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On Turning Ten Summary

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"On Turning Ten" by Billy Collins is a poem that addresses the idea of aging in a depressing and frustrating manner. At first sight, one would never suspect this poem revolves around the theme of death. Yet, it goes beyond literal death and focuses on the death of childhood. Written in the first person, this poem depicts the period of juvenescence as a time of innocence, imagination, creativity, and fantasies. Throughout the stanzas, Collins explores the idea of growing up and leaving childhood behind through the use of literary devices, such as hyperbole, metaphor, and tone. By using several literary devices, the author is able to create a reflective mood, which allows the reader to analyze the speaker 's feelings, regarding the process of …show more content…

Collins further uses literary devices in the third stanza to explore the speaker 's thoughts and ideas. First, he creates a juxtaposition between childlike and complex rhetorical language, by saying, "Back then it never fell so solemnly / against the side of my tree house" (19-20). The first line of the quote sets a serious tone, followed by the next line, which has a more childlike perspective and reminds the reader that he 's simply talking about the "afternoon light" (18). In addition, Collins says, "and my bicycle never leaned against the garage / as it does today, / all the dark blue speed drained out of it" (21-23), using another juxtaposition in the same stanza. He incorporates the idea of childlike innocence and complex language to convey the speaker 's emotions. When the bicycle is mentioned, the author uses personification that lend to the seriousness, then again, the reader understands that the poem is speaking of one who owns and rides a bike. Besides juxtaposition, this stanza showcases Collins ' best representation of imagery, through the lines mentioned before. Thanks to the use of imagery, the audience is able to connect to the poem, since all of us possess childhood memories. Such examples like the blue bike and the "tree house" (20), lend to the idea of the reader being able to close into the poem and having strong connection. Every single person have their own experiences and memories from the past. Therefore, Collins allows one to understand the poem and its message by writing common childhood

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It is wholly recurrent to blindly skim through a detailed piece of literature and be unconscious to the likeness it shares with other pieces of literature. I am surely guilty of this ignorant practice, however. As I was reading “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde and “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, I didn’t truly perceive the connection right away. The obvious was already divulged in my mind; they’re both in the points of views of children. They, however, both have a mutual theme; growing up brings uncertainty and disappointment.

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The author, Sandra Cisneros, uses literary techniques in “Eleven” to characterize Rachel by using metaphors, comparisons, and repetition. In the beginning of Sandra Cisneros’s short story, she states that when a person becomes an age older they will not feel a difference. The character Rachel explains that in different situations, for example, “Like some days you might say something stupid, and [you will feel ten]” a person might feel different from their actual age. She then competes growing old to layers of an onion, rings of a tree, wooden dolls that fit inside each other because, according to her, “that’s how being eleven years old is”.

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He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.

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Writers and poets often spread deep meaning in ordinary things: bowl can represent our parents’ heritage, food can represent our relationships with people and chocolate bar can be a symbol of childhood or green tea can be a symbol of love. Those simple things can be really meaningful, but mostly all authors understood the meaning of those objects and the value of the moments that they had lived only after several years. To take things for granted is a human nature, isn’t it? Children usually don’t listen to the voice of their parents, but when they grow up they understand how precious those lessons were.

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The use of these tactics allow for the the author to convey his purpose and message in such a way that it is not immediately rejected and the thought remains a possibility to be thought

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In the poem by Sax, he uses anaphoras in the end of the poem by using “this is … this is…” (l. 9-11) in the beginning of each sentence to describe the likeliness of each object to his emotion. The setting of his poem is more ambiguous than Levine’s poem but it could be inferred that it’s at night during winter it could also be in the character’s house during that time as the character remembers the memories that cause him to grieve. Levine’s poem uses symbolism to describe the character’s time of revelations during his process of grieving which is mentioned as a dance but is really the time spent walking in the woods (l. 19). The setting of Levine’s poem is in the woods which can be inferred from the imagery of pinecones and mountain

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Therefore Collins expressed various examples throughout the poem. “When I peer into the woods, I see a thick tangle where letters are hidden. As in a puzzle concocted for children.” The narrator compares letters that are hidden in a puzzle that was made are children. In a similar fashion Collins writes “Names lifted from a hat Or balanced on the tip of the tongue.”

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A common theme of life that can be seen "Nostalgia" is remembrance. Throughout this poem Collins talks about these characters who remember a time period, "These views assume that nostalgia depends, in some way, on comparing a present situation with a past one" (Howard). The first character begins with, "Where has the summer of 1572 gone? Brocade and sonnet marathons were the rage" (6-7). The first character is remembering a time when a certain activity

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To him summer was a time for fun, and there wasn't a reason it shouldn’t be. But, through hard times and growth, Douglas had discovered a new meaning. Life is a cycle that never stops repeating. Douglas states: “‘Next year’s going to be even bigger, days will be brighter, nights longer and darker, more people dying, more babies born, and me in the middle of it all’”(Bradbury 235). To Douglas there is still a bright side of things, there’s fun, but with it comes loss and worry.

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Growing up introduces new problems. In the poem “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, the speaker reminisces about the last 9 years of his life now that he is turning ten. Through the use of similes and diction, Collins conveys that as people age, sadness is a prevailing feeling. To begin, Collins uses a simile to express the speaker's emotions towards getting a year older. The speaker explains the uncomfortable suspicions he’s experiencing as his tenth birthday approaches, “The whole idea of it makes me feel like I’m coming down with something”(Collins 1-2).

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As you grow older so do your feelings. In the short poem “ On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, a little boy gets to experience the pain of growing up and having to experience change. Through the use of tone and hyperboles, Collins conveys how growing older can push you from what you love most. To begin, Collins uses tone to evoke how the boy is feeling throughout the poem, the boy is feeling what it is like to be older and looks back on golden memories from when he was younger. The speaker is trying to present an melancholic tone to express what the little boy is going through and how he is feeling about the change he is experiencing “ This is the beginning of sadness” (Collins 24).

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In the poem, On Turning Ten by Billy Collins, the poem describes what turning ten feels like. Using literary devices including tone and imagery, Collins conveys the speaker's attitude of being double digits. Illuminating the theme of losing innocence and coming of age. It also includes the mixture of a child’s imagination as well as their mind.

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In the following passage from the novel We Were the Mulvaneys, Joyce Carol Oates laments that even though most everything in one’s surrounding is dying, not everyone has managed to find the adequate amount of maturity to accept the fact that they are not immortal, even though the idea of death is difficult to come to terms with. Oates conveys this universal idea and characterizes the narrator through the usage of a depressing tone and dismal imagery. The tone set in the passage is fairly dark and depressing. An “eleven or maybe twelve,” year old child should not be fixated on the idea that “every heart beat is past and gone.”

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