To My Nine-Year-Old Self Literary Elements

The speaker of the poem is an adult woman addressing the memory of her younger self in both first- and second-person narration.

The poem contains six stanzas of varying length and follows no particular form or meter.

Simile:
-“That dream we had, no doubt it's as fresh in your mind / as the white paper to write it on” (Lines 12-13): The child's ability to recall a dream after waking is compared to the blankness of a piece of paper. It is a clean slate ready to be filled.

Alliteration:
-“careful of a bad back or a bruised foot” (Line 7): The "b" sound repeats.
-"Time to pick rosehips for tuppence a pound" (Line 22): The "t" and "p" sounds repeat.
-"to taste it on your tongue" (Line 32): The "t" sound repeats.

Assonance:
-“careful of a bad back or a bruised foot” (Line 7): The "a" sound repeats in the words "bad back."
-"a den by a cesspit" (Line 18): The "e" sound appears in the words "den" and "cesspit."
-"Time to pick rosehips" (Line 22): The "i" sound repeats in "time," "pick," and "rosehips."
-"...cloud your morning. God knows" (Line 28): The "ow" and "o" sounds appear in various ways.

The speaker's nine-year-old self builds a "den by a cesspit" (Line 18). Her intent is to create a hideout free from the influence of adults, but she is unaware of the health impacts associated with cesspits.

Dramatic monologue

The poem takes place in the speaker’s thoughts and memories. Her childhood home is not specified as being in a city or a rural environment, but both nature and human industry are present.

Nostalgic, Reflective, and Conversational

The protagonist of the poem is the speaker both as an adult and a child. The antagonist is the passage of time and the changes that occur because of it.

The speaker is unable to reach her younger self nor embody the qualities of that version of herself. In other words, she cannot change the past by warning her nine-year-old self of the dangers of the world, and perhaps even more tragically, she seems unable to take on any of the fearlessness and sense of adventurous freedom she experienced as a child.

The poem's climax occurs in the fourth stanza when the speaker confirms that she and her younger self could never be friends since they have nothing in common. This is the beginning of her departure from the memory of her younger self.

The first line, "You must forgive me," foreshadows the speaker's sense of guilt for having spoiled the body that she and her younger self once shared, and the fears which plague her in the present day.

In the narration, she understates the dangers that her younger self exposed herself to in her escapades because to a nine-year-old, these dangers mean nothing. The speaker doesn't linger on lines that detail troubling experiences such as building "a den by a cesspit" or hiding "from men in cars after girl-children" (Lines 18 and 24). Instead, she moves right along to the next line of thought.

The poem alludes to the loss of innocence that occurs as a person grows older. It is also possible that something specific occurred to this speaker that caused her to lose her childhood fearlessness.

Though the phrase “scared lanes” is really a transferred epithet, it also could be that the poet projects the feeling of fear onto the environment as well. This would resonate with the environmental concern present throughout the collection in which this poem was published.

The line “I have spoiled this body” is a hyperbolic statement since the speaker takes personal responsibility for something as universal and inevitable as aging (Line 6).

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