The child’s feeling of excitement is carried through the first half of the poem by oxymorons and adjectives such as ‘salty dark’, the seaside and describing the cold floor. I think that the poet uses the words like salty as they are linked with the seaside and that emphasises the fact that he is excited, as the seaside is a fun place to be. On the other hand, the seaside is quite a secluded place so it could also be to show the fact that the child feels quite alone.
As the poem continues, the child’s confidence slowly fades away, as does his comfort. ‘Your legs are stiff, the cold bites through your coat…’ is a phrase that implies that he is wanting to get away from his dark hiding place to show he has won. Later in the poem, he says ‘the dark damp smell of sand moves in your throat’ which uses a mixture of tactile senses, creating a more than visual idea of what’s going on. Maybe pulling the readers further into the story.
Although it is written from an adult’s perspective, it is in the present tense. This way I believe that it seems more real as the child doesn’t know what is going to happen next, whereas if it were written in the past tense, he would know what would happen and I think that some of the tension would be lost.
Another factor that emphasises apprehension is the seekers. The poet uses words such as ‘prowling’ which mirrors ‘hide and seek’ in the wild; like a prowling tiger hunting it’s prey. The other verbs used describing the seekers are ‘stumbles, mutters, and whispering’. This conveys that the child is confused and can’t make out what they are saying from his hiding place.
At the very end, he says ‘I’ve won!’ feeling very proud of himself and he steps outside to find them but they aren’t there. This is a very sudden anti-climax from the extreme excitement before. As he is outside all alone, the poet uses personification of things around him, such as ‘the bushes hold their breath; the darkening garden watches’ to emphasise the fact that he is alone and that everything around him seems alive, to make up for no one being around.
In The next poem ‘Brendon Gallacher’, There is a lot of repetition of the words ‘my Brendon Gallacher’. I believe that this is meant to show how much he means to the little girl and that he is hers and no one elses.
As he is seven and she is six, she can look up to him as he is a bit older, but at the same time she can relate to him, as he is only a little bit older. Throughout the poem in fact, she compares different things about their lives such as ‘his father was in prison; he was a cat burglar, my dad was communist party full time worker, he had six brothers, I had one…’. What the poet is trying to do is show the childish attitude towards the relationship. I.e. in the playground there are often competitions like ‘my dads bigger than your dad’ and this is just another form of that. Another idea is that she says that her dad works full time and so Brendon could be a representation of a father figure, as he is a boy who is older than she is. As she doesn’t see her dad very often, she could have made him up to physiologically form a stronger relationship with her dad. Also I think that she likes the excitement factor about Brendon, as his dad is a cat burglar.
When the poet says ‘he would take my hand and take me by the river’, this is showing an innocent romance between them, that they show affection for each other. They are down by the river because it’s outside and they can be free rather then closed up indoors.
As the poem draws to a close, she says ‘then one day after we’d been friends for two years, one day…’. I think that the repetition of one day narrows down the time frame from two years of friendship down to just one day. Then she says ‘when it was pouring and I was indoors’ showing that she is not happy with him and out side.
Then, when her mum finally says ‘didn’t you say your Brendon Gallacher lived at 24 Novar?…There are no Gallachers at 24 Novar’ Brendon dies. As the girl has got a little bit older, her mum thinks she shouldn’t have an imaginary friend any more. As the girl sees that no one else has faith she comes to the realisation that he doesn’t exist. So he disappears, or dies to the girl. She can see him lying on her floor. ‘Oh Brendon’ –a sigh of letting go perhaps.
In these two poems two sad moments are shown. In ‘hide and seek’, the feeling of rejection as the seekers go off and then leave the child alone, and in ‘Brendon Gallacher’ when Brendon dies and leaves the girl alone.
