Poem Analysis: On Turning Ten

Some people value their childhoods and would give anything just to return to that moment for a day, others, however, disregard it, and couldn’t care less. Billy Collins’s poem “On Turning Ten” communicates this idea by describing his childhood as enjoyable, mesmerizing, and remorseful. Through poetic devices such as similes, metaphors, and imagery, Billy Collins offers powerful ideas about the journey of growing up.

During the beginning of the poem, the author uses similes to convey the idea that growing up is painful and you’ll never be able to recover. The author introduces the poem by expressing his pain at merely the thought of growing up. Although there is no visible wound, the author uses a simile to communicate his pain to the reader: …show more content…
When the author states, “I'm coming down with something, / something worse than any stomach ache / or the headaches I get from reading in bad light” he first lets the reader imagine the pain of a headache or a stomach ache, but then, he adds onto his precious statement by saying that it is something even worse than a stomach ache or a headache, by doing so, he conveys the meaning that his pain is almost unimaginable. Since the speaker in this poem is presumably a child on the verge of turning ten, a stomach ache or headache is most likely the worst pain that they’ve imagined so far in their …show more content…
This quote shows the author's joy of being young, how he didn’t have a care in the world when he was being himself. When the author says, “I could make myself invisible / by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.” it is a memory of the past when he could do anything carelessly and there wouldn’t be any consequences. However, now that he’s growing up, he realizes that he can’t do be careless anymore because his parents won’t always be there to clean up his mistakes. It’s a clear cry for him to come back to reality now because he has to start looking out for