Hide and seek

• “Hide and seek” - game - linked to childhood/innocence
• “Call out. Call loud. I’m ready! Come and find me”

  in media’s res - throws the reader into the game

  exclamation marks - excitement
• “The sacks in the tool shed smell like the sea side” - sibilance - creates an olfactory image of the seaside - smell of seaside — linked to childhood
• “They’ll never find you in this salty dark“ internal dialogue - 2nd person - sense of isolation as you have to hide by yourself and you have to be extremely careful/quiet and stuck in your own thoughts - replicating the experience we would have had as children -modal verb = great confidence and positive tone as he believes that he can outwit his friends
• • “The floor is cold. ” - discomfort
  • short sentence - mirrors the stillness of how they have to be to make sure they’re not caught
• • “Dark” “risk” “cold” “prowling“
  • negative words - increasing tension and creates a tense of vulnerability but the boy is unaware as he has a positive tone
  • Setting is “dark” - creates a sense of isolation
• • “They” - nameless = sinister/threatening
  • ”prowling“ - predatory = vulnerability
  • “whispering“ - even closer - builds tension
  • ”You’ve never heard them sound so hushed” - plotting against him - alliteration mirrors breathing = tension
• • “Don’t breathe. Don’t move. Stay dumb. Hide in your blindness“
  • alliteration = urgency
  • imperatives = sense of expertise - so confident that they will win
  • sense of stillness = builds tension but out of excitement
• • “Someone stumbles, mutters; their words and laughter scuffle”
  • assonance = repetition of the “u” sound = struggle of the friends trying to find him
• • “They must be thinking that you’re very clever” - positive tone
• • “Your legs are stiff, the cold bites through your coat” - personification as if they are vulnerable/feel a growing discomfort
  • however, the hider is confident as they say “it’s time to let them know that you’re the winner“
  • “call to them: I’ve won! Here I am!” - exclamations/excitement = certainty of his win
• • “The darkening garden watches. Nothing stirs. The bushes hold their breath; the sun is gone. Yes, here you are. But where are they who sought you?“
  • personification of the garden and the bushes - threatening/vulnerability - garden is watching them and the bushes hold their breath as if they are waiting for something bad to happen - alongside the question = uncertainty = contrasts with previous tone - unanswered = emphasises loneliness
  • “Nothing stirs” - stillness
  • ”darkening” - builds tension/increasing sense of isolation - no light to guide them
• • structural techniques:
  • free verse
  • inconsistent rhyme scheme = uncertainty of the game as he was playing a game thinking that his friends were playing with him - ostracised?
  • one stanza = one moment of increased tension
  • volta - from extremely confident to upset - expectation vs reality - loses his naivety
• • themes:
  • negligence
  • childhood
  • loneliness
  • ironies in life