On Turning Ten Analysis

Often times readers desire for works that they can relate to on a personal level. With that in mind Billy Collins wrote a poem entitled, “On Turning Ten” discusses the hardships experienced from growing up. The poem is written from the perspective of a child who has turned ten years old and is looking back at their great life as a very young kid. The child sees the world in a different way and feels sad that he has grown up. Collins, through his poem, displays the emotional hardship of growing older and causes the reader to relate to the child as they remember their own experiences growing up.

Childhood is arguably the most exciting time of a person’s life. One has few responsibilities or cares, and the smallest events can seem monumentally thrilling. Often, people reflect on the memories of their youth with fondness and appreciation for the lessons they learned. Sarah Orne Jewett captures this essence perfectly in the excerpt from “A White Heron.” Jewett uses many literary devices, including diction, imagery, narrative pace, and point of view to immerse the reader in familiar feelings of nostalgia and wonder, and dramatize the plot.

In On Turning Ten by Billy Collins the literary devices that are used to express the theme of aging are word choice, figurative language and symbolism. The word choices that has been put together shows that the narrator is maturing. An example of this was when the narrator says “but now if I fall upon the sidewalks of life, I skin my knees. And bleed.” (Collins 31) . The word choice that is used to describe how the character falls is an advanced way for a child to explain how reality is hitting her at this age. Billy Collins used symbolism by comparing herself falling on the ground to the real world. In the quote mentioned above the author is explaining that when she gets older failing in life is not what is used to be, but now she bleeds and is experiencing real life. In this quote it is showing the theme of aging because it is a point of realization in this character's life that she is no longer a child. Lastly another literary device that was used is figurative language, Colins used similes to enhance the theme of again. The narrator explains how she is feeling upset and she is saying this to herself “as she walk[s] through the universe in [her] sneakers” (Collins 21). The usage of similes in this context is having the character compare sadness to walking through the universe which is lonely and sad. All three of these literary devices show that throughput the short poem the character is having a reflective moment on her life where

Abraham Lincoln said, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” Often times in our society young people push off responsibilities, it's easy to do. Technology and other innovations have made it convenient for us to become distracted and to push things off. However when growing up, sometimes taking responsibility cannot be avoided. In coming of age stories, the author uses symbolism to exemplify how the protagonists experience new independence and responsibility while they transition from childhood to adulthood.

In many cultures, coming of age is often celebrated because children become young adults who grasp self-awareness and accountability. At the same time, childhood is threatened by responsibility, which is dreaded because there is an unpredictable world of adulthood waiting with no guarantees. James Hurst demonstrates the journey of growing up through life experiences everyone goes through in the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”. Throughout his use of mood, setting, and symbolism, Hurst shows that maturing requires reflecting on past experiences and losing innocence, which then can transform one’s outlook on life.

Many time we spend our whole childhood wishing we were older and now we’re spending our adulthood wishing to be younger. In the poems “Quinceanera” and “Rite of Passage” both Cofer and Olds explore the theme of coming of age and we acquire to truly live up to those adult characteristics that every child has within them , the authors use various literary devices, such as imagery, tone, and figurative language, such as similes.

When I was younger I had no idea what this world held for me. I was innocent. As a child, I was innocent of mortality, as a teen hope, and as a young adult love. However, later on that innocence took on the role of ignorance. Not in the sense of not being knowledgeable or educated on the subject but rather knowing it all too well that I choose to not acknowledge it. Innocence can be served as an instrument to tune out your surroundings when things take a toll. It can be an illusion from reality to protect what one desires to be true feel rather than what is actual. In Wendy Cope’s poem “Reading Scheme,” Cope writes about the child’s viewpoint of an affair by using the villanelle form to illustrate the inability of children to make connections and ultimately argue that innocence is simply an illusion.

As we age, we gain a greater ability to understand and acquire knowledge about the world around us. This is a natural process that transpires throughout life. Often associated with the coming of age, the loss of innocence is a single or set of events that prompts a sudden realization or new perspective; this is a theme occurs in many literary works. The loss of innocence is a prominent theme in the short story “A&P,” portrayed in the main character Sammy.

Billy Collins’ “On Turning Ten” is a coming of age poem from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy who is unenthusiastic about his tenth birthday. Collins’ “On Turning Ten” uses structural irony to juxtapose childhood with coming of age to suggest that the uneasiness of the inevitable passing of time is difficult to come to terms with, as the imaginative nature of youth is lost. The speaker uses various literary devices to strengthen the use of structural irony throughout the poem.

After finishing the selection titled “Eighteen” by Maria Banus, I was completed surprised on how genuine the authors feelings were. Normally when I read poetry it is difficult to understand the meaning of numerous amount of it, if not all of the lines but this one was different as if it pertained to me. This poem made me feel rather sad and miserable because there are a lot of grievances that one may bring up about growing into an adult. Everyone always says how enjoyable your teenage years are, how invigorating the experience is to live life to the fullest and to enjoy it before it comes to end, but a lot of people may disagree. This analogy is incorrect to

Katherine’s ability to recite verses from almost any subject cultivated her son to adore words, whether written or spoken. Billy Collins father possessed a great sense of humor that provided shape and structure in Collins poems. In “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, Collins expresses his humorous style by describing the fear of a 9 year old child who is about to turn 10. The fear of losing his imagination and losing the fun in life frightens the kid although this kid has several years before becoming an adult. “But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light.”

When you’re 10 you don’t know what being a grown up even means but still somehow want to be grown up. Ten is getting excited when it’s snowing and snow days meant you’re playing outside all day to build stuff and when you do go inside you come inside to some warm hot chocolate and blankets. Being ten

The age of 21 holds great significance to a person's life. It is the start of adulthood and the gateway to new freedoms. Within the poems To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age by Samuel Johnson, and When I Was One-and- Twenty by A.E Housman, we see both authors discuss the qualities and importance of being 21, but they come from different perspectives with Housman’s poem coming from the point of view of someone who has already surpassed being 21 and is now 22, whereas Johnson’s poem is written for someone is who is currently 21. These two perspectives both reveal how the age of 21 is the threshold to where ones childhood dies and ones adulthood is born, and all heartbreaking moment and elements that await.

In life you’re always wishing to be older or younger because of the struggles you’ve faced and even when we’ve over come those struggles new ones approach causing us to go in a circle of feelings. I’ve gone through my childish years, the adolescent years, and now can’t wait to plan for the future adulthood years. Though without the great support systems I have in my life I wouldn’t have been able to get past my struggles without them. I like to think that the struggles I’ve over come so far have prepared me for the journey ahead.

When I was young, every adult I met told me, “Don’t be in a hurry to grow up!”, and I told them I was not. Though I looked forward to my freedoms I would achieve as I became older, I usually enjoyed being a child to the full extent. There was no other time in my life that was full of pure happiness; but one minute I was five years old, spread out on the living room floor, tearing through the Target toy catalog and circling everything with a black marker, the next minute I was seventeen, smiling sheepishly while my parents’ friends ask where I planned on going to college.