Caught in the Crowd - Kate Miller Hedike

There was a guy in my school when I was in high school

We'd ride side by side in the morning on our bicycles

Never spoken or even faced each other

But on the last hill we'd race each other

When we reached the racks we'd go our own way

I wasn't in his classes,  I didn't know his name

When we finally got to speak he just stared at his feet

And mumbled a sentence that ended with 'James'

I was young and caught in the crowd

I was dumb and I was proud

And I'm sorry

If I could go back do it again

I was someone you could call friend

Please please believe that I'm sorry

Well he was quite a big guy, kinda shy and quiet

When the kids called him weird he didn't try to deny it

Every lunchtime he'd spend walking by himself

Round the boundary of the grounds til he heard the bell

Well one day I found him, joined him on his walk

We were silent for a while until we started to talk

I told him my family were fighting in court

He said his step-dad and him always fought

We talked about music, he was into punk

Told me all the bands I liked were junk

I said I'd never heard the song Sex Pistols sang

I laughed back at him and then the bell rang

I was young and caught in the crowd

I was dumb and I was proud

And I'm sorry

If I could go back do it again

I was someone you could call friend

Please please believe that I'm sorry

It was after school in the afternoon

the corridors were crowded as we came out of the rooms

Three guys I knew pushed him into the cement

Threw away his bag and said he had no friends

He yelled that he did and he looked around

Tried getting up but they pushed him on down

That's when he saw me, and called out my name

And I just turned my back, and walked away

Yeah I turned back, and just walked away

I was young and caught in the crowd

I was dumb and I was proud

And I'm sorry

If I could go back do it again

I was someone you could call friend

Please please believe that I'm sorry

The composer of this poem is Kate Miller Hedike

The form of this poem is Ballad

The poem is about a boy named James who is bullied at school. He has no friends until Kate (Composer) started talking to him. James thought that they were friends until one day three other boys were bullying James, Kate (Composer) just turned her back on him and started to walk away. Through this song Kate is saying that he truly sorry for not standing up to her friend.

The main theme of this poem is bullying and the victims of bullying.Another theme for this poem is regret as the composer is apologising profusely and regretting her past mistakes through the poem. The message of this poem is how a person actions big or small can have a great impact on other people.

The tone created in the poem mainly regret and sorrow which is proven when she says that she is sorry.

Metaphor - 'I was young and caught in the crowd' - This means that she followed what the majority of people did and didn't do what she thought was right.

Repetition - 'Please please believe that I sorry.'

My opinion of Caught in the Crowd is that it shows how we can still hurt other people's feelings even though we don't intend to such as the case in this poem where she doesn't stand up for James when he is getting bullied. We should think about our actions and how they affect others and if it does hurt another person, we should be able to apologize like Kate Miller Hedike did in this poem.