WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO LULU

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO LULU BY CHARLES CAUSLEY

The Poem

What has happened to Lulu, mother?
What has happened to Lu?

There's nothing in her bed but an old rag-doll
And by its side a shoe.

Why is her window wide, mother,
The curtain flapping free,

And only a circle on the dusty shelf
Where her money-box used to be?

Why do you turn your head, mother,
And why do tear drops fall?

And why do you crumple that note on the fire
And say it is nothing at all?

I woke to voices late last night,
I heard an engine roar.

Why do you tell me the things I heard
Were a dream and nothing more?

I heard somebody cry, mother,
In anger or in pain,

But now I ask you why, mother,
You say it was a gust of rain.

Why do you wander about as though
You don't know what to do?

What has happened to Lulu, mother?
What has happened to Lu?

Meaning of Lines

Stanza 1

• The persona is questioning her mother about the mysterious and sudden
disappearance of Lulu. An old rag doll and a shoe was left behind

Stanza 2
• The persona saw that the windows are wide opened and the curtains are "flapping
free" in the wind. The persona also notice her money-box on the dusty shelf is gone.

•

Stanza 3
• The persona asks the mother why she is hiding her tears. The mother crumples up
a note (most probably from Lulu) and throws it into the fire. Mother then tells her child that
it is nothing at all. The persona does not believe her.

Stanza 4
• The persona tells that she was awakened by "voices late last night" and heard the
sounds of an "engine roar", probably a car starting up and being driven away. The mother
lies that the child was only dreaming.

Stanza 5
• The persona insists that she had heard someone cry "in anger or in pain". The
mother says it was just "a gust of rain".

Stanza 6
• Puzzled about the mother's distraught behaviour, the narrator wants to know why
the mother is pacing about, uncertain what to do. The use of "Lu" is an affectionate
shortened form of "Lulu

What Has Happened to Lulu?

It deals with themes of grief and love. The mother is grieving over her lost child. The
fact that the child has run away does not make the grief less significant. The confusion
of the narrator about his or her parent’s reaction also tells us something about the
nature of grief. The poem also considers how we deal with children, in dismissing what
they have heard or seen. The child narrator has some valid knowledge of what has
happened, but his mother tells him he dreamed it. The poem raises the question of
how the child can react, when he has been told nothing is the matter, when clearly it
is. Ironically the mother does not know what to do, as the final stanza makes clear.

Themes
1. The end of childhood and the loss of innocence
• Lulu is probably a young teenager.
• She ran away based on the note that her mother crumpled.
• She took her savings "money-box" to start a new life with a man who drove her
off in a "engine roar".
• She left her childhood behind.
2. Parent-child relationship
• The mother and Lulu relationship could have been a tense and strained one.
• Lulu is a rebellious teenager.
• She dislikes her mother's restrictions on her freedom and emerging interest in
the opposite sex.
• She keeps secrets from her mother.
• The mother and narrator relationship is less dramatic.
• The narrator is obedient and respectful to the mother.
• The narrator loves the mother very much and observe her pain and distress.
3. Grief and love
• The mother is grieving over the loss of her child, Lulu.
• The mother clearly loves Lulu.
• The narrator loves the sister as she called her by pet name "Lu".
• The narrator is worried about the sudden disappearance of the elder sister