The poet uses similes and metaphors to convey how much the boy dislikes reading. This can be seen in the poem where it states, “he gazes into the air, sighing and shaking his head like an old man who knows the mountains are impassable”, when he is reading his Ladybird book. This shows that the boy is uninterested to read and is frustrated at the fact that he cannot read. The boy is compared to an old man who is probably weak and physically challenged. Both the boy and the old man are frustrated as they have an inability or deterioration that hinders them to overcome challenges that they face. Another simile that shows that the boy detests reading is in the second stanza, where it states, “He toys with words, letting them go cold as gristly meat.” Gristly meat is hard to chew, and since the boy is having much difficulty reading, he is being compared to someone eating tough meat that is hard to swallow. The boy is also described as “a fish returning to its element.” This suggests that the child faced many challenges while

The poet also uses enjambments to show how the boy detests reading. There were very few punctuations used throughout the poem, and it mirrors how the boy keeps on trying to escape from his mother, as she is the one who is always trying to get him to read. Firstly, this can be seen in stanza 1 when the persona tries to force him to read, "with his ladybird book he gazes into the air", which shows his disinterest in reading the book. Even though the persona continues trying to get him to read, she soon decides to "relent and let him wriggle free". This suggests that the persona has given up on the boy, as no matter how hard she tries to force him to read, he still refuses as he hates reading.

The poet also uses enjambment as the run-on lines mirror the boy break free from the mother. The author keeps trying to make him read but the boy is very persistent and keeps trying to break free from the author’s reign.  

The poet also uses juxtaposition to show the boy’s disinterest in reading. In stanza 1, the boy is being compared to an old man, who is wise but physically and mentally slow due to his old age, while the boy is young and robust, which tells us that the boy feels challenged and cannot even understand the elementary words in a “Ladybird” book when he is trying to read. Moreover, the idea of him being intelligent as he was able to make “sculptures and fabulous machines, invent games, tell jokes”, as the boy is innovative, and creative, is juxtaposed with the idea that he cannot even read simple words in a “Ladybird” book, as Ladybird books have the most simple, elementary-like words. The poet makes the boy seem intelligent in the second stanza, as the boy seems to know that “if he takes it in his mouth he’ll never run quite free again.”, where the boy is compared to a white-eyed colt that would never have its freedom if it were to succumb to the “bit”, which in this case, is the boy succumbing the ability to read fluently. However, the poet does not make any attempt to force the son to read, and lets him “wriggle free”, which the boy exactly wants as he irritates the poet by “toying with words” which in this case mean he gurgles up his words act like an baby, which is juxtaposed to the idea of him being wise and even being mature like an adult to give “solemn, adult advice.” The juxtapositions gives us a feeling of the boy's view on reading to be from two different perspectives, mature meaning that he is intelligent enough but not ready enough as he is very creative, innovative but cannot read simple words as he feels challenged, or either that he does not want to give up his freedom for reading at all.

In the next line the poet also writes “sighing and shaking his head” this is an action that shows a person’s reluctance to do a certain thing but would have no choice eventually and it is commonly seen when a teacher gives the class a lot of homework as the students do not want to do the homework but has to complete it before the due date. 

The writer also used similes when writing the poem. From line 10 of stanza 1, the poem states that the boy is “like an old man” this could mean that the boy has a lot of wisdom or knowledge and is very mature, however, instead of using this wisdom and knowledge to read the simple book, the boy decides to use it to avoid reading the book which shows the reluctance of the boy to read. This can be seen when the boy does not pay any attention to the book in line 8, eventually leading to the parent letting him go. 

In stanza 2 from line 1 to 3, the poem states that the boy “toys with his words letting them go cold as grisly meat”. The fact that the boy is able to toy with his words would show that he has a high intellect, however, he toys with he words until they “go cold” this could mean that the boy talks and drags the time until the parent is unable take the talking anymore as he was dragging the time on that particular topic for so long that it got “cold” like how a plate of food gets cold if you leave it out for too long. The simile “as grisly meat” shows how tough the boy’s will is as “grisly meat” is very tough and hard to tear. When the boy did not read, we can see how reluctant he is to give up on what he wants, which is to not start reading, and his will did not get torn through as he persisted in not reading. From here we can tell how reluctant he is to start reading as he persisted in not reading like a how a tough piece of grisly meat that does not get torn easily. 

The writer also uses juxtaposition to show contrast and how much the boy loathes reading.

In the first four lines of the first stanza the boy is represented as innovative, artistic and humorous. However, after the first four lines, when the writer approaches the boy’s ‘passion’ for reading the tone changes and the boy is viewed in a different light. The boy is  ‘like an old man’, ‘who knows the mountains are impassable’. ‘He toys with words letting them go cold as gristly meat.’ From this we can infer that the boy’s normal attitude and behaviour is drastically different to when he needs to read. The boy is not his usual creative and funny self when reading but gloomy and moody like an old man that becomes a realist. He realises that although he had a great dislike for reading, there was no escape and he had to face reality.

