Question

Explore how Spender conveys his feelings about his childhood in the poem ‘My Parents’

Answer 1

Spender uses a number of different nature symbols in order to convey his feelings about his childhood. He describes the children he was afraid of and bullied by as tigers and dogs, and writes about them being on cliffs, by streams, and behind bushes. These techniques portray the children's actions as animalistic, while drawing the reader into the fear and tension of the speaker.