An Easy Passage Flashcards
What is the extended metaphor running throughout?
Half way in her window, half way out - innocence and beauty of being young coming to a close. Looks back on herself - envious of innocence?
What can be inferred through ‘halfway up there’?
Extended metaphor for location and her stage of life
What is ‘bikini’ a symbol of?
Symbol of innocence but also maturity
What can be inferred through ‘porch roof of her family’s house, trembling’?
Emphatic of her fear? anticipation? worried about how her life is going to change?
What imagery is used in ‘narrow windowsill, the sharp/ drop of the stairwell’?
The dangerous imagery perhaps emphatic of the dangers lying ahead in life
What can be inferred through ‘half in love’?
Lack of concrete/assured nature as whether she is in love
What can be inferred through ‘which (in a moment) she will reach’?
Lack of stability as she moves forward in the future - nervous?
What can be inferred through ‘But first she/ steadies herself’?
The metaphor shows the movement emphatic of aging, danger vs nurture of future. Enjambment is representative off the constant passage of time
What can be inferred through ‘grains of the asphalt/ hot beneath her toes and fingertips’?
Freeing image of childhood - positive imagery
What can be inferred through ‘What can she know/ of the way of the world admits us less and less/ the more we grow?’
The additional voice questions her innocence, naivety and her lack of fear of future - change in present to avoid reality
What can be inferred through ‘ who does not trust her daughter with a key’?
Darker sense of judgement - not allowed freedom?
What is contrasting themes throughout?
Innocence vs experience
What device is used in ‘at a girl - thirteen if she’s a day- standing’?
Caesura/ parentheses shows the start to consider older perspective/ looking back - envy?
What are there connotations of in ‘ flash of armaments’?
Connotations of war - dark side of future or perhaps prepared for what’s coming in future
What can be inferred through the final line ‘dropping gracefully into the shade of the house’?
Finality of her movement into womanhood
