ROUGH
My parents kept me from children who were rough
And who threw words like stones and who wore torn clothes.
Their thighs showed through rags. They ran in the street
And climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams.
I feared more than tigers their muscles like iron
And their jerking hands and their knees tight on my arms.
I feared the salt coarse pointing of those boys
Who copied my lisp behind me on the road.
They were lithe, they sprang out behind hedges
Like dogs to bark at our world. They threw mud
And I looked another way, pretending to smile,
I longed to forgive them, yet they never smiled.
Stephen Spender
Rough
- a very personal poem
For each statement, say whether it is true or false - T/F and then
find evidence from the poem to support your answer. Quoting is
encouraged.
Level 1
 Stephen’s parents do not like rough children.
 The children liked Stephen.
 The children were well dressed.
 Stephen was bullied by boys,
 The poem contains three similes.
Level 2 - reading between the lines
 The boys are cruel.
 The boys were adventurous and daring.
 Stephen was hurt by the boys.
 Stephen smiles at the boys because he likes them.
Level 3 – opinion- what do you believe? Give a reason
to support your view
 The boys should be punished for their behaviour.
 Stephen should have fought back at his
tormentors.
 The boys are probably juvenile delinquents.
 Stephen’s mother, not his father, would give him
the best advice about how to deal with these
boys.
Extension
1. Find an image of a boy (or girl) you imagine would look like
the child Stephen in the poem. Make a collage of words and
phrases from the poem to surround this image. Save your
work.
2. Besides being picked on for belonging to the privileged
upper class, is there any other reason why the boys bullied
Spender? Base your answer on EVIDENCE from Wikipedia
(do a Stephen Spender search) and the poem ‘Rough’. 75
words
3. Define the following words from the poem:
 Jerking
 Coarse
 Lisp
 Lithe