Analysis Rising Five By Norman Nicholson

Authors Avatar

George Ingram                                                                                              22/12/04                                                                                                                  

Analysis Rising Five By Norman Nicholson

READ POEM

Rising Five by Norman Nicholson appears to be a simple poem. It then goes on to become a lot deeper and more complicated. It begins with the innocent remark of a four year old to the poet. This comment makes the poet think about how everyone contemplates their future.

Next Slide

The first verse describes an emphatic four year old boy who is indignant because someone called him four. He sees things differently, “I’m rising five’, he said, ‘not four”. This comment is an innocent one typical of all young children but it makes the poet think about how it is not only young children who jump ahead but also older people in all stages of their lives that do this. The boy is in the earliest stage of his life which is the bud of his life.

‘Little coils of hair un-clicked themselves upon his head’ this is talking about the boy and gives the impression of him stamping his foot and tossing his head. He is cross because he has been called four when he believes he can sound more important by being called ‘rising five’.

Join now!

This is where the word ‘rising’ from the title begins to repeat at the end of every verse. This theme carries on through the poem although it becomes more complicated

Next Slide

Verse two describes where the man and boy are standing in a field during late spring to the end of May. It is an imaginative verse about the energetic speed of the vegetation’s growth crammed into a couple of months as shown by ‘the cells of spring bubbled and doubled’.

Around them, everything is bursting with fresh vigorous life, the quote ‘shoot and stem shook out ...

This is a preview of the whole essay