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Literary Imagination Advance Access originally published online on May 14, 2007
Literary Imagination 2007 9(2):162; doi:10.1093/litimag/imm034
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Literary Scholars and Critics. All rights reserved.
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that: the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with the correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

The Child as Metaphor

George Szirtes

The child pushed out the boat of his small voice
To see how far it would go. It floated free
Of him, drifting between blocks of ice.
Endangered voice on an indifferent sea
Turning its vast grey back: how would he sound
At the pole where so many had died already?
Under the ice fish screamed at newly drowned
Babies. Whales clicked their tongues and boomed
Disapproval. Creatures with teeth unbound
Their powers and terrifying voices loomed
Like buildings. It seemed the world was against him,
That any child's voice as small as his was doomed
Because there at the arctic all chances are slim
And everything, even love, freezes and disappears
Or snaps in two as the long night draws in.
So she listened to the deep voiced-child. Her ears
Were muffed against the cold but there, and there!
She heard him and she leaned down with her spears
Poised over the water. Mothers, the air
Is dangerous at the north pole. The metaphor
That is your son is crying out. Beware.


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This Article
Right arrow Extract
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrowOA All Versions of this Article:
9/2/162    most recent
imm034v1
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