Sadness and regret are two emotions you never want to feel, but in the world of Billy Collins’ poetry he utilizes these feelings to reflect on and give a bigger picture to life. In poetry words are never meant to be taken lightly, in fact they are meant to be picked apart, analyzed, and put back together to form a coherent meaning. Sadness in poems are not usually just sob stories but instead are heavy-hearted deliverers of a grander insight into life. Collins successfully conveys a mood of sadness or regret in his two poems “On Turning Ten” and in “Forgetfulness by his use of word choice and overarching connotation.
In Collins’ poem “On Turning Ten” he conveys a mood of regret through the idea of losing your youth as he reminisces his old …show more content…
To a young child this may actually be the case, as he is growing up the speaker is seeing his life transform into magical and fun ways. When the speaker says “It is time to say goodbye to my imaginary friends, time to turn the first big number.”, this is spoken with such a heavy heart because the child is believing that he will no longer be able to be under the disguise of a prince or a wizard. The speaker sees it as though he is losing a part of himself as he is going through this morbidly awaiting phase, almost as if he has successfully convinced himself that he will no longer enjoy life as much as he used to. Another example of sadness in the poem “On Turning Ten” is when the speaker describes his descent into a state of depression. “But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light. Back then it never fell so solemnly against the side of my tree house, and my bicycle never leaned …show more content…
“Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen” (14-16), this example of not remembering something leads me to believe this is a case of alzheimer's. Not only does this person forget things completely but struggle to even make out thoughts of those things. This is supported by the fact that this person and their horrible memory loss, “... will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.” (19-20). The statement that this person will be put into a category where people have lost track of some of the most basic life lasting activities such as riding a bike is not comforting at all and in fact makes you want to feel sorry for this person. Another example of how “Forgetfulness” conveys sadness is when the speaker says, “Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away…” (9-12). This shows sadness through the analogy of the quadratic equation packing its own bags and leaving, I believe this is a metaphor for a bad relationship that has ended in heartbreak, which inadvertently causes the statement to become sad as it partially assigns blame to ever the speaker is talking about. The line
In Collins’ poem “On Turning Ten” he conveys a mood of regret through the idea of losing your youth as he reminisces his old …show more content…
To a young child this may actually be the case, as he is growing up the speaker is seeing his life transform into magical and fun ways. When the speaker says “It is time to say goodbye to my imaginary friends, time to turn the first big number.”, this is spoken with such a heavy heart because the child is believing that he will no longer be able to be under the disguise of a prince or a wizard. The speaker sees it as though he is losing a part of himself as he is going through this morbidly awaiting phase, almost as if he has successfully convinced himself that he will no longer enjoy life as much as he used to. Another example of sadness in the poem “On Turning Ten” is when the speaker describes his descent into a state of depression. “But now I am mostly at the window watching the late afternoon light. Back then it never fell so solemnly against the side of my tree house, and my bicycle never leaned …show more content…
“Whatever it is you are struggling to remember, it is not poised on the tip of your tongue, not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen” (14-16), this example of not remembering something leads me to believe this is a case of alzheimer's. Not only does this person forget things completely but struggle to even make out thoughts of those things. This is supported by the fact that this person and their horrible memory loss, “... will join those who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.” (19-20). The statement that this person will be put into a category where people have lost track of some of the most basic life lasting activities such as riding a bike is not comforting at all and in fact makes you want to feel sorry for this person. Another example of how “Forgetfulness” conveys sadness is when the speaker says, “Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag, and even now as you memorize the order of the planets, something else is slipping away…” (9-12). This shows sadness through the analogy of the quadratic equation packing its own bags and leaving, I believe this is a metaphor for a bad relationship that has ended in heartbreak, which inadvertently causes the statement to become sad as it partially assigns blame to ever the speaker is talking about. The line