Essay
Essay Unit 3 - Poetry Poems of the Decade
An A* essay that received 30/30 on 'An Easy Passage' by Julia Copus and 'Boy Soldier' by D'Aguiar with top A02 quotes to impress examiners.
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Explore the presentation of growing up in ‘Boy Soldier’ and a poem of yourchoice from the Poems of the Decade Anthology (An Easy Passage).
In ‘An Easy Passage’, Copus uses a description of a girl jumping into a house by climbing
through the window as a metaphor for the liminal moments between childhood and
adulthood, whereas ‘Boy Soldier’ explores how a child is forced into the adult
environment of war too early and is forced to grow up too soon. Whilst Copus’s poem
focuses on the transition from child to adult, D’Aguiar relocates childhood innocence
into an unfamiliar environment of a warzone.
‘An Easy Passage’ seems to allude to the expression “a rite of passage”, so the theme of
growing up is immediately introduced. However, the adjective “easy” is ironic both on a
literal and metaphorical level. The girl is described as “trembling” and the use of a
transferred epithet in “a square of petrified beach” conveys how the girl is nervous
about both transitions, which are not easy but instead require concentration and
perseverance. The repeated use of the modal verb “must” shows that she is aware of
society's expectations of her and feels a certain pressure to conform and meet the
standards set for her. The use of enjambment in
“She must keep her mind
On the friend with whom she is half in love”
illustrates how she is torn between her obligations to the adult world and the
excitement that young love promises. “She must keep her mind” echoes advice she has
likely received from adults about concentrating on the task at hand (it is ironic that she's
remembering it in a situation that adults would not approve of) but the reader's
expectations of how the line will end are broken following the tension of the
enjambment as her mind drifts instead to her confusing feelings towards her friend.
Whilst in ‘An Easy Passage’, the child is aware of the pressures that society has placed
on the process of growing up in ‘Boy Soldier’, the child su ers at the hand of society
without a full understanding of the situation. His immaturity is emphasised through
physical descriptions of “bones, waiting for muscle, body, all angles”: his body is yet to
grow, but he has been thrust into a situation that requires far more mental and
emotional maturity to process. Frequent use of enjambment creates a tension between
life and death, and punctuates the conflict which, unlike the boy, the reader can
appreciate the gravity of. In
“…whom he stops
dead or maims, his bullets
like jobs thrown before the thought
to throw them”
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