Huda Alsaffar
Ms.Lidia Petrone
ENG4U
3rd APRIL 2022
U2L1- Verbal-Visual assignment 2
Verbal- visual representations promotes one to imagine according to the content of the
depiction. This essay details the verbal – visual representation of the poem “Little boy crying”
written by Mervyn Morris. The theme of the poem revolves around perception of children and how
the make sense of the world. Apart from that it also states the methodology which adults enforce
punishments despite their love. The theme of the poem shows frustration, love and care. There are
several pictures and words that represent these emotions represented in the verbal-visual chart.
There are mainly 6 main pictures in the collage. One represents the emotions of the child as
he is being punished and the intensity of pain is shown with the tears rolling down his cheek. The
next picture showcases the boy’s representation of his father, where he sees a huge ugly and
frightening form of a man. He takes on to portray him as an ogre, without emotion and empathy and
how he is unjust to him. The frowning face represents the original face of the child’s father
correcting him from doing mistakes. It shows that the father has a put a tough face to teach his
offspring that not everything he does is right. The next picture shows about the rights and wrongs, it
means the correct and incorrect actions a child should learn to grow and mature into a good human
being. It is profound that the father is more hurt than the boy but he knows that the little boy should
know the consequences. The last two pictures show how the father’s heart melts with his fatherly
instincts and how he wishes to cuddle and care for him. Furthermore, these can also be analysed by
usage of adjectives to explain the context.
In the opening description of the poem, you can see that the boy is quivering and contorting
in brief spite and hurt, it suggests that the boy has suffered great pain and expresses that the
situation is scary as he looks to his father. The father on the other hand portrays a fierce expression
to emphasis his punishment to reinforce the discipline. The poem shows us that the child has been
corrected with a quick slap, even though the mistake has not been made clear. Later, it is revealed
that it was not as fierce as the boys make it seem. This shows that the father is strict with adherence
to certain rules and follows a strict disciplining pattern so that he can nurture a kind and selfconscious human being. In the later stanzas, it is evident that even though the father gives an
uncompromising warning, he still has immense love and care for his child. He hides his affection and
gentle nature so that his child understands that mistakes are not tolerated even it is done in a
childish play. Additionally, the poem gives strong words for the reader to identify the emotions and
route of the poem.
In the first excerpt, the child is shown to cry tears of flood. It was due to a smack
administered by his father that had started it. In the ending line we get to see that it was a quick slap
which means it was a small slap which was over exaggerated by the boy. Due to the hit, the boy’s
face has contorted and transformed in such a manner that it demands sympathy. Its shows how
children of small age understand how to manipulate the emotions of the elderly by playing with
emotions. We learn to have sympathy for the child until the last stanza where we realize that the
strike was not hurtful. The child describes his father as an orge which takes us to the perspective of a
person bigger than ourselves. The boy further explains him as a colossal giant to reinforce the image
of the father so that we imagine him to be a rugged and ferocious person with no room for
emotional considerations. This changes in the last stanza, where we understand the affection, the
father has for his son and how he had to look over the love for his offspring to teach him valuable
lesson. He knows that these lessons are important if his son has to grow with the right morals and
values.