Analysing Norman Nicholson - Rising Five

Without doubt, Norman Nicholson's best work, Rising Five portrays a child and in
effect all of us, figuring life out, and unfortunately losing out on it.
The language he uses to present his case against modern humaniity as it were is
deeply provocative to those to whom it applies, not in that we are offended by it but in
that it evokes a sense of having performed faultily in our capacity as human beings.
Rising Five starts out with a simple often heard statement, 'I'm rising five'. The key to
this phrase's effect is both in its sound and in it's meaning.'I'm Rising' implies an
upward relaxed motion without restraint, even floating, amplified by the sound of the
words. The long vowel I sound gives the phrase an easy expansiveness and gives a
feeling to the reader of wanton time and space. The effect that Nicholson aims to
acheive, is deeply rooted in the theme, as he implies that we as a species consider Life
as being endless, wherein we may expand our state of 'Rising', only to notice that we
have ignored the absolute in 'Five'. The use of a number roots the reader in the reality
of absolutes, both in its effect as a finite entity and with its short vowel sound.

The very next line emphasises the childishness of such a statement (to which
Nicholson later attributes a number of adult perspectives) with 'little coils of hair',
where the use of the word little has the effect of showing the reader that this is in fact
a small child's informative statement and the consonance of L sounds in 'little coils'
emphasise the softness and innocence of the child.

The poet shows us how much the boy expects of his future in, 'His spectacle brimful
of eyes to stare'. Here the continous consonance of the S sound implies a flow of
water, that lines his eyes. This creates the effect of showing a great curiosity in the
child's eyes. This seems as a flowing body of water, with the Ss flowing into each
other.

'Reflected cones of light' in the next line is scientific in its adjectives, but
metaphorically speaking implies that the child's future is reflected, not as the beauty
of light, but by a cold and scientific means, even using scientific terminology with
'cones'.
These 'cones' are 'Above his toffee-buckled cheeks', for a reason as the poet intends to
show that boy's future, in his eyes are 'above' and more important so as to remove his
roots in the innocence of childhood. Buckled here acting as a double-entendre for the
child still being 'buckled' in his toffee. Even the sound of the phrase 'Toffee buckled
cheeks', repeating the childish L sound implies that this is the representation of
childhood.

The poet then uses a number once again to represent the boy's age in 'Fifty six
months'. This in addition to having the effect of sounding longer that 'Rising Five', is
still absolute, which is why the poet sees fit to add some extendability, to the number
with 'perhaps a week more'. The effect here is to show our inability to deal in the
present, ever-seeking the future.

The next stanza deals with the nature surrounding the boy, an experience he has
foregone in search for a number. A maelstrom effect is created with,

'Around him in the field, the cells of spring

Bubbled and and doubled, buds unbuttoned'

Here with the use of repeated consonance of the D sound, the poet makes it seem as
though a lot is occurring. With the use of the word 'swilled' to describe the trees,Norm
creates an effect through asociation with the word swelled, implying growth.

Norm doesn't fail to follow this up with a scientific reference, in 'dust dissected
tangential light', to describe the evening, finally implying that our interpretations are
skewed by our inability to deal in the absolute, with ,
"not day,
But rising night;
not now,
But rising soon.'
Here he puts our inability to live in the moment in absolutist terms, implying that
throughout our existence we look to rising soon, as the boy did to rising five and as
nature herself does in our interpretation with rising June.

Norm then summarises the human condition of never living in the here and now, with
what can only be described as a painfully indentifiable formula

'We never see the flower/But only the fruit in the flower/We never see the fruit/But
only the rot in the fruit.'
The flower here respresents birth, the fruit adulthood and adolescence and rot death.
He puts it even clearer in the next line,
'We look for the marriage bed/In the baby's cradle, we look for the grave in the bed:
not living;
But rising dead'
The power of this statement is so incredible, because it gives the entire system of
living undertaken by so many, a meaningless formulation, ending eventually, before it
begins.

Heres the whole poem:

Rising Five

"I'm rising five" he said

"Not four" and the little coils of hair
Un-clicked themselves upon his head.
His spectacles, brimful of eyes to stare
At me and the meadow, reflected cones of light
Above his toffee-buckled cheeks. He'd been alive
Fifty-six months or perhaps a week more;
Not four
But rising five.

Around him in the field, the cells of spring

Bubbled and doubled; buds unbuttoned; shoot
And stem shook out the creases from their frills,
And every tree was swilled with green.
It was the season after blossoming,
Before the forming of the fruit:
Not May
But rising June.

And in the sky

The dust dissected the tangential light:
Not day
But rising night;
Not now
But rising soon.

The new buds push the old leaves from the bough.
We drop our youth behind us like a boy
Throwing away his toffee-wrappers. We never see the flower,
But only the fruit in the flower; never the fruit,
But only the rot in the fruit. We look for the marriage bed
In the baby's cradle; we look for the grave in the bed;
Not living
But rising dead.