What is the theme and structure of the poem "My Parents" by Stephen Spender?

The theme and structure of the poem "My Parents" by Stephen Spender is as follows:

Theme

The theme of this poem is a father and mother’s love and protective instinct for their children. In this poem, this love and protection towards their child is exemplified in the opening line of the poem, where the boy says:

“My parents kept me from children who were rough”

From the outset of the poem the reader can understand that this boy probably has a softer nature than many of the boys in his neighborhood. This boy fears these boys’ muscles – these boys are stronger and rougher than he is. It is evident that this boy’s parents are concerned with the treatment their son may receive as he ventures out into his neighborhood each day.

In addition, this boy has a lisp. The rougher boys mimic his lisp, apparently mocking him behind his back as he walks, as they imitate his lisp to make fun of him. This no doubt disheartens the boy and his parents must sense this and hence their desire to keep him away from these boys to protect him.

Therefore, it is a protective love that the mother and father have for their son and this is the main theme of “My Parents”. A secondary theme, relevant to much of what is going on in contemporary society, is “bullying.” In essence, that is the subtext to this poem – a boy being somewhat bullied by stronger, brasher, less refined boys.

Structure

This poem is structured with stanzas. Therefore, this is a formal poem. Each stanza consists of four lines. However, the poem does not employ and end-rhyme scheme – there is no regular end-rhyme per se in this poem, such as a strict ABAB rhyme scheme, or some such other end-rhyme scheme.

There is a hint of end-rhyme in the last two lines of the poem, though, with the words “smile” and “smiled” rhyming imperfectly.

The poem does employ internal rhyme though. This is rhyme within a line. For example, internal rhyme in this poem occurs in this line:

“Who threw words like stones and wore torn clothes”

In addition, alliteration is a literary device that is used in this poem as part of its structure. An alliteration example is:

“climbed cliffs”

…from stanza number one, lone four.