a study of once upon a time
...he reader. The lines in which he uses the past tense describes childhood and the way adults once were in their childhood and the lines in the present tense describes the way they now are. In this way he shows the way in which have lost their innocence and sincerity. The “they” and their he refers to are the adults, this is evident since he speaks of their past as if it were a long time ago. “They used to smile with their hearts/ and laugh with their eyes/ but now they only laugh with their teeth, / while their ice-cold-eyes/ search behind my shadow.” (lines 2-6) The poet implies that the process of growing up can cause a person to lose their sincerity and destroys the innocence of childhood. He to has been transformed and he has adapted to adult life. He too smiles without sincerity when required and feels no genuine warmth for his fellow man. He uses the simile “I have learned to wear many faces/ office face, street face, host face/ cocktail face” (lines 20-23) to that he has developed different smiles for each occasion and the simile “like a fixed portrait smile” (line 24) to show that the smiles are not genuine. He also uses meaningful expressions of joy and pleasure when he feels none. “ I have also learned to say, ‘Good bye’ when I mean ‘Good riddance’; to say ‘Glad to meet you’ with-out being glad; and to say ‘It’s been nice talking to you’, after being bored.” Lines 1-3 imply that adults including he himself were not born cold but were once jovial and genuine a...