The poet shows us that the speaker feels like they are being too commanding towards the child. The speaker doesn’t want to force the child into things he doesn’t want to do. We can see this in the poem where it says ‘He can make sculptures and fabulous machines, invent games, tell jokes, give solemn, adult advice-but he is slow to read.‘ This is how the poet presents the speakers feelings about the child. They list the good things the child can do, then they say ‘but he is slow to read.‘ She is emphasising the fact that he is intelligent but he can’t do such a simple thing like reading. We can see that the speaker feels like they are being too commanding again in another quote ‘a fish returning to its element.‘ This quote is comparing the child to a fish. It does this by using the idea of a fish returning to its element, in this case the water. The way a fish returns to what it knows best is the same as the child returning to what he knows best which is not reading. The person teaching him to read doesn’t want him to dislike reading so they don’t force him to read. They want him to have a good experience of reading.
The child himself believes it is impossible for him to ever learn to read, which is why he tries to prolong the situation so he doesn’t have to read. We can see this where it says ‘sighing and shaking his head like an old man, who knows the mountains are impassible.‘ This shows us that like an old man knows it is impassible for him to climb a mountain, the child also knows in his mind it’s impossible for him to ever learn how to read. He plays with the words instead of reading them so that he doesn’t have to read them. It shows us this where it says ‘He toys with words letting them go cold as gristly meat, until I relent.‘ This shows us he doesn’t want to read so he is trying his best to waste time until the person teaching him gets tired of him refusing. The word relent suggests that the person teaching him to read has to nag him to do it.
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