negative feelings the speaker has for his brother, as
if he is an inconvenience, restricting the freedom
feelings of the characters in the poem are
revealed through the choice of verbs
enthusiastic spirit of the younger brother
reflects his pride and excitement at being with
the older brother he clearly worships
older children lack the outward enthusiasm of the younger boy,
but then they are ""doing what grown-ups do""
third stanza makes it clear that the older boys are still children
""chased Olympic Gold"" when running for the bus, a metaphor for
competitive natures that they cannot help
Attitudes, themes and ideas
aspiration to be older
reflecting the naively superior
feelings of the older boys
childhood feeling of
superiority is later
regretted
final image suggests the
loss that the speaker
feels at not being closer
to his brother
Brothers is about the
inevitability of the boys' distant
relationship; in the poem they
are physically separated, and in
life they are metaphorically
separated by time.