'The Escape from Youth' by Tony Lintermans tutorial.

Introduction:

This tutorial analyses the poem "The Escape from Youth" by Tony Lintermans. Tony Lintermans is of Belgian, Irish and English heritage and was born in Dandedong, Victoria. Tony has a celebrated life as a teacher, scriptwriter and editor and has received literary recognition for his work.

"The Escape from Youth" is about a boy's struggle to move on from his solitude of childhood. When the boy was younger, his father was hard with discipline, which resulted in the boy retreating into himself. Poetry helps the boy to express himself and to remark on the natural world around him. In the end, the boy thanks his father for causing him to spend so much time in solitude, as it helped the boy to discover a secure sense of identity, to discover the natural beauty of the world and the healing powers poetry holds.

It is safe to say that the poem is set in modern times as the language and wording used has a modern feel to it.

POETRY SOCIETY POSTCARD

English: Alexander Blok's poem 'Noch, ulica, fonar...

The Old English epic poem Beowulf is written in al...

A setting is never mentioned in the poem but it could be said that the poem is set in the boy's mind, because throughout the poem he replays different experiences over in his mind.

Themes:

The major themes of the poem "The Escape from Youth" would be sadness, solitude, thankfulness, contentment, growth, acceptance, healing, and the healing powers of poetry and the natural world.

Techniques:

Throughout "The Escape from Youth" there is a lot of poetry techniques used. Some of the most used techniques used in this poem would be alliteration, similes and personification.

"A hardness hammered shut" causes us to imagine a physical hammer rather than a hammer representing his father's abuse. Another metaphor is the 'box'. All through the poem, a 'box' is mentioned within the lines "my father's...