These poems narrate the transformative journey from youth to adulthood, exploring the complexities of growth, self-discovery, and maturity.
They delve into the challenges and exhilarations of this pivotal phase, addressing themes of independence, responsibility, and the loss of innocence. Coming-of-age poems may reflect on the passage of time, pursuing one’s dreams, and forging lasting memories.
‘My Son the Man’ explores the reality of parenting and engages with the inevitability of the passage of time.
This theme is relevant to the poem in two different ways. Firstly, the obvious interpretation refers to the narrator's son who has come of age in the traditional sense and rebelled against the constraints of youth. However, the poem also presents the narrator to have symbolically come of age as a parent, as her relationship with her son has forced her to contend with other apprehensions and insecurities in her life.
‘My Mother Would Be a Falconress’ by Robert Duncan explores a son and mother’s relationship through the lens of a falcon breaking free from his handler.
This poem's main theme of mother and son relationships finds conflict in the son's resentment as he ages. While he was younger, he followed his mother's commands, but he grows angry and resentful of her domineering control, ultimately lashing out at her. The guilt from this event still haunts him, though, even as an independent adult.
My mother would be a falconress,
And I, her gay falcon treading her wrist,
would fly to bring back
from the blue of the sky to her, bleeding, a prize,
Heaney’s ‘Personal Helicon’ draws inspiration from his rural carefree childhood and intimate connection with nature.
The poem suggests that adult life cannot compare to the carefree existence of a child, to whom the world appears full of wonder. The narrator longs to experience those days again.
As a child, they could not keep me from wells
And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
‘Stealing Peas’ explores the bittersweetness of a memory that ultimately reveals the inherent insecurities and vulnerabilities of childhood.
This poem poignantly captures a coming-of-age moment through its exploration of innocence, curiosity, and emotional vulnerability. In ‘Stealing Peas’, the speaker’s question, ‘Who d’you like best?’ signals a pivotal moment of self-awareness and youthful insecurity. The bittersweet answer—‘You’re prettier. She’s funnier’—reflects the awkwardness and emotional complexity of growing up, where even playful experiences like stealing peas take on deeper, more lasting emotional significance.
‘I Remember, I Remember’ by Thomas Hood is a poem dedicated to the nostalgic embrace of childhood memory. Hood idolizes his ‘childish ignorance’, painting his memories with beautiful colors and images.
The poem does not focus merely on the innocence of childhood; it contrasts it with the process of coming of age. This transformation signifies a loss of naivety but also signifies a rite of passage into a different, perhaps less delightful, form of understanding the world.
‘What Now?’ by Gary Soto is a contemporary poem that speaks to the universal experience of aging and learning.
Gary Soto's poem 'What Now?' addresses the theme of coming of age by depicting the speaker's transition from childhood to adulthood. It explores the loss of innocence and the shift in perspective that accompanies growing up. The poem reflects on the changing priorities and the practical concerns that replace the wonder of youth. Through lucid imagery and introspection, Soto captures the universal experience of navigating the complexities of maturity and finding one's place in the world.
Christina Rossetti’s ‘Goblin Market,’ narrates the fantastical tale of Laura and Lizzie, delving into sin, redemption, and sisterhood.
In the poem's beginning, Laura and Lizzie are young, naive maidens and mature mothers in the end, sharing their likely formative experiences of encountering goblins. Laura gives or sells her hair in exchange for the goblins' fruits in her youthful naivety and innocence; she grows to be a mature mother, teaching solidarity and courage to their children through her story. Lizzie stays cautious and knows the rules of the market and thus tries to keep the trade with the goblins impersonal; however, she has to face the violence and gain an essential life experience to bravely fight for what is necessary for her, leading to growth by practically navigating life.
In Sheenagh Pugh’s ‘Sweet 18’, an older woman expresses her desire to regain youth as she battles the temptation to take it from others.
In the maternal interpretation of this poem, the narrative hinges on a son's coming of age. The speaker, mother to the young man, finds herself wholly unwilling to rely on her now mature son for care and assistance. Pugh explores how the dynamic shift between children and parents as they come of age. Parents are unwilling to burden their children despite nurturing them their whole lives. On the other hand, the lack of resistance shown by the son throughout the poem suggests he is willing to provide these services to his mother. He accepts responsibility for her as it is a consequence of coming of age.
You move before me with all the unknown ease
of your age; your face clear of the awareness
that clouds mine. Your only scars; where you tried
‘Who Burns for the Perfection of Paper’ contrasts two forms of labor and encourages the reader to consider the relationship between them.
Like many people from less affluent backgrounds, the narrator had to go out and work from a young age, thus quickening the end of their childhood. The reflective nature of the poem suggests it has taken years for them to recognize the lasting impact of that reality truly.
‘Home’ by Bruce Weigl is a wistfully honest poem that narrates the emotionally profound experience of returning home.
Although it is not clear how old the speaker is in the poem, their return home implies a great change both within them and the setting of their childhood. As a result, the poem contains themes connected to this idea of a coming of age. This makes the poem highly relatable to anyone who has struggled with both leaving and returning home.
‘The Dancing’ by Gerald Stern is an emotionally complex poem that wrestles with feelings of joy and bittersweetness inspired by a fond memory.
Part of growing up is contending with the bittersweet differences between past and present. For the speaker, they have not yet let go of the past or are driven too much by their dissatisfaction with the present.
the three of us whirling and singing, the three of us
‘To a Daughter Leaving Home’ uses the metaphor of a child learning to ride a bike to beautifully capture a parent’s mixed emotions of pride and fear as they watch their daughter grow up and gain independence.
The poem clearly depicts a moment of transition from childhood to a more independent stage, symbolized by the daughter learning to ride a bike and moving away from parental safety. This subject reflects the universal experience of growing up and the challenges that accompany new stages of life.
‘My Grandmother’s Houses’ by Jackie Kay is a thoughtful recollection of youth and a young speaker’s relationship with her eccentric grandmother, who is forced to move homes.
Much of the poem is concerned with the narrator's childhood, but remembered through the lens of an adult. Kay therefore layers memories with new experiences to convey the sense of aging.
‘The River’ is a lively and joyous poem in which the speaker celebrates the power of a river and its journey towards the ocean.
The river changes from a young stream to a mature river that is full-bodied, which is the process of growing up. This work depicts the cycle of life from vigor, through the stage of contemplation, to the stage of acceptance of death, which is a cycle of life that is easily observable in human experience.
‘Carpe Diem’ by Robert Frost is a poem that encourages the reader to live in the present and comments on people’s tendency to focus on the past and the future instead.
The children in the poem symbolize the potential and uncertainty of youth. Age watches them, hinting at their inevitable journey into maturity. The theme reflects the tension between innocence and the encroachment of time, though it’s less explicitly developed than in other coming-of-age narratives.
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