The Cool Web Youth Quotes

Unlike adults, young children don't know how to talk yet, so they can't exactly complain about a hot day. That said, they can always start crying if they don't like how they feel. But in any case, Graves is using this opening line to let us know that he's about to draw a contrast between children's experience of the world and adults'.

Just as they aren't able to talk about how hot a day is, children also can't communicate their ideas about how scary a bunch of marching soldiers might look to them. The line might sound repetitive at first, but there's a difference between a hot day and a line of marching soldiers. One is an image of nature, the other is an image of the violence that the adult world is capable of. Children might actually realize how dreadful the soldiers look, but they can't fully understand or make sense of what they're seeing.

Unlike children, we adults are able to talk about our experiences. And talking about experience is a way for us to "master" the things we see, taste, and touch, especially if we can get other people to agree with our experience and reassure us that we're right.