Vernon Scannell's "Nettles" isn't as much a story as it is a poem about a feeling. It encapsulates the protective feelings that good parents have for their kids in the face of the harsh world around them. The poem begins with the speaker's child falling into a bed of nettles and shrieking because of pain. In response to their child's pain, the speaker feels their child's pain with them and acts swiftly. Specifically, they work tirelessly to protect their child from further harm. The speaker meticulously cuts down the nettles and burns them, preventing them from hurting his child again. Nevertheless, despite the man's actions, the nettles will inevitably regrow in two weeks, representing the inevitability of pain and suffering in life.
The poem adheres to a tight rhyming scheme, which is reflective of the structured approach the parent and narrator of the poem take to protect their child from danger. The poem's meter is steady and rhythmic, echoing the determined actions of the parent to safeguard their child from harm. Additionally, Scannell uses vivid imagery to imbue the poem with a sense of urgency and intensity. The nettles are anthropomorphized and portrayed as a living, hostile force with the power to change any individual's life. It also emphasizes the transformative effects violence and danger can have on a person's life (and a parent's perception). The simplistic choices in language and structure likewise highlight the immediacy of the parent's emotional response and the ongoing struggle to keep the child safe from the literal and metaphorical nettles of the world.
