The poems Rising Five and Little Boy Crying, by Norman Nicholson and Mervyn Morris respectively, are similar in that they both have a young child as the subject, and they also explore the concept of growing up. As a consequence, both poems offer insight into the change in perspective between childhood and adulthood. This theme is portrayed in a variety of ways, namely through figurative language and structure.

Nicholson’s Rising Five uses figurative language to show young children as eager to mature and move forward in life, while also showing an altogether different view held by adults. Rich imagery is used to portray youth and innocence of the subject, a young boy who is just “rising five”. He is described as being “brimful of eyes”, which could conjure up in the reader’s head eyes so wide and staring they are almost ‘overflowing’. This image hints at the innocence and fascination of the subject. The field the subject and narrator are standing in is described with metaphors and personification. It “bubbled and doubled” as “buds unbuttoned” and “shoot and stem shook out the creases from their frills”. These human-like actions: “unbuttoning” and “shook out”; are used by Nicholson in order to portray the constant growth that occurs in spring. This abundant life and growth complements the previous description of the subject’s youth. However, the subject is eager to leave behind his youthfulness and grow up. Nicholson compares this desire to “a boy throwing away his toffee wrappers”. In the final stanza, the narrator, presumably an adult, seems to show regret and sadness at this eagerness to constantly advance in life without appreciating their current life; like how “the new buds push the old leaves from the bough”.  From these examples, we can see that Nicholson’s extensive use of figurative language serves to highlight the opposing views of children and adults.

Little Boy Crying, by Morris, explores a different aspect of child/adult perspectives, though still using figurative language. In the first stanza the poet uses many verbs : “contorting”, “metamorphosed”, “splashing”; and adjectives: “brief”, “relaxed”, “tight”, “bright”, to illustrate the sudden tantrum thrown by the “three-year-old” subject. The verb “angling” suggests that this tantrum is not entirely genuine, and that the child is trying to manipulate his father by appealing to his emotions. This cunning action is a small hint of the “grown-up” behaviour developing deep within the innocence and naivete of the very young child. The next stanza uses metaphors to portray the child’s view of his father: a towering “ogre” or a “grim giant”. This shows that children can often have an unrealistic, imaginary view of the world around them as they cannot always distinguish fact from fiction. This is supported by the child seeing his father as “a colossal cruel, soon victim of the tale’s conclusion”. Perhaps this child sees his father as the evil monster in a fairy tale, and himself as the hero who will inevitably slay the beast, with “pits to trap him in”. Figurative language is also used to show the father’s perspective of the situation. The boy’s “tears can scald him”. Obviously this is not to be taken literally, but Morris uses this image to explain to the reader the intense “hurt” the “easy tears” of the boy cause the father. The father is also described as having a “mask”, a metaphor used to show that the father is concealing his real desire – he “longs to lift” his son and “curb [his] sadness”. But instead he appears “fierce”, in order to teach the boy an important lesson.  It is clear that Morris has employed figurative language to show the two opposing perspectives on life held by a father and his son.

Another language technique used extensively in Rising Five is structure. The first stanza introduces the subject, describing his youthfulness. The final sentence of the stanza “not four, but rising five” is ‘split off’ from the rest of the stanza, highlighting its importance, since the poem revolves around this theme, that children, and people in general, are always looking ahead in life. The next stanza is an image of the abundant life that is apparent nearby, and as previously mentioned, is used to mirror the child being full of life and growth. However, between the second and third stanzas there are several fragmented, scattered lines of text, corresponding perhaps to “the dust dissected tangential light”. This “dissected” structure could represent a transition period in life, namely adolescence. “Not May, but rising June” supports this theory, since in the northern hemisphere, June is the start of summer, and the end of spring. This means spring (representing childhood and growth) is drawing to a close, “not now, but rising soon” (“soon” showing that this is anticipated and awaited by the child). The repeated use of the structure “not …, but rising …” throughout the poem constantly reinforces this sense of anticipation. The final stanza also employs repetition of the adult’s point of view, with this ‘sequence’ of metaphors:

“We never see the flower, but only the fruit in the flower; never the fruit, but only the rot in the fruit. We look for the marriage bed in the baby’s cradle, we look for the grave in the bed”

This serves to emphasise the idea that Nicholson is trying to reveal to the reader; that people (especially youth) constantly look ahead in life whilst failing to appreciate what they already have, only regretting this later in life as an adult looking back.

The poem ends with another broken line after the final stanza “not living but rising dead”. This poignant ending is again separated to imply its importance. The final line “Rising dead” links back to the title “Rising Five”. These two lines sum up the two perspectives of the child and the adult.

Structurally, Little boy Crying is more ‘conventional’ than Rising Five, as it has a relatively simple layout, with three stanzas of roughly equal size and no broken or detached lines of text, though it is unusual in that it is written in the second person. However, the structure still helps the poem explore differences in perspective of the son and the father.
The first stanza introduces us to the subject, who is having a tantrum. In short, this stanza sets the scene. The second stanza gives the reader insight into the viewpoint of the young child, who is angry and resents the ‘quick slap” from his father. The third stanza is contrasted against the second, as it is from the perspective of the father. The father knows the child is angry and sad, and “longs” to comfort his son, yet knows he ‘dare not ruin the lessons [he] should learn”, for in comforting the child, the child would forget the pain and would not learn from his mistakes. Morris’ use of simple layout creates a clear-cut progression in the poem that, again, neatly compares the two viewpoints of the father and son. As in Rising Five, this poem also ends with a single separated line “You must not make a plaything of the rain”. On the surface, this sentence appears to be simple, but in fact contains deeper meanings. “Rain” could represent tears and emotion. “You” could refer to the son, as it has throughout the poem, in which case it could imply that the child needs to learn not to ‘abuse’ his emotions to get sympathy, since he “cannot understand, not yet” “the hurt” that it causes his fater. Alternatively, if the “you” is taken to refer to the father, then this takes on an altogether different meaning: that the father needs to not undermine the lesson being learnt, by playing and comforting the child straight after disciplining him. Either way, this double-layered sentence is a fitting end to the poem.

Both of these poems explore and contrast the often opposing perspectives of children and adults, as both have the subject as a young child, and the persona as an adult. Both poets skilfully employ various language techniques to portray their ideas and opinions to the reader. Though they discuss different themes and topics, both show children as having an innocent, naïve, and incomplete view of the world; while adults can see things in retrospect, can reflect on life, and show an understanding that children simply have not developed.