Summary Of The Poem Young Girls

Young Girls just want to have fun: An Essay looking at the relationship between the form and the meaning of Raymond Sousters’ “Young Girls”

Throughout the poem, ’Young Girls’ Raymond Souster uses different devices to portray a predominant image of sexual promise by the young girls. The poem depicts the beginning of sexual desire in women, the confusion they experience and tentativeness to act upon these desires. Faithfully following the schematic of a traditional English sonnet, Raymond Sousters’ Young Girls depicts the coming of age in women, with conflicting emotions in regard to the male speaker. Analyzing the young girls from “this dark doorway”(2) put the speaker in a curious light. The fact that the young girls are passing by in groups …show more content…
The simile “They are like flowers”(4) gives the image of nature blossoming as they are coming of age. The strong comparison by the speaker provides the reader with an age range for the young girls, as it resembles puberty. The blossoming young woman is at an age where emotions of lust and sexual desire begin to occur, “a mild delirium that makes them ill at ease.”(8), but is an emotion the young girls are not yet comfortable with. These desires are deemed to be the cause for the young girl taking a peak at the speakers group, as they have too much lust to control. The speaker deems that under the surface the “subterranean fires”(12) are unable to be contained by the young girls. The urge to see the speakers group because of the young girls newfound emotions keeps the young girls up at night. The quatrain builds up the poem in preparation for the twist in the couplet, faithfully following the schematic of an English …show more content…
In the end rhyming couplet of the sonnet, it is revealed by the speaker that the young girls freeze to the whistles of the speaker. Given the lustful description of the quatrain and the image of the young girls as “they lie awake at night, unable to sleep, then walk the streets, kindled by strange desires;”(9-10), the speaker presents an image of the young girls stiffening in awe of the recognition they have received. The “lightning glances”(11), which the speakers group notice are from the longing to be with the male speaker. However, the form of the poem depicts a turn for lines 13 and 14 as it faithfully follows the English sonnet. The poem therefore could be conceit. The young girls “steal lightning glances at us, unable to keep control upon those subterranean fires.”(11-12), they’re checking to avoid the speaker. It is not out of desire in which turns the young girls heads, but fear of the predatory males casting their glances upon the young girls. As deemed possible by the groups of girls walking “together, hand in hand”(3) to pass the male speaker analyzing them at the “dark doorway”(2) they might be terrified of the speakers group. Because of the twist in lines 13 and 14, following the schematic of a traditional English sonnet, Raymond Sousters’ Young Girls depicts the coming of age in women, with conflicting emotions in regard to the male