The Theme of Growing Up in the Poems On Turning Ten and The Girl

The nature of growing up has always been one colored by a theme of loss of innocence, as childhood fantasies give way to understandings of pain and suffering. where one's first responsibilities are placed upon them. This is an often discussed topic in literature, whether viewed under. The lens of nostalgia or melancholy, as it tends to be the moment. Where one gains understanding of the world, and must cease living a life made purely of play.

The poem "On Turning Ten" by Billy Collins is one such literary work focusing on this theme. As it looks to childhood with nostalgia as a time of innocence and dreams. Focusing on the first moments where a child begins to take steps towards adulthood. "The Girl," a poem by Marie Howe, is another work which deals. With the transition into adulthood and loss of innocence. Although in her depiction the loss of innocence is not so great, as she depicts herself as having had little innocence in her youth. This essay will examine these two poems in an effort to analyze. The theme of loss of innocence and transition into adulthood. With the intent of discussing the melancholic light these events are portrayed in.

The Billy Collins poem is a particularly nostalgic poem, where the author remembers the moment, when he turned ten years old, where he realized that he was growing up. His sudden realization fills his childhood self with a terrible sadness, as he recognizes that his dreams from when he was younger will not all come true. The ten year old Billy Collins begins to recognize that life is not simple, and the innocence he previously possessed in regards to this is no longer his and can never effectively be regained. So he remembers how in all of his youth he could freely imagine himself as anything he desired, yet now he begins to recognize what was simply childhood fantasy, he has grown up and must leave behind the fantasies of the very young.

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What is interesting about the Collins poem is that the author begins by describing the sensation of his nostalgia by comparing it to a sort of metaphysical childhood illness, which allows the reader a greater deal of insight into the childhood mind of the author. By utilizing a particular vocabulary that is often associated with children, the author sets a tone which truly evokes an idea of childhood; the spiritual pain Collins feels as a boy can only be defined by his childhood self as a "disfiguring chicken pox of the soul." The only pains he has to compare it to are stomach aches and headaches, as he has never before experienced the relatively less innocent and simple pain of growing into a mature human being.

Collins is growing larger, and the world to him begins to seem smaller and different, the magic of it lost the more he learns. He notes how his bicycle seems to lose its speed, and how the energy he felt before, the "light" that used to fill him, is gone. Now he bleeds when he falls down, as he has come to understand what pain means. This last point is of particular importance, as this mean Collins has learned about the fear of pain, and his youthful adventurousness becomes tempered by it. In growing up he must become more cautious and mindful of the dangers of the world, which is no longer wholly inviting but now presents to him its darker sides, where there is pain and suffering.

Marie Howe presents a different look on her childhood, while preserving some of the themes present in Collins' work as well. She describes her young self, also using a bicycle and other youthful pastimes as a symbol for her youthful activities, yet in her case youth is not entirely innocent, but instead is a distrustful time.

While she does not specify why, she makes it clear that she was not a trusting child, and her innocence is of a different nature entirely. She tells the reader of her furtive childhood nature, and for her growing up means developing wisdom and gaining trust, although she does not seem to have been particularly successful as she states "even if I could go back in time to her as me, the age I am now she would never come into my arms without believing that I wanted something." As a child she fears and is mistrustful of adulthood, and it seems that for her the shedding of childhood does nothing to mitigate these fears. On the contrary, it has merely confirmed them.

As such, we can see how the authors both utilize a set of themes to represent the experience of childhood, in order to better illustrate the experience of growing older and losing their more innocent outlook on the world. Through images of play, or pain, associated with children or childlike behavior, the reader gains not only the general point of what the authors are attempting to say about the process of growing, but they are able to convey a deeper understanding of what that growing entails. The specific style and vocabulary used brings out the nostalgic nature of looking back on childhood, and the innocent ignorance we all, as children, experience and eventually shed.

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