WHAT HAD HAPPENED TO LULU?

I think this poem is about a girl called lulu who is the older sister if the writer who has run away.
The poem is sad and it uses various ways of showing how the writer is feeling, by using rhetorical
questions quite a lot in the poem 'what has happened to lulu mother'. This rhetorical question
shows you that he must be really missing his sister or he must be getting worried if he had used it
a lot. I chose to do this poem because I thought it would be quite easy to explain and I also
thought it was an excellent poem.
In the first verse of the poem, the poet starts with a rhetorical question which is 'what has
happened to lulu mother?' I think this is an effective way of starting the poem because you know
that the poem s going to be about a girl called lulu. I thought this was quite unusual because in
most poems that I have read they are either asking themselves the poem or the reader the
question but, in this poem he is asking his mother the question. The writer follows this question
with another question, 'what has happened to lulu?' I think this creates a sense of affection
because, by repeating the question it tells you that the writer is missing his sister and cares for
her and he also sounds desperate so he must be really missing his sister.

In the next verse you can tell that the girl lulu has runaway and that is why the poet is asking
about her. I know this because, it uses rhetorical questions and alliteration like 'why is her
window wide open mother?' and, 'the curtains flapping free, 'and only a dusty shelf where her
money box used to be?' her window being wide open could mean that when she ran away she went
out from her window instead of the front door. I thought the writer saying only a circle on a dusty
shelf, where her money box used to be was the most striking sentence it says that when she ran
away she must have taken money with her meaning that she might not be coming back home.

The following verse also starts with a rhetorical question and ends with a rhetorical question,
'why do you turn your head mother, and why do teardrops fall? And why do you crumble that note
on the fire mother and say it is nothing at all? The sentence 'why do you crumble that note on the
fire and say it is nothing at all,' is another idea that she has runaway because, it could be a note
that she has wrote saying why she has runaway what had caused her to runaway. But lulu could
have been kidnapped because it could have been a ransom letter saying that we have lulu give us
money and we will give her back. I think the mother might be crumbling it because she hasn't got
what their asking for or she cant afford it, or she is crumbling it out of anger or sadness.

In the proceeding verse It uses a lot personal pronouns and also at the end of the verse there is a
rhetorical question, this verse is another thought that she has been kidnapped because, it say 'I
woke to voices late last night and I heard and engine roar'. These voices could have been the
voices of the kidnappers talking or commanding her to go to their car and I think they had a car
because he heard an engine roar and that could be the car starting. Also I think the mother
doesn't want to believe that anything has happened to lulu even though she knows that something
has because, she has told the writer it was only a dream, 'why do tell me the things I heard where
a dream and nothing more'. I also think that she doesn't want her son who is writing the poem to
worry about lulu so she is lining to him that it was only a dream. However she could have runaway
because, the engine roaring could have been a taxi that she had called late in the night and the
voices could have been hers and the taxi man talking.
After this verse it shows how the mother is feeling and that lulu being missing is having an effect
on her. It says in the poem 'I heard someone cry mother, in anger or in pain, but now I ask you why
mother you say it was a gust of rain.' I think this shows that mother is upset and I think it was her
who was crying because she is still making up lies by saying it was a gust of rain, so maybe the
writer doesn't become worried or wonder why his mother is crying. Also the line I heard someone
cry mother in anger or in pain is an affective line because, it tells you that lulu could have been
kidnapped because why else would the mother cry in anger unless someone hasn't taken her
daughter and she is angry with that person.