Understanding the poem

I chose this poem because the title stood out to me. Even though we all grow up and mature, there is still a part of us that still wants to be a child. This poem reminds me of when I was younger. I enjoyed reading this poem because there is some humor in it, but also to an 8 year old this poem makes perfect sense. In the first stanza Charles Webb writes that doctors do not make house calls to the north pole. While this may be true if humans lived near the north pole, we as adults know it’s far too cold for humans to survive there. Webb also writes how Santa “let his Blue Cross lapse,” many children may not even know what Blue Cross is, but as adults that phrase is humorous because we know that Blue Cross is an insurance provider. The author even links Santa’s feeling about going to the doctor with the feeling of a child going. The author then uses a simile to compare Rudolph’s nose to that of an ambulance light. As you continue reading, you then find out that Santa hasn’t actually died, but that the young child started to believe is not real. While the authors leads the reader to believe Santa is sick, Webb is telling you in my opinion the story the child is telling himself so that he can justify why Santa no longer exists. I can remember myself as a young child making up stories to fit within the parameters that I wanted the story to. In other words, a child may not be able to grasp certain concepts like adults can, but the child can make up, in their own mind, what they feel happened. I’m not sure how much of this makes sense, but I can understand what Webb’s poem is trying to say.

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