Fond Memory

Though the word "Fond" in the title of the poem "Fond Memory" suggests the writer is going to address a memory very dear to the young boy, the poem seems solemn and in a way sad. The boy talks about school as having a sense of sameness. He describes the children as a group, rather than as individuals, also placing himself into this group when he states "I dressed in wool as well, ate rationed food, played English games and learned how wise the Magna Carta was....". I think the fact that he brings in outside cultural issues and relates them to children is also interesting as normally we don't associate children as crying when someone of importance, like for example the King, dies.

After his day at school, when he travels home, he describes the more minute details of his father playing the piano in the corner, " trying not to weep at the cigarette smoke stinging up from between his fingers ". However, here I do not think he actually means crying from sadness, as cigarette smoking often burns the eyes and makes them water. Home, though solemn, seems to be a safe place for the boy.

The song appears to remind him of his country, however, it is a different country than England. He's referring to the country of his birth, and seemingly longing to go back there. It is possibly a song his father plays about his country. When he says "this upward-straining song made to be
our safe inventory of pain" it makes me think that this song is a way in which they can go back to a feeling or place of safety, in a world that they aren't familiar with.