Little Boy Crying by Mervyn Morris and Rising Five written by Norman Nicholson are both about young boys growing up and describing their world to us. They both do this through the use of metaphors, similes, repetition and allusion. They both portray the idea differently but the meanings are the same, the fact that we must learn life lessons. The theme of growing up is also portrayed throughout the poems.
In the poem "Rising Five" written by Norman Nicholson, Nicholson portrays the idea of growing up through verbal language features such as repetition and simile's. An example of this would be the repetition of the words "not" and "rising". This gives us the impression that the young boy is looking at the present negatively and looking towards the future too much. Another example of this would be the quote "we drop our youth behind us like a boy throwing away his toffee wrappers". This gives us the impression of how carelessly the boy is throwing away his youth and so are we. Nicholson teaches us here that we should live life to the fullest as you never know when your life could end.
In the poem "Little Boy Crying" written by Mervyn Morris, Morris portrays the theme of growing up and learning life lessons. Melvyn Morris does this throughout the poem using verbal language features such as allusion "the ogre towers above you, that grim giant" this gives us the impression of how the boy feels about his father. The little boy describes his father in the only way he can, through fairytales. It also shows the harshness of the boy's feelings for his father. Another example would be "you must not make a plaything of the rain" this example means that the little boy must learn his life lessons and not make use of his tears to get what he desires and to get out of situations. Morris teaches us in the poem that we can't always get what we want through tears and we must learn life lessons if we want to succeed in the future as we learn