The poet asks four questions(one in each stage)in the poem knows only one answer for sure. What is that and why?
Answers
This question tests your creativity and should be attempted on your own. Please look up information on Markus Natten. However, for a short biography, as a student, here are a few things you could focus on.
- Biographies explore a person's life, using historical facts, letters, diaries as a source of information.
- A biography is usually in chronological order, sometimes written around a particular theme.
what you will find in a biography.
- Personal info - where was he born - where did he study - what kind of life did he lead?
- what kind of factors influenced his writing? - did his parents, siblings or environment affect his writing.
- what kind of books/novels/poems has he written.
- Compare his poem "Childhood" to any of his other works. Do you see any similarities?
Here are a few points that we can guess about the poet from his poem "childhood"
- The poet grew up in a religious family - we know this because he says that he found out at the age of eleven that hevean and hell are not real places that can be found on a map. This means that till the age of eleven where he found out, on his, own, his family would have told him about Heaven and Hell and why he should be good.
- He grew up in a family that treated people differently from what they preached. Since the family was religious, it is natural that they would have preached goodness, being good and loving each other. But he has observed them not following this rule.
- The poet rebelled against the thoughts of the family - as a mature adult, the poet realised he no longer had to follow what his parents and other adults had taught him. He realised he had a mind of his own and he could think for himself. As a form of his rebellion it is possible that he denounced religious practises for being false.