Childhood

In the poem 'Childhood', Markus Natten asks again and again: 'When did my childhood go?' He searches for the moment when it ended, and suggests three answers.

• Stanza 1: Was it when he turned twelve? Or when he worked out that Heaven and Hell, which could not be found in any Geography book, could not really exist? He had begun to reason for himself (rationalism).
• Stanza 2: Was it when he saw that adults were not all they seemed to be? They preached love, but did not act lovingly. He had seen through their hypocrisy.
• Stanza 3: Was it when he found that his mind was really his own, to use as he liked, with thoughts that were nobody else's? He had become an individual (individuality).

In the final stanza, he answers his question in a different way. His childhood went to some forgotten place: it is now hidden in an infant's face. Childhood is innocent, and that innocence is now seen only in small children.

The repeated question shows the poet's longing for his childhood, and his puzzlement at how it slipped away without his noticing. Growing up, the poem suggests, means learning to reason, to see people clearly, and to think for oneself, but something precious is lost on the way.