"Rising Five" - Norman Nicholson poem analysis

The first 200 words of this essay...

"Rising Five" - Norman Nicholson 750words

The poem "Rising Five" by Norman Nicholson is a story-like, free verse poem, written in first person narrative and describing the cycle of life. There is no visible rhyme scheme, it has no pattern and the stanzas are mostly very short, emphasising the short life that we live. Also, "Rising Five" is a juxtaposition of joyful life in contrast to a natural death.

"Rising Five" starts with an expression saying "I'm rising five.../ Not four". This exclamation shows that as a little kid, you were looking forward to ageing and becoming older to do all the things that under-aged people could not do. Moreover, the enjambment in "...and the little coils of hair/ Un-clicked themselves upon his head" metaphorically shows us that the kid was growing up and starting to become a man. The next few lines are very descriptively describing the boy and the atmosphere created is adolescent, "brimful of eyes to stare...reflected cones of light/ above his toffee-buckled cheeks". The "toffee-buckled cheeks" also add to the effect of seeing this boy eating sweets and having his mouth full of them, munching away, pushing out his reddish cheeks.