Childhood and Memory
What Childhood and Memory means in English Literature A-Level, as defined for OCR, Pearson Edexcel.
Definitions of Childhood and Memory
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Reference: Pearson Edexcel
The closing simile compares the speaker to a child who witnesses adults reconciling and does not understand the words but shares their laughter.
The speaker's mind wanders from the frost to his restrictive, urban childhood, contrasted with the idyllic future he prophesies for his son.
The poem blends childhood memory with classical mythology to explore the origins of life and the transition from innocence to experience.
Topics that use Childhood and Memory
- 5c. Component 01 – Drama and poetry pre-1900 selected poems - Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Selected Poems (OCR A-Level)
- Component 3: Poetry – Section A: Post-2000 Poetry – Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002–2011 (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
- Component 3: Poetry – Section B: Specified Poetry Pre- or Post-1900 – Post-1900 – The Movement – The Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse, editor Philip Larkin with foreword by Andrew Motion (OUP, 1973) (Pearson Edexcel A-Level)
Related terms
- Childhood and Innocence
- Addiction and suffering
- Ageing and mortality
- Alienation
- Birth and Creation
- Bodily Autonomy
- Bureaucracy and control
- Commerce and labour
Using Childhood and Memory in the exam
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