What Has Happened to Lulu?

Meaning of Lines

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
Subject matter

It is a poem told in a childs voice about his older sister running away.

A child is asking his mother what has happened to his sister, Lulu. There is nothing
in her room, and her money-box has gone, with only an open window and an old
rag-doll left behind. His mother is crying and burning a note. He thinks he heard
voices and a car in the middle of the night, but his mother tells him he was only
dreaming.

Form and structure

The poem is a ballad. written in four line stanzas where the second and fourth lines
rhyme. This regular and simple form seems appropriate for the voice of the narrator,
which is of a young child.

It is a first person dramatic monologue that is addressed to the mother of the

narrator. It is almost entirely written in questions, both reflecting the age of the
speaker and his puzzlement at what has happened to his sister. The form suggests
the childs innocence, while allowing the reader to read between the lines and
understand what has happened.

What Has Happened to Lulu?

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 observes 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