Little Boy Crying – Mervyn Morris
Title: The title is descriptive as it immediately tells the reader what the subject matter of the poem is
going to focus on.
Speaker/POV: 2nd person perspective. This perspective allows both the son, who is upset and does not
understand why he was punished, and the father who longs to comfort his crying son but does not want
to ruin the lesson that he wishes to teach him.
Mood & Tone: Compassionate/Guilty/Remorseful/Resolute – The father feels guilty and remorseful
towards his crying son however he understands that in order for the boy to learn the lesson of not
playing in the rain, he must maintain the stance of strict parent.
Angry/Confused/Sad- These tones are seen in the first half of the poem when the son is first struck and
he is confused, hurt and then angry at his father for striking him. This tone reinforces the view the son
now has of his father as a monster.
Structure/Style: 4 stanzas, 20 lines, free verse. The poem is very descriptive in style to recreate the
intensity of the little boy’s reaction and then his imagination. It also describes the father’s hidden desire
to comfort.
Rhyme & Rhythm: There is no apparent rhyme scheme present in the poem. The metre for the most
part is iambic pentameter though there are some lines with shorter or longer lengths.
Themes: Parenting, Youth and Innocence, Love, Family Relationships (Father/son), Vulnerability
Literary Devices:
Imagery:
Auditory – most of the auditory imagery, if not all, can be found in the first stanza when the little boy
first reacts to being struck by his father. It helps to illustrate the emotional change from happiness to
sadness and confusion.
Kinaesthetic – mouth contorting; swimming tears; splashing bare feet; chopping clean; scrambling
down; pits to trap him in – these examples relate to the boy’s emotional response of first being sad and
confused and then angry enough to imagine the monster like father in his position.
longs to lift you; piggy-back; bull-fight – just like his son, the kinaesthetic imagery takes place in his mind
since he does not want to change his stance as disciplinarian because he feels strongly that his son must
learn a lesson.
Visual – there are three main images in the poem. The first one is the little boy crying and how pitiful he
seems after being slapped by his father. His emotional response to the discipline creates the second
main image of the poem and that is of the father as a larger than life giant or ogre who is cruel and coldhearted. The final image contrasts with the second one, which shows the father as a loving and caring
man but one who is resolute to teach his son a lesson, therefor making him admirable.
Tactile – splashing bare feet; - helps to recreate wetness associated with falling tears.
lift you, curb your sadness with piggy-back – indicates tenderness and caring emotions
Metaphor: Ogre towers above you – The young boy compares his father to an ogre
Grim giant – the boy also compares his father to a grim giant. This means that the son is the hero/victim
of the story.
Mask: the father’s fierce stance as disciplinarian is compared to a mask. Since a mask hides what is lies
in front of then it is understood that the father is not cold-hearted and cruel.
Assonance – Your mouth contorting/ ogre towers above you
Allusion: Ogre towers above you; Grim giant - the little boy imagines his father as the monsters in the
fables/fairy-tales that are commonly read to young children, namely Jack and the Beanstalk. This shows
the boy’s innocence as he can only compare his father to the ‘bad guys’ from these stories nor does he
understand why his father would try to discipline him.
Metaphor: eyes swimming tears - indicates just how much tears were in the boy’s eyes such that the
eyes are ‘swimming’ in them.
Alliteration: grim/giant; colossal/cruel; hate/him; chopping/clean; plotting/pits; swimming/splashing;
slap/struck; recently/relaxed - these examples help to illustrate several things. Firstly, the image of the
young boy crying and how quickly and intensely he reacted to the slap and secondly, the boy’s new view
of his father as a monster and his feelings towards him.
Hyperbole: The first stanza exaggerates the boy’s reaction to recreate the emotional and physical
response to the discipline. Notice the strong verbs and adjectives like ‘contorting’ ‘metamorphosed
howls,’ ‘tight’ ‘bright eyes swimming tears.’
Onomatopoeia: howl; splashing; slap; struck – these helps to recreate the sound element of the scene
when the little boy begins crying as they all describe his physical reaction of screaming/howling and
shedding tears.
Contrast: The speaker contrasts the innocent mind of the boy in stanza two, where he imagines himself
as the victim/hero and his father the monster he must defeat, with the mind of the father in stanza
three, who longs to comfort his crying and upset son. This contrast helps to reinforce the idea of the son
not being mature enough to understand why he is being disciplined by his father and that his father
does not hate him because of his act of discipline. Parent and Child and Youth and Adulthood.
Irony: The little boy assumes that his father must be a cold-hearted monster figure for striking him but
he does not know that his father longs to comfort him and stop his crying but must not break character
so that his son can learn the lesson he wants him to, which is not to play in the rain.