Poem Commentaries: MY PARENTS by Stephen Spender

The poem My Parents by Stephen Spender gives us an insight to society in the 30’s and 40’s, even though it’s from the perspective of a child.  Spender, being one of the “left wing” poets of that time, was very aware of class distinctions. In this poem he writes as an upper middle class child, who envies the street kids’ freedom, while still considering their behaviour detestable.

The poem opens with, “My parents kept me from children who were rough” which immediately shows that the boy was raised in a sheltered environment. In the first stanza you can see his disgust and jealousy for the street kids. He insults their rouge-ish behaviour, and their lack of proper clothing. It was clear that their manner of speaking was less than proper (threw words like stones), and they often said hurtful things to him. In the lines “they ran in the street/ climbed cliffs and stripped by the country streams” you can see that he envies their freedom, as being an upper middle class child, his parents wouldn’t let him run around and swim down the river like a hooligan. The second stanza shows that he was also scared of those boys, because of their physical advantage over him, their bullying, and their teasing. The word “lisp” also shows that he was a pampered child, a child who didn’t have to deal with poverty, and a child who was treasured by his family members. As said before, the street boys were strong and agile, and waited for him and attacked him, yelling out abuses to his world. He refers to them as dogs, which, all over the world, is considered an insult, and it shows how lowly he thinks of them. The last few lines, “… They threw mud/ While I looked the other way, pretending to smile. / I longed to forgive them but they never smiled” shows that the boy, thought highly of himself and thought that the street kids’ behaviour was something for which they should ask for forgiveness, but they obviously didn’t seem to think of it the same way.

Though the title, “My Parents” doesn’t seem apt, and seems as if the poet just titled it because they were the first two words of the poem, but if you look into it, it does make sense—the parents influence their views onto their children. In the case of the main voice, if it weren’t for his parents, he probably would have gotten along with the boys, and run freely like them; and the street kids’ probably bullied him because their parents probably worked beneath the “rich” and their children probably thought they should harm the boy as much as they can, before he “owns” them.