Child and Inest

“Child and Insect” is a poem written by Robert Druce, which describes an event between a child and an insect. The poem highlights the child’s loss of innocence, and appearances can be deceiving through vivid imagery and diction. He also uses unique form and structure to bring about the emotions and actions of the child.
The writer uses imagery and diction in the first twenty lines of the poem to show the constant shifting of emotions from the child. The poem starts off by stating the child “cannot hold his hand huge enough.” The alliteration hints the child is of young age and physically small, as he just barely hold a grasshopper in his hands. Next, the child “snatched” the grasshopper from the grassblades. The diction once again gives us an indication of the age of the child, as the dynamic verb, “snatched”, is a child-like behavior, as it usually describes someone taking something which does not belong to them. The child then “races back, how quick he is, look! To his mother through the shrieking meadow” The enjambment suggests the child is running around in a fast pace, and the figurative imagery creates a feeling everything is blur, which again shows how fast the child is sprinting around. In addition, the caesura suggests the child is jumping from one place to another. The imagery created all displays the excitement of the child from capturing a grasshopper, which gives us a sense of innocence of the child. The child then shows the grasshopper to his mother, and “in his fearful clutch” reveals the grasshopper. As the child realizes the grasshopper has been “crushed into the tangle”, the “sunlight and the landscape flood away in tears.” The metaphor creates the imagery of the child crying like crazy, and demonstrations how sensitive a child can be, as one moment he is all cheerful, and the next, he is crying tears of sorrow. Then, he “cradled (the grass hopper) in his fingers,” the dynamic verb “cradle” shows the child is treating it like a baby, and he