"Rising five" by Norman Nicholson

Essay by 7aftya October 2007

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"Raising five" is a poem written by Norman Nicholson. The poem talks about a boy who desires to look grown up, and metaphors it with the growth of the nature around him. In this poem, the poet expresses about the way he feels towards the positive and negative effect of the growth of the child and the youth, the cells of spring and formation of fruit, and how they're similar. They all grow just like the boy does (each in its own way).

The first stanza expresses the innocence of the child for his desire that determines him to prove that his not a child anymore, he's 'not four' he's 'rising five'. The child in this point thinks of the cup half full and not half empty. He didn't think of himself as a four years old child but took it in a positive way of him approaching five.

When the child used rising five, he showed us his excitement of growing. The child didn't see him self as a young four years old but looked at the bright side and saw him self getting closer to being a five year old. Neglecting the child's feeling of a grown up, the poet focuses on the innocence that the child looked like while counting his years. 'His spectacles brimful of eyes to stare at me and the meadow, reflected cones of light above his toffee-buckled cheeks.'The second stanza talks about the growth of the trees around the boy during spring, in which the 'cells of spring bubbled and doubled'. Doubled on my opinion metaphors the growth of the spring with the growth of the baby .The poet uses personification in expressing the growth of the buds, "buds unbuttoned", buds don't unbutton they grow. We can see how the...