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Stanza 1
The persona is questioning her mother about the mysterious and sudden disappearance of
Lulu. An old rag doll and a shoe was left behind
Stanza 2
The persona saw that the windows are wide opened and the curtains are "flapping free" in
the wind. The persona also notices her money-box on the dusty shelf is gone.
Stanza 3
The persona asks the mother why she is hiding her tears. The mother crumples up a note
(most probably from Lulu) and throws it into the fire. Mother then tells her child that it is nothing at
all. The persona does not believe her.
Stanza 4
The persona tells that she was awakened by "voices late last night" and heard the sounds
of an "engine roar", probably a car starting up and being driven away. The mother lies that the child
was only dreaming.
Stanza 5
The persona insists that she had heard someone cry "in anger or in pain". The mother says
it was just "a gust of rain".
Stanza 6
Puzzled about the mother's distraught behavior, the narrator wants to know why the mother
is pacing about, uncertain what to do. The use of "Lu" is an affectionate shortened form of "Lulu
Imagery
The image of the abandoned bed is the main one, described by the child narrator. The inclusion of
childhood objects such as a rag-doll and a money-box emphasise the youth and innocence of the run-
away Lulu. They are contrasted with the roar of the car engine heard in the night and the grown-up
world that the narrator does not understand, emphasised by the constant questions. The curtain can be
seen as a metaphor for Lulus new freedom, contrasted by the dust on the shelf that represents her
previous life.
Sound
The doubling of the sound in Lulu, together with the high level of repetition of both the name and its
shortening in the poem, create a strong echo of the sound which is also the rhymed sound in the first
and last stanza. This is quite a childish sound, and helps to create the plaintive note in the childs
questioning.
It deals with themes of grief and love. The mother is grieving over her lost child. The fact that the child
has run away does not make the grief less significant. The confusion of the narrator about his or her
parents reaction also tells us something about the nature of grief.The poem also considers how we
deal with children, in dismissing what they have heard or seen. The child narrator has some valid
knowledge of what has happened, but his mother tells him he dreamed it. The poem raises the
question of how the child can react, when he has been told nothing is the matter, when clearly it is.
Ironically the mother does not know what to do, as the final stanza makes clear.
Setting
Place
Probably in England as the word "money-box" is a typical British word.
Lulu's room
The fireplace
Time
In the past
Themes
1. The end of childhood and the loss of innocence
Lulu is probably a young teenager.
She ran away based on the note that her mother crumpled.
She took her savings "money-box" to start a new life with a man who drove her off in a "engine
roar".
She left her childhood behind.
2. Parent-child relationship
The mother and Lulu relationship could have been a tense and strained one.
Lulu is a rebellious teenager.
She dislikes her mother's restrictions on her freedom and emerging interest in the opposite sex.
She keeps secrets from her mother.
The mother and narrator relationship is less dramatic.
The narrator is obedient and respectful to the mother.
The narrator loves the mother very much and observe her pain and distress.
3. Grief and love
The mother is grieving over the loss of her child, Lulu.
The mother clearly loves Lulu.
The narrator loves the sister as she called her by pet name "Lu".
The narrator is worried about the sudden disappearance of the elder sister