Children often cause suffering upon one another, as we can see in Vernon Scannel's poem Hide and Seek.
             The poems tell of young children enjoying an innocent game of hide and seek. As the poem is written in the first person, the writer becomes the little boy who has found a prime spot in which to hide. He thinks he has his friends fooled but come the end of the poem, both the reader and the boy realise that a manoeuvre has been played to mislead him.
             The boy is hiding in a garden shed and is talking to himself in a state of excitement. The poem progresses and the atmosphere changes as the boy becomes uncomfortable in his surroundings. He is talking to himself still but now unlike before, he is doing so to comfort himself, as he is aware of his loneliness. 'Your legs are stiff, the cold bites through your coat'. This language is cold and hostile and the boy can sense that he is feeling uneasy and there is something wrong.
             The poem "Hide and Seek" begins with "Call out. Call loud I'm ready." The use of short sentences helps to illustrate the excitement of the child. Also "call out, Call Loud: I'm ready! Come find me!" the explanation marks give the idea of it being shouted out, then the mood changes to be more of a mood of pride the boy is glad he has not been found shown by the line "they must be thinking your very clever." The use of the word "They'll" with a capital shows the initial importance of these outside forces, and being in isolation without them can be very disheartening.
             "Hide and Seek," the isolation becomes suddenly painful:
             "It seems a long time since they went away"
             Furthermore the child realises that his 'friends' may have isolated him. The isolation of "Hide and Seek" shows a child being purposefully forgotten about. This implies that children are often overlooked in so
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