What I've learned from "Where Children Live" by Naomi Shihab Nye

photo by: *Püppilottchen*
What I have learned from the poem “Where Children Live” is that the author shows how adults and children see the world differently. She uses many examples throughout the poem that show just that. “While the yard of a child is strewn with the corpses of bottle-rockets and whistles,” this line could relate to people when they die and how the body is left behind to remind us of the past, just like when children leave behind their toys, and such, it reminds adults of their childhood, carefree days. Adults are more concerned with “order and neatness” (pg.15) and material, unlike children who are concerned with their surroundings and not with the possessions.
Nye contrasts the children and adults in several ways. In the line “Now the heart never goes outside to find something to “do,” describe how adults always have to find something to do outside of the house unlike children who find much entertainment inside, everywhere. “Grown-ups like swings…slow motion back and forth” shows that adults like to take life calmly and slowly. Children like living life at a faster pace as described in the line “anything whizzing and spectacular, brilliantly short-lived.”
When we see children we automatically see happiness, adventure and imagination. In the line “Homes where children exude a pleasant rumpledness” describes the house as being untidy, just like a child would have it, that gives the home a comforting and cozy setting. She also describes the grass as being littered with balloons which adds a pleasant image and gives evidence that children play there. She also uses “the roots of the tiniest grasses curl toward one another like secret smiles” to add happiness. The roots could represent the secret world of a child and grass and smiles could symbolize friendship. The other emotions that are added to the poem are hope, sense of satisfaction, and joy.


http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:HdxGYjmNkaYJ:www.k12.wa.us/assessment/toolkits/AC282.pdf+where+children+live+by+naomi+shihab+nye+biography&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgneZ0UrGS2UzU6z5OIJgRjwxVzRt9oZkE3iTy-txdzHAMrstdldlwACDbv6MjaTBRlAUD77gdNhkYwTqhLR9hLTDT--HhRXkqc_mXQ1aujI2dYh-w-Jew-RoO1mpr2_CATkjCy&sig=AHIEtbSQrni2wPq4bK_RKDEUq11tz73m1w