Poetry Analysis - Three or So

Three or So

Is that child in the snapshot me?

That little girl in the woollen dress

By a broken door in a tiny yard

She’s shy and laughing and ready to run

And shielding her eyes from the morning sun

I’ve forgotten the dress, the colour of it

I’ve forgotten who took the photograph

I’ve forgotten the little girl, three or so

She’s someone else now, to be wondered at

With my mother’s eyes and my own child’s hair

And my brother’s smile, but the child who’s there –

The real soul of her – fled long ago

To the alley-way where she mustn’t go

Through the broken door in that tiny yard

Rough men on motorbikes, not to be looked at

Scrawny cats scratching, not to be touched

Down to the railway line, never to go there

Nor up to the road where the traffic rushed

Stay close in the yard with the sun in your eyes

Come and be still for your photograph

I hear now the drones of those bikes

And the loud dark voices of men

I can hear the scream and shush of the train

And the whooshing of the traffic on the road

But the summer buzz in that tiny yard

And the child who laughed with her best dress on

And the voice that told her t stand in the sun

And the click that pressed the shutter down

Have gone

As if they had never been

This poem shows childhood memories. However, instead of the light and happy mood like “Snapshotland”, this is an adult looking back in her happy memories and it has a sad mood. In the poem, it is stated that she has forgotten her child self. The poem has a nostalgic feeling, causing one to look back into his or her childhood.

Poem Analysis

Language –

• Usage of enjambment
• Helps evoke a sense of lack of control of the persona.
• “Stretches” the sentence, creating a feeling of nostalgia, as if one is looking back to his own past.
• Rhyme scheme is totally random
• Again, helps evoke a sense of lack of control of the persona.
• Repetition
• “I’ve forgotten the dress, the colour of it, I’ve forgotten who took the photograph, I’ve forgotten the little girl, three or so”
• The repetition of the word “forgotten” emphasizes the feeling of sadness and nostalgia.
• “shy and laughing and ready to run” This repetition
• Strong emphasis
• Instead of just saying “I’ve forgotten the colour of the dress”, the poem says “I’ve forgotten the dress, the colour of it”. This effectively creates emphasis on the sentence itself. This technique is used on other sentences as well.

Imagery –

• Detailed descriptions
• The image created by the poet is very clear because the description is very detailed.
• This is probably to show how the persona actually remembers her childhood clearly. A few examples are shown below.
• Instead of just saying dress, the poet says “woollen dress”
• Instead of saying door, the poet says “broken door”

• Instead of yard, the poet says “tiny yard”
• Sound
• The usage of onomatopoeia creates a stronger image, as if the reader is hearing the sound as well.
• “summer buzz”

• “click that press the shutter down”
• “shush of the train”
• “whooshing of the traffic”
• “drone of those bikes”