Themes and message

The main themes of the poem “Tich Miller” by Wendy Cope are bullying and rejection. Through this poem, the poet illustrates the drama of children who do not fit the general norm and are rejected by their peers and warns readers against some possible consequences of bullying: death and the bullied turning into bullies.

Bullying and rejection

These two themes go together, as the act of bullying can be broadly defined as harassing verbally, physically or physiologically those who are deemed weaker as a way of rejecting them, of showing they are undesirable.

Although the poem does not portray an obvious situation of bullying (the girls are not physically hurt, or called names), the whole scene of the selection process for teams for outdoor games shows a more subtle type of bullying. The girls are only made to understand that they are ‘losers’ from the perspective of their peers...