Parents By Paul Durcan

THIS POEM IS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP THAT EXISTS BETWEEN PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN. THE POET IS ALSO EXPLORING THE DIFFICULTIES IN COMMUNICATION THAT OFTEN EXIST IN RELATIONSHIPS AND BETWEEN PARENTS AND THEIR CHILDREN. IN THIS POEM Paul durcan is imagining two parents standing over their child who is sleeping. There is no indication that the child is ill, only that they are sleeping, yet the parents are anxiously watching.

The child is away in a world of their own, sleeping peacefully, snd therefore is temporarily cut off from all contact with her parents. The parents find this unnerving because they wish to be able to take care of their child at all times. The parents in this poem feel ‘stranded’, they feel excluded from their childs world simply by the fact that she is sleeping.

They stand over their sleeping child with “foreheads Furrowed”, a sure sign of distress. Communication is a two-way thing, so the parents in their anxiety are imagining that their sleeping daughter is also feeling cut off from them. In this poem the parents’ point of view gives way in line six to the child’s perspective

If she woke and looked up, she would see them standing over her looking anxiousand “fearful”. This poem was written in the 1970s when paul durcan himself was experiencing the joys and worries of being a parent. Durcan’s relationship with his own father was particularly turbulent and difficult.

A major feature of this poem is the use of imagery, both metaphor and simile. The extended metaphor being used here is that of being “under the sea”. Sleep is like a big sea. When the child falls asleep, it is like going beneath the surface of the sea. The poem opens with a startling image where the sleeping face of the child is compared with the face of a drowned child. This creates a chilling tone, full of dread and is disturbing to the reader.