CHILDHOOoD

- MARKUS NATTEN

ABOUT THE POET:

Markus Natten is a Norwegian poet. Details of his life are very sketchy, so
it is unclear when and where he was born. Probably he wrote his lovely
poem 'Childhood', in his early years as a poet. This poem is a translation.

THEME
In this poem the poet thinks deeply over the question of his lost
childhood. Childhood for centuries has been considered as a blissful
period, it is a stage of innocence in which the child believes others and
loves unconditionally. The process of growing up from a child to an
adolescent and an adult is an inevitable one. There is no line of
demarcation between the various stages of life. The poet exhibits his
curiosity to know when he had ceased to be a child. He has tried to
identify some stages of his life when his thoughts and perceptions of the
world changed. The poem describes the first step to maturity or loss of
childhoodwhen one is able to think logicaly and rationally. The poemalso
hints at the hypocrisy prevalent in our society, where people pretend to
be nice to each other but in reality, they do not like each other. Forming
one's own opinion and not getting influenced by others is also a sign of
maturity or loss of childhood.

Thus, the poet wonders when and where he lost his childhood. He
ponders overthe question and highlights the loss of innocence and faith
in the quest of growing up. Though he is uncertain of the day of loss of
childhood, he feels a sense of nostalgia for his childhood and settles with
an idea that it has gone to some forgotten place, that is, on the face of an
innocent infant. Thus, the poem reflects a range of contrasting imageries
depicting innocence and experience, ignorance and knowledge, purity
and corruption and so on.
SUMMARY:

Stanza 1 (RATIONALISM)

The poet wonders when he lost his childhood. He reflects that perhaps
it was the day when he crossed the age of eleven. He muses that maybe
it wasthe stage, perhaps it wasthe day when he realised that Heaven and
Hell about which he had been taught since his childhood are non-existent
as geography textbooks do not give their location. So, he thinks that at
the age of 12 he develo ped rationality in his thought process and could
draw his own conclusions and thus, probably stepped out of his
childhood. At this point he had tried to logically analyse the situation and
differentiate between reality and fantasy, fact and fiction.

Stanza 2: (HYPOCRISY)

In the second stanza, the poet reflects that maybe the loss of childhood
occurred when he was able to see through the latent hypocrisy of adults.
These people followed do uble standards, actuallyfollowing and preaching
(sermonizing) different standards of behaviour. They told the poet to be
loving and caring; however, they themselves were argumentative, violent
and discourteous. They preach brotherhood to mankind but then they
perpetuate hatred and killing. Their behaviour was a far cry from the love
they sermo nised about and advocated so reverently to the child. Perhaps,
says the poet, this discrepancy in their behaviour, recognising broken
trust, when he ceases to have faith in adults was a major step towards
adulthood. He is no longer gullible.

Stanza 3: (INDIVIDUAUTY)

In the third stanza the poet deliberates onthe same question about the
loss of his childhood. As he grew up, he realised that his mind was unique,
it could form its own opinions and could take its own decisions. He gained
and honed a sense of individuality which set him free from the prejudiced
opinions of others. His own individual opinions and experiences shape his
thoughts now and he realised that when his mind became an entity of its
ownthat might have been the time when he lost his childhood innocence
completely.
 Stanza 4:

In the last stanza, Markus Natten is confirmed that he has lost his
childhood and he is an adult now. He knows that, because he has lost his
innocence and purity of his childhood. He now changes his question from
wondering at what point of time he lost his childhood to where it went
He believes that his childhood has become nothing more than a memory
for him but has become the reality of some other infant. He comes to
the conclusion that it has gone to some forgotten place, perhaps it is
hidden in the innocent face of a child who does not have any pretensions
and rationality and who trusts others unconditionally. In other words, he
seeks solace in the fact that a small child is full of innocence andthere one
can find one's own childhood. According to him, childhood is a cyclic
process, where it leaves one person and goes to another. So, childhood is
a stage in the process of growing. There is a tinge of optimism in his
thought. Innocence and purity of mind prevails in some form on earth.

FIGURES OF SPEECH:

ALLITERATION:
Here we find the occurrence of the same consonant sound at the
beginning of adjacent or closely connected words.

"Was it the timel realized that Hell and Heaven"

The use of the same letter 'H' at the beginning of words
that are close together is an example of alliteration

Other examples of alliteration in the poem are

"Was it when I found my mind was really mine'

To use whichever way, Ichoose
REFRAIN:
This poetic device repeats at regular intervals in different stanzas.
It contributes to the rhyme and throws light and carries the central
message of the poem. The 2 lines which do so in this poem are:

"When did my childhood go?"

 "Was that the day!"

The first line (which isa question)identifies the central theme of

the poem, that is, the attempt to identify when exactly the poet
lost his childhood.
The second line begins with a question word but ends with an
exclamation. Hence, it is no more a mere question. Rhetorical in
nature, this line brings out the poet's sense of realisation.

HYPOPHORA:
It is a figure of speech in which the speaker poses a question and
then answers the question.

"Where did my childhood go?

It went to some forgotten place"

PERSONIFICATION:
In this a thing - an idea or an animal-is given human attributes.

Here, childhood itself is personified.

INVERSION:
In this poetic device, the subject-verb order is reversed

"To use whichever wayIchoose"

ANTITHESIS:
This poetic device pairs opposite or contrasting ideas adjacent to
each other.

"Hell and Heaven"

ANAPHORA:

It is the repetition ofa word or words at the beginning of

successive phrases, clauses, or lines

"Was it the day I ceased to be eleven.

Was it the time I realised that Hell and Heaven,"

"That is hidden in an infant's face,

That's all I know."

ENJAMBMENT:

It is the continuation ofa sentence to multiple lines.

Was it the time I realised that adults were not All they seemed to
be, They talked of love and preached of love, But did not act so lovingly,
Was that the day!".

RHYME SCHEME

the rhyme scheme used in the poem 'Childhood'is ABBCCD.