Les Murray

Child Logic

Child Logic - meaning Summary

Childhood Guilt and Violence

The poem recounts a small girl hurt by a boy’s reckless play and later the boy’s further violence against her brother. The girl withdraws into the bush, registers her injury by marking the logs in blood, and clutches her wounded hand. Rather than seeing the boys as responsible, she fears parental condemnation and assumes she must have erred. The poem focuses on childhood violence, shame, and the interiorization of blame.

Read Complete Analyses

The smallest girl in the wild kid's gang submitted her finger to his tomahawk idea - It hurt bad, dropping off. He knew he'd gone too far and ran, herding the others. Later on, he'd maim her brother. She stayed in the bush till sundown, wrote in blood on the logs, and gripped her gapped hand, afraid what her parents would say to waste of a finger. Carelessness. Mad kids. She had done wrong some way.

default user
PoetryVerse just now

Feel free to be first to leave comment.

8/2200 - 0