Child and Insect by Robert Druce is an exceptional poem capturing the childlike approach to a new experience.

by sarahvdpost (student)

International Baccalaureate World Literature

Child and insect Commentary

Child and Insect by Robert Druce is an exceptional poem capturing the childlike approach to a new experience. It describes a child’s shifting emotions when he captures a grasshopper and to show this can be grouped into four stages each depicting a different emotion. Druce effectively portrays these emotions through a range of techniques such as diction to evoke tone and mood, sensory imagery and structure.

The title is [a]appropriate in displaying the broken, separate relationship between the child and the insect, and somewhat describes the lack of understanding the child has of nature. The title puts them as two different things, with the conjunction ‘and’, and it allows the reader to read upon the significant childlike emotions this misunderstanding evokes. The poem has a very unpredictable structure which represents the playful nature of the child, and the poet also purposefully uses sensory imagery to enable the reader to experience this event as a child would, free of a tainted ‘adult-like’ view.

In stanza one the reader is introduced to an excited boy readily taking in a new experience as he captures a grasshopper. The enjambment is quite uniform in this first section, suggesting a link with the emotional state of the child – stable happiness. Druce uses alliteration of ‘h’ sound in the opening line of the poem, “he cannot hold his hand huge enough.” This shows that it is something difficult to grasp, as the sentence suggests, and the ‘h’ sounds, rather hard to say altogether, further empahsises the pleasant struggle of a child to take in the awe. The poet also uses diction, for example the boy ‘races’ back to his mother, ready to share his pride and achievement. The poet’s diction use conveys the child’s urgency, and is perhaps used to suggest his magnification of a small, exciting amusement. The boy runs through a ‘shrieking’ meadow, and again, the personification allows the reader to understand the child’s look on the world – childish fun and uncontrolled excitement, which is when a shriek is likely to occur. The poet also uses punctuation in the 5th line, and explanation mark in the middle; ‘look! to his mother,” which adds a jerk of excitement in an otherwise short and emotionless line. This gives additional emphasis on the excitement, playful and unpredictable tone of the first section. [b]

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The second section of the poem shows the boy’s realisation to the grasshoppers ‘death’, and his shift to sadness. Druce uses enjambment along with imagery to provoke reader sympathy for the boy, particularly in the lines; “its dead struts snapped even the brittle lidless eyes crushed into the tangle”. We too experience the sadness, and the detailed description using such refined words really puts the reader in the child’s view. The elongated statements allow for the reader to take in the slow, sad pace and the experience already seems increasingly gloomy. Again, sensory imagery is used to show this increased sadness in the line; “Sunlight and the landscape flood away in tears.” The personification evokes a strong emotional image. Nature drowning in human sadness, and also rather fittingly, sadness ruining the view of nature, which in context of the poem make sense as the child’s sadness prevented him from seeing the grasshopper was alive immediately. We also see the childlike approach to the sadness, as the poet uses words such as “dare not” and “will not”. This diction is strong and somewhat confronting to a child as they are direct statements of truth as such. The security in being told what is going to happen and the inner reassurance echo the behaviors of children. In context of the whole line, we get a sense of the boy hiding and these imperative words give the reader a sense of the confidence the boy places in hiding, and the thought that it will make the sadness better, a common childlike view.

There is here on another shift in the child’s emotion, a shift from the second section of sadness, to a third section of guilt. The most outstanding literary feature is Druce’s use of enjambment in the isolation of “throbs”. This isolation highlights the word and its connotations; the after pain, the reminder. The insect ‘throbs and is latched…’ which immediately suggests the child’s guilt of hurting the insect, and the guilt of thinking its dead, throbbing so boldly. The use of the word ‘O’ suggests despair, and again, isolated in enjambment is highlighted. Juxtaposition is seen when the two contrasting words “rage and “relief” are used to describe his weeps. The child cannot control his emotions, and is sick with the feeling of guilt. The childish ways are also bought into this section, as the poet uses words such as “undead” and “magic” which are childlike, and naïve. Magic shows how the child cannot understand, as he jumps to the conclusion that it just ‘happens’ as magic does.

As the poet is an adult, he can see beyond the grasshopper ‘incident’ and into a easy realisation, but the child in the poem struggles to go beyond, and is still in the process of learning in hope to understand nature. In this fourth section, we see an emotion shift of guilt to betrayal displaying this confusion. We can again see the use of diction, and the imperative tone; “He must not have tears torn from him by petty trickery”, which shows the defensive approach to the grasshoppers tricks. We are then finally presented with another form of sensory imagery putting the reader in the shoes of the child – shoes which very evidently resent the previous feelings of sadness and guilt; “He could snatch the creature up and shatter it for leaving him so naked”. It is moving, and significant in creating the insect as the ‘creature’ needing to be killed. In context we can see that the boy doesn’t like this feeling of guilt for nothing, and so this image allows the reader to connect to this harsh, sudden feeling of hatred by using ‘snatch’ and ‘shatter’, as readers we connect this resent and revenge to betrayal.

Crammed with human emotion, Robert Duce’s Child and Insect effectively shows a child’s ways through such a small event. Druce uses a range of literary features to aid the reader’s understanding of these emotions, which are then pulled together to form a pleasant poem. In reading this poem we can learn how we as humans grow from experience, and this just captures one of many for this boy.

Sarah van der Post

[a]Unclear importance – rather that child suggests population on whole, not just an individual.

IS Department

[b]Summary of first stanza? What does this say about children.

IS Department