“AN EASY PASSAGE”-ANALYSIS & NOTES

SUMMARY
- An older woman is looking back at herself when she was younger. She has desires and hopes tat
she has not accomplished and misses the excitement she had as a child. The loss of freedom and
excitement as a girl embraces adulthood.
- Expresses concern for young girls and what they don’t know about the future.
- The poem describes the personal and social changes a teenager goes through as she transitions
into womanhood.
- The overall lesson taught in this poem is about the restrictions that a woman faces as an adult.
Where at the beginning “she must not…think” and at the end “her head [is] full” which signifies
the sudden changes a woman has to get used to as part of growing up.
ANALYSIS
“An Easy Passage” – irony as the young girl might think it is easy to transition into an adult woman but it
isn’t in reality.
“Once she is halfway up there,”- subordinate clause that creates tension as the reader waits for a
completion in the main clause. This could be a metaphor for being halfway between childhood and
adulthood
“…in her bikini” – the lack of clothes and lack of layers suggest her vulnerability.
“…porch roof of her family’s house” – the idea that it is her “family’s” indicates that she does not feel
like she belongs there.
“…trembling” – discomfort/ uncomfortable or scared. Creates a foreboding tone.
“…the one thing she must not do is to think” – emphasises her youth as she has the ability to tell herself
not to think.
“…the sharp / drop of the stairwell” – connotations of potential pain and suffering; the potential impacts
of such transitions. Also, the idea of an immediate change into womanhood with no time to adjust. The
sudden cut of the enjambment indicates the unpredicted drop.
“…she is half in love” – the idea of “half in love” indicates a lack of experience with profound feelings of
love. But it could also show that there is a sense of excitement with being able to be unsure of things. As
an adult, there is rarely time to be “half” of things. Her lack of experience and developing emotions.
“…warm flank of the house.” –warm connotes safety and comfort; she is leaving those things. End
stopped line indicates the idea that the warmth will last permanently, which is a naïve and innocent view
of comfort. The enjambement also indicates the idea that once you start to transition there’s no stopping
or going back to being a child to re-experience things.
“…crouching, the grains of the asphalt / hot beneath her” – the discomfort of the climb is a metaphor for
the discomfort of the transition between childhood and adulthood.
“- What can she know / of the way the world admits us less and less / the more we grow?”– rhetorical
question; the idea that the young girl does not know yet. The world becomes less and less forgiving as
you grow older. A tone of sympathy and sentimentality of the innocence of a child and also for their
oblivious nature. The idea that the word admits less and less the more we grow shows how she is
outgrowing the world; where she will outgrow what she knows as familiar and exciting. The caesura
before this question is formed by a full stop and a hyphen; it immediately stops from a description to this
as if the personas mind is being bombarded with emotions of pity and emotional sentimentality.
“AN EASY PASSAGE”-ANALYSIS & NOTES
“…For now both girls seem / lit, as if from within” – the “for now” signifies that it is temporary and will
not last. “lit from within” shows their excitement; young and full of hope. It also implicitly conveys that
the persona knows that this is not permanent and therefore shows that the persona is an older perspective.
“far too, most far, from the flush-faced secretary” – diacope; time passes, this childhood is at a distant
from her now. The idea of a secretary looking at herself as a younger girl shows a more grown-up and
mature view. The poet portrays the inevitability of things that come along with time, alluding to
womanhood. The idea that the older persona is not revealed until the end part of the poem mirrors how
young women are not aware of the inevitability and reality of things until they go through a process of
time to find out.
“…with her head full …/… she plans to take” – contrasts to before where she allowed herself not to think
but now, adulthood leaves little space for an empty mind. “She plans to take” indicates unmet aspirations
of the grown up woman.
“looks up now / from… the astrology column” – the astrology column is a space of predictions for
astrological signs. It could symbolise that she is desperate for something exciting to happen to her.
“a silver anklet” – silver is a sign of femininity in literature. Portrays the transition from a girl to a woman
and the differences that come along with it.
“…an outstretched foot” – the extensive description of the foot could be indication of being born into
adulthood. The symbolism is that when a child is first born, the thing that comes out first are their feet.
“…catch the sunlight briefly” – a last sign of youth and warmth, familiarity and comfort.
“…before / dropping gracefully into the shade of the house” – antithesis of the earlier “sunlight” and the
shade shows the contrast in the transition from a child to an adult. “gracefully” indicates that she
welcomed adulthood with ease; could also mean that she doesn’t know what adulthood comprises of yet.

FEATURES
- Written in third person narration.
- The lack of dialogue creates an observational tone where there is no insight to the girl herself.
Maybe the idea here is that you are what the world perceives you to be; when you are younger
you don’t have a voice.
- The semantic field of the body. Physical descriptions of the girl and her friend that focus on
describing different parts of her and her attire.
STRUCTURE
- One long stanza
- Free verse
- The long sentences with no commas in places show that it is a stream of consciousness and
continuation.
- The structure shows that the transition into adulthood coalesces and there is no clear cut boundary
of it.
- The lack of sentences is prominent. The first sentence contains 13 lines that is only slowed down
by some comma’s ad semi-colons as caesura. The shorter sentences are in the middle of the poem
where the longer sentences surround it at the beginning and end of the poem. The central shorter
sentences might indicate the sudden transition into womanhood and adulthood where the longer
ones show the life in it.
MUSIC/PROSODIC FEATURES
“AN EASY PASSAGE”-ANALYSIS & NOTES
- Alliterative consonant fricative sounds in“far too, most far, from the flush-faced secretary”
indicates a sense of roughness and lack of flow in her adult life. It also shows the demarcation
between a child and an adult though the transition seems to be one long passage of time.
- The lack of rhyme scheme emphasises how transitioning into a woman or an adult is not
traditional or conventional; there is no prediction of it that could make the transition easier or
more flowing.
THEMES
Identity: personal identity of self-development and growing up.
Childhood: transition from childhood into adulthood; the vulnerability and the lack of experience of a
child.
Time and age: the changes that happens over time.
Adulthood: the inability to do what you aspire to do and to be excited and to have a sense of calmness as
an adult. All the things that are lost when you transition.
Womanhood Vs. Girlhood

LINKS AND CONNECTIONS (TO OTHER POEMS)

- To My Nine-Year-Old Self: CHILDHOOD, ADULTHOOD
- The Map Woman: WOMANHOOD
- A Leisure Centre is also a Temple of Learning: WOMANHOOD, AGE, TIME