You Can't Be That

                     You Can’t Be That 

Brian Patten was born in 1946 in Liverpool. Patten is well known for his best-selling poetry collections for children.
The poem is about child's wishes, aspirations and dreams with which parents show disagreement.

The message is that in order to become doctors, engineers, accountants, pilots, teachers, etc., people are forgetting their feelings, emotions and human relationships.

The child says that he doesn't want to be a scientist or a newsreader as they are far away from reality. He wants to be a tree because if he becomes a tree, a million of birds will fly through him.

But the parents deny it saying that the child can't be that.

The child again says that he doesn't want to be a pilot, dancer lawyer or an MC as they are busy with the people. He says that he wants to be an ocean in which huge whales will swim.

Again it is denied by his parents that he can't become an ocean.

In the third stanza, the narrator. doesn't want to be a computer programmer, a musician a beautician as they are always busy with their their instruments. He prefers become a to range of mountains where streams will flow, and birds like eagles can build their homes. It will have beautiful valleys and fountains.

This is also denied by his parents. Now the child asks them what they think of him. They say that he is just a child and children always become what they want him to be.

The narrator is not satisfied with his parents. He says that he has magical powers, and so he can fulfill his wishes and dreams. He can be a stable, smelling of fresh hay; and an open area in which unicorns still play.