Analysis of As If Children Were Out of Fashion



As if children send us a message before they are conceived and born,
With words so eloquently formed,
Beseeching "I want to born, I want to be born"
Stating in clear terms that this world is a place for which they long.
As if they are not first a product of our pleasure and choice.

As if,
Even as adults we do not crave play,
Like we possessed minds so mature from the very first day.
These routes we walked, we now betray
As if childhood is not part of everybody's tale.

As if childlike innocence is a taboo;
Something to be barnished,
Like messy paper, squeezed and crumpled,
Something that served us
We treat now like it is no good.

As if,
Our young and feeble shoulders caved from abnormal loads,
Naked toes,
Open shoes dusty and battered from rugged streets and their ongoing woes.
For a scanty meal, a child must push their dose,
As if a child signs up for any of those.

The sound of school bells
Replaced by the thunderous sounds of bombs,
Cheerful giggles amidst playing with water guns
Replaced by sore moods of little ones handling deadly arms
Dust raised from feet playing in school fields
Replaced by those raised from little feet running for their lives,
Replaced by fog hovering over the location where a just raised building used to lie,
A place these children used to once reside,
Took the lives of those on whom they rely,
Turned a six-year-old into a damned hustler with red eye;
I wonder why.

As if childhood were out of fashion,
These days, no action.
Words like this might serve only as just another photo caption.

As if, as if.


Scheme abaxx Cdddx xbxxx Cxeexe xxxxxxfxfff ggg c
Poetic Form
Metre 11101101001110101 11110001 010111111111 100111111011111 1111110101101001 11 1010111111 11011101101011 11111101 11111111001 1111001001 10111 110101010 10111 11111111 11 10101010110101 101 10110010110101101 10101011111 11011111011 01111 110100111 101001101101 1111110110101 111110011 1111110110111 111100100010101110111 0111011101 1011111101 101110101100111 1101 11101110 11110 111111011010110 1111
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,560
Words 321
Sentences 12
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 6, 11, 3, 1
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 34
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 175
Words per stanza (avg) 41

About this poem

A poem in response to Wole Soyinka's 'A Child Before a Mirror of Strangers.' This poem seeks to advocate for children in war zones and places reeking with violence, or children who are born in abject poverty and have to fend for themselves doing menial and dangerous jobs.

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Written on March 17, 2024

Submitted by Ruthmahogany on March 18, 2024

1:36 min read
5

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