Compare and contrast the poet’s presentation of childhood in the two poems
‘Yellow’, by Jackie Kay, is a poem where Kay remembers her deprived childhood, linking many of her memories to the colour yellow. ‘Brendon Gallacher’, another poem by Jackie Kay, is a poem where Kay recalls the death of her imaginary friend. Both poems explore aspects of Kay’s childhood in very similar yet illustrative fashion.
In ‘Yellow’, Kay utilises a negative and depressing tone to convey the desperate situation that her family was in and, also, she opts not to use a rhyme scheme in order to portray the lack of liveliness in her childhood. The poem’s acoustics display more sadness especially when Kay’s mother ‘weeps’ creating the impression of a tearful experience, thus further emphasising the sadness in Kay’s own childhood. Meanwhile, in ‘Brendon Gallacher’, Kay uses a contrasting tone to convey the change in her feelings. The first three stanzas have a bright and cheerful tone which shifts to a depressed one in the final two stanzas, resembling her sadness at the death of Brendon. The poem’s acoustics appear like pleading with Kay’s constant repetition of ‘my Brendon Gallacher’. As in ‘Yellow’, Kay does not utilise a rhyme scheme again. In both poems, it is obvious from the poignant acoustics and lack of rhyme that there is dullness engulfing her childhood.
