To My Nine-Year-Old Self Essay Questions

How does the poet portray the relationship between the speaker and her nine-year-old self?

The title sets the occasion: the speaker addresses her younger self in a dramatic monologue. Though it takes place in the speaker's memory, the poet also evokes the nine-year-old as her own person, differentiating her physical body and her temperament. The speaker begins by soliciting forgiveness, then admonishing the expression on her younger self's face. She looks "eager to be gone," showing that she has little time for dreary adult conversations. As the poem progresses and the reader gets a sense of the girl's fearless and imaginative temperament, it's a little surprising that, even in memory, she would not be excited to see her future self. For someone who is easily engrossed by the strange and the ordinary magic of things (baby voles, sherbet lemon candies, an ice-lolly factory, a wasp trap, etc), one would think the child would be at least a little interested. But throughout the poem, she is not shown to speak and nor does she appear to be listening. This highlights the way that the speaker has changed over time. If she had not lost her childhood qualities to the fear and caution that grips her as an adult, perhaps her younger self would show interest.

By the end of the poem, the speaker realizes that the differences between them are too great for the possibility of friendship. She departs peacefully from the memory of her younger self.

How does the environment appear physically and symbolically in the poem?

It is suggested that the girl in the poem has access to a great outdoor range to explore. She roams outside to pick rosehips, hides "down scared lanes" from predatory men, and lunges out over a body of water on a rope swing, among other things (Lines 22, 23-24, and 25-26). It is not specified whether the setting is rural or if it is a city neighborhood with lots of nature. What is important is that this girl is coming of age in a place abundant with nature.

Though there is beauty inherent in the environment of the poem, there are also dangers looming over the scene. The girl builds a den by a cesspit, which is a site for the disposal of liquid waste and sewage. Cesspits have an impact both on the environment and on human health, and they hold symbolic significance as they are a place where unwanted waste is dumped. There is irony in that the girl builds her den beside a cesspit because a den is a cozy kind of home for a wild animal. For this child, however, it must feel like a magical fort.

Tucked in the lines describing the girl's activities, one part reads, "time to hide down scared lanes / from men in cars after girl-children" (Lines 23-24). It is interesting to note that the poet chooses to use the term "scared lanes" instead of "scary lanes." This personifies the environment to reflect the girl's fear. The fact that the men are in cars also might be a subtle hint at the way in which cars impact the environment.

Just as the speaker has changed over the years, the environment she inhabited and played in as a child has changed drastically. The speaker does not go into too much detail about this, preferring not to cloud her nine-year-old self's morning (Line 28). But she does mention that the "rope that swings from that tree" where she used to "lunge out over the water" is now "long buried in housing" (Lines 25-27).

Though this poem is not explicitly about nature, nature symbolically adds depth to the characterization of the speaker and her younger self. The change in the environment also reflects the changes that come with age, and they subtly hint at the poet's environmental concerns.

Describe some of the devices the poet uses to craft "To My Nine Year Old Self."

What stands out the most in this poem is its simplicity, specificity, and free form. There is no regular rhyme scheme or meter, and the six stanzas are varied in length. This is appropriate in that the speaker is addressing a child, on whom any fancy double meanings or clever devices could be lost.

In the first stanza, the poet uses anaphora in the lines "You would rather run than walk, rather climb than run, / rather leap from a height than anything" (Lines 4-5). This creates a rhythm that builds in intensity, ending with the image of the girl leaping from a height. On both the levels of sound and story, children appreciate repetition. In the poem, this repetition adds emphasis particularly to the final description.

Another line with a particularly musical quality reads "Time to pick rosehips for tuppence a pound" (Line 22). The rhythm of stressed syllables reads DUH duh duh DUH duh duh DUH duh duh DUH. The consonance of the "t" and "p" sounds also contributes to the sense of rhythm. As this line comes after the speaker's proclamation "I won't keep you then," the singsong quality gives a feeling of cheerful movement (Line 21). This reflects the magical quality that the act of picking rosehips for income would create for a child.

The poet uses a dash twice in the fifth stanza to signify a breaking-off. In the first instance, the speaker lets slip that the tree that held the rope swing her younger self used to use is now "long buried in housing—" (Line 27). The dash indicates that there is more to say on the matter, or perhaps there are more ways in which the young girl's world has drastically changed. The speaker proceeds to say, "But no, I shan't cloud your morning. God knows / I have enough fears for us both—" (Lines 28-29). Again, she stops herself from saying more, as evidenced by the dash. The poet uses dashes as an interruption that indicate she is not telling her younger self (and the reader) everything. This exemplifies the way that Dunmore shows rather than tells in her work.