATheir thighs showed through rags
    • BThey climbed cliffs
    • CThey had muscles like iron
    • DThey sprang out behind hedges

  6. 6.What does the speaker say he feared 'more than tigers'?

    Medium
    • AHis parents
    • BThe country streams
    • CThe road home
    • DThe boys' muscles like iron

  7. 7.What did the boys copy behind him on the road?

    Medium
    • AHis clothes
    • BHis laugh
    • CHis lisp
    • DHis walk

  8. 8.What are the boys compared to in stanza 3?

    Medium
    • ATigers in a cage
    • BDogs barking at his world
    • CBirds in a hedge
    • DWolves in a forest

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