"Childhood in all aspects is extremely important to Betjeman." Choose Three Poems That Show How He Represents Childhood And Whether You Find This Statement To Be True.

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“Childhood in all aspects is extremely important to Betjeman.” Choose Three Poems That Show How He Represents Childhood And Whether You Find This Statement To Be True.

“Myfanwy”, “False Security” and “Original Sin on the Sussex Coast” are all connected by the theme of childhood. They all bring up themes that were of major concern to Betjeman and some even influenced his life.

In “Myfanwy” Betjeman brings up the issue of love in children. The poem is about a child’s love for their nanny and how he remembers small intermit things like “Soap-scented fingers I long to caress.” It is a loving poem and shows nothing negative about his nanny only deep affection towards her. “Golden the light on the locks of Myfanwy.” This quotation creates an aura around this woman and shows the love and respect given by Betjeman as a child towards her. He is proud to call her his friend and feels a sense of security from her. “You will protect me, my silken Myfanwy, Ringleader, tom-boy, and chum to the weak.” I think this poem does prove the statement to be true as “Myfanwy” obviously meant a lot to him.

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However this poem is in direct contrast with “ Original Sin on the Sussex Coast.” This poem is about bullying and fighting. There is clear child innocence in this poem, “Across the Garden of Remembrance? No, that would be blasphemy and bring bad luck.” The fact that the child believes in bad luck and can’t afford to have any whilst being chased by some other children is almost fairytale like. The fact that he remembers this incident means it must have had some kind of impact on his life he possible wanted revenge on the boys for hurting him and ...

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