In the poem "Ladybird" by David Malouf, how does Malouf present the theme of innocence and experience, and how does he use the nursery rhyme as a way to explore traumatic events in life? Where do innocence and the nursery rhyme become evident?

The poem "Ladybird" by David Malouf is found in his grand collection of poems Earth Hour. Throughout the poem, a tiny ladybird insect is used as a metaphor for the innocence of childhood and the natural destruction of this innocence over time.
The feel of the poem is somewhat childlike in that it takes on a nursery rhyme tone at the end of the fifth stanza:

Ladybird, ladybird,fly away home, we sang,our full hearts liftedby all that was best

In this excerpt, the delight of a simple visitation from an insect is compared to the optimism and innocence of being a child. However, the tone quickly changes when the sudden question “but was her house on fire?” is asked. The suddenness of this question shows how quickly childhood innocence can be shaken.
The poem ends with the child fearing for this small insect:

mother, quick, flyhome! The house, our hair, everything closeand dear, even the air,
is burning! In our hands(we had no warningof this) the world is alive and dangerous

The nursery rhyme tone of the poem, along with the sense of the insect’s fragility, may give us insight concerning Malouf’s view of innocence. The poem seems to assert that childhood innocence is fleeting and fragile, just like the delicate amber wings of the ladybird.