childhood by lorna crozier

Questions:

Through what sense (ie. Sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch) does the author of “Childhood” create a memory of early years in the first stanza of this poem? Quote a line from the poem which illustrates your answer.

Use quotation marks to quote the lines which show that the mother would welcome her child home again?

There are two groups of symbols used in “Childhood”. The first is the color white which often symbolizes innocence. Sometimes it represents cold or death too. Several things in this poem are white: frost, birds, and snow. The second group of symbols represent a mother’s care of or welcome for her child. List these two symbols.

Use quotation marks to quote the lines which show that the mother would welcome her child home again?

“Childhood” – Lorna Crozier Close your eyes for a moment, listen: the floor boards groan at your mother’s step, bread pans scrape the oven grate, her fingers tap the crust. Where are you now? Pretending sleep in another room where windows turn dreams to frost, feather forests, the birds are white and make no sound. Listen: your mother pours milk in a cup. It holds the light like a small lamp, draws shadows from her face. Where have you gone? Your mother is calling. Your name is warmed by her breath. Snow fills your tracks, turns everything into a softer shape, a silence, forgiveness. Come in for supper, it is growing dark. A cup waits for you, a loaf of bread. Your mother is calling, listen: with her voice she builds a doorway for you to enter, even now, from such a long way off.