'Hide and Seek' and 'Once Upon a Time' both share a common perception on the theme of 'Childhood' and both contain a significant message that are interpreted with a nostalgic tone. Childhood has its pleasures and fears which are both precious and insignificant to us moderns, in "Hide and Seek" he presents us with a demoralizing but scant message in the form of a commonly played childhood game, thus making the poem seem like a a little more personal and something you can relate to. The message is that, due to excessive insolence/confidence, you could fall into an abyss of self-despairing failure even if a lap of luxury was just around the corner. We see this in the poem when the boy begins with a happy, fresh confidence about himself: "I'm ready!" Come and see me!' then the boy realizes the harsh truth that those who were "looking for" him have abandoned him. “Once upon a time”, written by Gabriel Okara, is a poem in which the writer remembers a time when people were more sincere and authentic about themselves and the way they treated others, it cynically talks about the present time , and begs for the past. Gabriel Okara in this poem feels that people have lost their innocence and openness, which he now sees in his son; he wants to regain that innocence and openness he had as a child. "Once upon a time" begins with a conversation between what appears to be a father and son, in which the father wants to understand and learn from his son how to go back to normal and no longer have a 'false' personality. The poem “Once Upon a Time” begins with the father telling his son how people, or “they,” “laughed from the heart.” The word "they" refers to Westerners, who sees as people who ... middle of paper ... at the seaside", senses are used, smell, to help us relate to poetry. We also see another use of alliteration in line 12/13, 'Someone stumbles... scuffle', creating a more playful messy tone The language used is also colloquial, making the poem a little more relaxed and helping to highlight the fact that the. author is speaking to his younger self. Simple phrases are used repeatedly in the poem: “You have never heard them so softly before.” “The darkening garden watches” to help create a feeling of suspense, thus injecting drama and tension in the poem. Personification is used in line 19, 'cold bites', emphasizing how cold and unhappy the boy is. Another example of personification is towards the end when a series of them are used: "The darkening garden watches." 'The bushes hold their breath', to help us imagine the calm and silent atmosphere of the place where the boy lies.