 Simile is used in the lines “letting them grow cold like gristly meat”.This shows that the boy may be trying to drag time as he is reluctant to read and tries to wait till his mother relent and let him off so that he does not have to read anymore. Also, as gristly meat is usually hard to chew, it shows that the boy may be facing a really hard time to try to read. This shows his dreadfulness towards reading. Simile is also used by the poet in the poem in the lines “sighing and shaking his head like an old man” The boy is compared to an old man who is weak and mentally challenged, which may mean that the boy also have massive and difficult obstacles to get through in terms of reading. This may result in his frustration and reluctance towards reading.

 Metaphor is also used in the lines “a fish returning to its element” This shows that the boy feels very uncomfortable to read as it is considered as foreign. Escaping from his mother is like returning to his rightful home and gaining freedom. These lines also shows the eagerness of the boy to escape from reading and to do what he likes to do, like sculpturing, which show how much he hates reading. In the lines “or a white eyed colt-shying from the bit”.These lines shows that the boy is cowering away from the control to let him read. This also shows his wilderness and how uninterested he is towards reading.

The poet also used simile to present the boy’s feelings towards reading. From the line “sighing and shaking his head like an old man”, it shows that the boy dreaded reading and was in complete misery having to sit on his Mother’s to read. The boy is reluctant to read and thus it shows me that he dislikes reading.

I think the poet used metaphor to express how the boy feels about reading. From “a fish returning to its elements”, it showed the reluctance of the boy towards reading, and how he felt free after being released from his mother's hold, being able to “make sculptures and fabulous machines, invent games, tell jokes, give solemn, adult advice” rather than having to read, and all these are described closely related to how a fish is being set free and able to do whatever it wants. With this metaphor used, it allowed us to understand how the boy hates reading and was like a fish being released when he is freed from his mother’s arms from having to read, and allowed us to feel with the boy, on how he thinks that having to read is like being in captivity. 

In addition, the poet uses metaphors in the poem to highlight the boy’s fear of reading. In stanza two, there is a phrase "a white-eyed colt - shying from the bit”, which portrays the boy as a young horse, cowering from the bit in fear. If he "takes it", he'll "never run quite free again", this phrase shows the boy’s internal struggle as he refuses to conform to societal norms as he would lose freedom and creativity if he did. He yearns to be wild and free like a young horse and do whatever he wishes, and is afraid of being forced to lose the ability to do that. He has the perspective that learning how to read is losing creativity to express himself in all his skilled art forms such as making sculptures and inventing games, which is stated in stanza one. These metaphors emphasize the boy’s fear of reading and losing what he currently has-freedom and creativity. 🍄

 

Metaphor is also used in the lines “or a white-eyed colt-shying from the bit”.These lines show that the boy is cowering away from the control to let him read. This also shows his wilderness and how uninterested he is towards reading. The bit could also be used to control the colt, or him, and that is what makes him hate reading, which is the control and expectations his mother would give him once he started reading.

 

In the second stanza, the “wriggles free” from the speaker. When a fish is not in the water, it wriggles and struggles which can be related back to the idea of him wanting to desperately be free of reading. 

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The poet also deploys similes in lines 10-12 to show that the boy does not have much faith in his ability to read, as seen from “Like an old man who knows the mountains are impassible”. The comparison of a young boy to an old man is slightly ironic in the sense that he is of a tender age as opposed to an elderly man who has lived longer and thus has more experience than a little boy. This use of irony, coupled with similes leads me to believe that the boy has tried reading many times before that, and has become more “experienced” because of his innumerable failures during his pursuits at reading. He does not want to fail again at reading, and is impatient that he is being coached by his mother to try reading again. In his mind, the outcome would be another failure at reading again, which is probably a key reason he is unwilling to read the book.

Lastly, the use of metaphors is employed to show how uncomfortable the boy is learning to read. “ And let him wriggle free, a fish returning to its natural element”. This suggests that once the boy’s mother gives up trying to teach him how to read, she lets him go off and he most likely heads back to build his sculptures and machines.As the construction of the sculptures and machines are the boy’s strengths, they are his hobbies, and, hence described as his “element”. A fish’s element would be water, as it moves freely in water. The metaphorical comparison of the pleasure of a fish returning to water, against the happiness of the boy at last returning to his sculptures and machines after struggling to read shows that the boy’s natural talents and joys lie in his hobbies. When he is confined to reading books, he hence feels restrained since he is not in his “element”, as opposed to his joy at being able to do what is his passion. As there is a big difference in his attitude towards reading and his attitude toward constructing machines, it evidently shows how he dislikes reading.

 

The poet also uses simile. The poet mentions that when the persona tried to have the boy read to her, the boy was “signing and shaking his head like an old man who knows the mountains are impassable”. The description where the boy was compared to “an old man” suggests that the boy is tired of reading and bored of it. The word “mountains” symbolizes obstacles, which in this case, is reading for the boy. From the poet describing that the old man knows the “mountains are impassable”, it hints a form of resignation from the boy, as if he knows that avoiding reading would be impossible. Hence, this simile vividly portrays the fact that the boy feels a distaste towards reading. The poet also uses simile when he describes the action of the boy pronouncing his words as “letting them go cold as gristly meat”. From this we can see that the boy does not care about trying his best to read and just plays around with them. This simile shows that the boy cannot be bothered to read and therefore, this again displays the boys disinterest and reluctance towards reading.