An Easy Passage

Question 1

TITLE; an easy passage

Answer 1

• ironic in the ideas that the passage to maturation is never straightforward and undermines the struggles of young girls. Perhaps shows the naive idea that growing up is an easy thing which is contrasted by the adult perspective
• perhaps implies how easy life altering descisiions are made
• alludes to the structure which is in itself a long passage
• represents the passage of maturation and also the passage the girl makes into the house

Question 2

Free verse + single stanza +lack of sentences + enjambement

Answer 2

• fluidity and movement of the poem and supports the title in the passage of time wbeing unbothersome and easy in many ways
• ## represents the equally subconscious and never ending passing of time from youth into adulthood

Question 3

Turbulent caesura in the centre of the poem

Answer 3

• transitional point in the muddle of the poem very contrasts the two sentences at the beginning and end taking up almost 2/3 of the poem
• this shows a turning point in the poem but also in the passage into the girls life as she battles with her pubescent teenage years before returning to a more stable adulthood
• CAESURA not heavy full stops shows that the passage of time is not broken but her life is more turbulent than prior
• may also represent the freedom of teenage year the girl desires in this transgression and prior and after she is constrained by life commitments hence creating anxiety and uncertainty for her future

Question 4

‘Once she is halfway.. crouched in her bikini’

Answer 4

• lexis ‘once’ creates a fairy tale life opening that recalls back to an idiotic childhood outlook of the world. This illusion is stunted by the word ‘halway’ which shows a lack of completion and hence a cold and harsh relatity, also may show how she is stuck in a liminal space between child and adulthood
• the pronoun ‘her’ indentifies the character exclusively as female which connotes fighter to vunerability
• similarly, the lexis ‘bikini’ reveals a sense of exposure for the girl to the elements, bikinis are often matured outfits and very revealing which underscores a sense of liminality for the teen.

Question 5

porch roof over her family house,trembling

Answer 5

• the infielder of her being above her families house in a precarious position indentifies her being perhaps not sheltered amnymore by her family and thus is transgressing boundaries
• yet the caesura followed by the word trembling implies that she is hésitent and vulnerable to submerged into the dangerous position and thus she is stuck liminal between maturation and youth

Question 6

Perspective

Answer 6

• all in third person with no dioloage
• creates distance from the events as this is an observational tone which makes the retelling more story like
• the idea of story telling links to growing up and suggests that this liminal period of insecurity is a human/female rite of passage

Question 7

Friend with whom she is half in love

Answer 7

-perhaps refers to the girls homosexuality and how she is coming to develop unique more romantic feelings which is a staple of older adolescence
- however the lexical term ‘half’ implies uncertainty
- this may show how her feelings of love are youthful and panicked and how she is too young to understand real love wholst also grappling with genuine feelings- liminality
- equally, it may show a more matured fear that sociaetal expectations of growing up will force them apart into a more nuclear realationship

Question 8

Sematnic field of beach
- ‘waiting for her on the blonde’
- ‘hot beneath her toes and fingertips’
-‘ square of petrified beach’
-‘ oyster-painted’

Answer 8

• common nostalgic comfort as a symbol of the childhood naivety that she looks to and perhaps longs for but its consciously leaving behind in her maturation/ transgression to adulthood
• often paired with imagery of fear and panic/danger serves as a warning for the future harshness of reality
• ‘petrified’

Question 9

Tiny breasts/ rest lightly on her thighs

Answer 9

• represents the societal objectiifcaton of her breasts that women face as it is mentioned somewhat unnecessarily here
• the third person perspective telling is crude and illicit and thus shows the vulnerable position she is forcing herself in society
• the lexis ‘tiny’ creates sympathy for her liminal adoleance as she is not yet fully pubescent and reveals that she is perhaps rushing to grow

Question 10

THEME: identity

Answer 10

• she is caught between two worlds in a liminal space where she feels adult emotions but also is scared of the maturation of this
• her free will is contrasted with the adult world who are mentioned only as being mundane