The Garden of Creativity

Poetry Explanation- I Knew a Boy

                 The poem I wrote titled "I Knew a Boy" is a poem based on a boy I once knew. In the poem, I go on to explain his downward spiral into what I saw as a friend witnessing his mental health worsen. So, what I'm going to do is break down the poem and explain each stanza.

"Once upon a time I knew a boy
He was filled with joy 
He was talented and sweet 
Being near him was more than neat
Just kids in school laughing 
Never did I know he'd one day have me sobbing"

         In stanza one, we start where I met him. Now I met him in sixth grade, so the beginning where it begins like a storybook is supposed to show that I met him when I was pretty young. So the "Once Upon a Time" is meant to show I was childish and young when I met him. The part at the end where it says, "Never did I know he'd have me sobbing," Is meant to be foreshadowing for the ending of the poem. 

"I knew a boy with brown shaggy hair
And an attitude like the world wasn't there 
His drawings and dreams
Everything with him was never as it seems
His heart was filled with vision 
But his mind was a prison"

So this part is meant to show when him and I were dating. When him and were dating, we were 14 and 15. He was very much a sorta carefree kind of person. The dreams part is about him telling me everything he wanted when he got older. He wanted to join the military, and be a father. He had so many dreams, but the part where it says "Everything with him was never as it seems" is meant to convey that he's hiding something. He knew that he could never have what he dreamed of. However, he didn't want people to worry so he just hoped that a miracle would happen. "His heart was filled with vision but his mind was a prison" is meant to sorta show he's dealing with an inner conflict. 

"I knew a boy who I once dated 
When we broke up I was never hated 
He met a girl 
She became his world
But his world was dark and lonely"

This part is about a relationship he was in after the one with me. There was a girl he was dating who was very much an attention seeker. She just wanted everything to be about her,  and he adored her. Until they broke up, and when they did she started to say she knew all these things about him. When it all came out that she knew nothing. 

"I knew a boy who was funny 
And his heart as gentle as a bunny 
Going to a place for aid 
Told he would be okay so he left after his mother paid"

This part is meant to represent the last month I knew him. He was in an out of the mental hospital, and the last week that I saw him they declared him fine. They said he wasn't a risk to himself and others, and they gave his mom a bill. 

"I knew a boy who loved nature 
Now he's one with a tree in his departure 
I knew a boy who heard voices 
Because of it he made one of the worst choices."

This is the part where he committed suicide, and the part where it says he heard voices is because he suffered with schizophrenia.  This entire poem is meant to raise awareness. People say there are signs, but sometimes the people that seem the happiest are suffering through the worst.