Speaker and characters

The poem “Warning to Parents” by Elizabeth Jennings includes two collective characters, parents and children, as well as a lyrical speaker.

The narrator

The narrator addresses the parents directly through the personal pronoun “you” (p. 141, l. 4) and makes his or her presence felt through the personal pronoun “me” (p. 141, l. 4).

Though we do not know the identity of the speaker, we can assume that the narrator may be a persona of the poet Elizabeth Jennings. The fact that she compares herself with other parents may indicate that she is also a parent:

They will, no doubt, grow out of this in time
And be impervious as you and me. (p. 141, ll. 3-4)

...

The children

The collective character of the children is first presented from the perspective of parents, as innocent, vulnerable beings who need protection from “terror” (p. 141, l. 1), ghosts and crimes (p. 141, l. 2) or “things no child can understand” (p. 141, l. 9).

...

The parents

This brings us to the collective character of the parents which is initially depicted as trying hard to act as saviours and protectors of their children’s innocence:

Save them from terror; do not let them see
The ghost behind the stairs, the hidden crime. (p. 141, ll. 1-2)

As adults, they are “impervious” (p. 141, l. 4) to violence and ‘evil’ in general, but they are also naïve in assuming their children can be protected from being exposed to violence.

...