I remember, I remember

• Context

  • Hood writing at time between Romantic & Victorian era. His poetry reflects some Romantic ideals- nature & innocence of childhood as well as more realist ideas within Victorian poetry
  • Hood's life plagued with illness & became invalid at 41. Illness & bad health explains why poem tinged with sadness & longing for happier days of past.
• Form

  • 4 verses
  • ABCBDEFE rhyme scheme.
  • Alternating rhyme scheme gives the poem a feeling of motion as Hood switches from past to present
  • Each stanza covers a different natural element - morning, flowers, air/light & sky/mountains
  • Ballard
  • Poetic I
  • Isometric
• Structure

  • Refrain "I remember, I remember"->each stanza starts with a memory of childhood & things have changed for worst in his life.
  • Exclamation->"The tree is living yet!","The fever on my brow!" show surprise & draw attention to key themes of poem. Wants reader to understand power of nature & how it thrives over years-unlike him
  • Anecdotes throughout=point of connection
  • Enjambement portrays growing gap between childhood & adulthood.
• Language

  • Nature personified = innocence of childhood, describes how sun "came peeping in at morn:/ He never came a wink too soon" Here, sees sun as friend,look in on him every morning & make day go quickly.
  • Assonance & alliteration --> lifts atmosphere presenting childlike presence & adds to rhythm + pace
  • Semantic field of freedom
  • "My spirit flew in feathers then" = metaphor = free
• Tone

  • Uses light & dark imagery to show moods. "Morning sun, the bright flowers" and "the air" to describe past but refers to "night, heavy spirits" and "long days" to show present. Underlines carefree nature of youth & burdens of adulthood.
• "Came peeping in at morn;/He never came a wink too soon"
• "But now I often wish the night/ Had borne my breath away!"
• "The roses, red and white"
• "My spirits flew in feathers then"
• "And summer pools could hardly cool/ The fever on my brow!"
• "To know I'm farther off from heav'n/ Than when I was a boy."
• "Were close against the sky:/ It was childish ignorance"
• Comparison poems

  • Emigree --> Both write in 1st person & talk about their childhood = idyllic + happy. Both now have unhappier memories & life experiences, also have happier memories to comfort them.
  • Sunday dip --> Shows joys of innocence of youth & how they are part of nature. Clare writes as an observer of scene & only shows joy of experience. Hood relaying personal thoughts & how he has changed. 16 lines. Sonnet. 8 sets of rhyming couplets.