Study Hub for CXC English A & B

Summary  In this poem, the speaker's parents keep him away from children who are rough. They do this in order to protect him from their aggression and unpredictable behaviour. These children are  verbally and physically abusive towards the speaker and this drives fear in him. However, it is seen that he longs to forgive them, but they do not change their attitude and actions towards him. Stanza 1 The speaker declares that his parents keep him from children who are aggressive. These children say hurtful words and wear torn clothing. They also run in the streets, climb cliffs and strip by country streams. The speaker and the other children are from different backgrounds - his parents are protective of him while the other children do not seem to be under much parental control. Stanza 2 The speaker is afraid of these children and voices this fear. He is terrified of their iron-like muscles, even more than he fears tigers. He is afraid of the way their hands jerk him and the pain h...

  SUMMARY One day, the narrator (twelve years old at the time), learns from her cousin Rena that the world is coming to end. Rena further urges her to repent in order to escape eternal damnation. The narrator is not accepting of this prophecy as she enjoys sinning, so she decides to wait until her father returns home to confirm whether or not it is true. As she waits for her father, she has several anxious thoughts where she recalls the worsts parts of Revelations she had read in the past and imagines what hell and the world ending would be like. When her father eventually reaches home, he seeks to reassure her that nobody truly knows when the world is coming to end. He discourages her from worrying about the world ending because this would deprive her of experiencing the joys of life. In the night, instead of following her father's advice to avoid worrying about the world ending, the narrator's apprehension intensifies as she tallies her sins and imagines all the 'real hot...