IntroductionMost, if not all, cultures today place enormous value on childhood. The multiple structures present in our society that protect it testify to the great value attributed to childhood. But what lies at the basis of this need for child protection? What is it that in childhood we consider precious enough to protect it? Of all the qualities of childhood, it is in innocence that we find great meaning. Indeed, childhood derives its greatest value from its perceived effortless innocence. This innocence, the one we most attribute to childhood and for the purposes of this essay, is the quality of being pure in the sense of being "uncontaminated", uncontaminated by sin, by people's imperfections or by the very harshness of living. Undoubtedly, many in cultures like ours place great value on childhood and, more significantly, the innocence it represents, precisely because people desire it, both to reclaim it and to develop it. However, in this essay it is argued that the recovery or development of innocence is impossible and, through the analysis of the poems, this impossibility is demonstrated. The poems chosen in this essay have a commonality in that they all convey, through form and/or content, the nature of the many manifestations of the impossibility of innocence. Hide and Seek"Hide and Seek", written by the poet Vernon Scannell, talks about the theme of childhood, loss and loneliness told through the popular game of the same name. Evident in the very structure of this poem is the aforementioned impossibility of innocence. The poem opens almost like a nostalgic memory of a past event as it begins in the middle of a game, “Call out. Call out loud: 'I'm ready! Come and visit me!'” That it is the voice of an enthusiastic child is evident not only in... the middle of paper... in the mix of Vernon Scanell's 'Hide and Seek', in the spread of contradictory elements and impossible requests of Kipling's “If” or the study of desire and reminiscence in “Once Upon a Time” by Gabriel Okara (and together with other readings such as “Prayer Before Birth” by Louis MacNeice, “Little Boy Crying, UA. “Half past two” by Fanthorpe) this essay has attempted to portray the multiple facets in which the impossibility of innocence can manifest itself. Through the anguish, hidden pessimism and longing evident in the poem, one observes the unconscious realization of the impossibility of the highly prized ideal. However, even through this study, it was seen that childhood and the ideal of innocence it represents, however impossible, are nevertheless a powerful motivator for literary excellence and, indeed, for excellence in conduct in many other aspects of life..