Poems that have a "becoming a man" theme

[multious]

[ QUOTE ]
"If" by Rudyard Kipling

Scott

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i was going to post this [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[bjb23]

first poem i thought of:

On Turning Ten


The whole idea of it makes me feel
like I'm coming down with something,
something worse than any stomach ache
or the headaches I get from reading in bad light--
a kind of measles of the spirit,
a mumps of the psyche,
a disfiguring chicken pox of the soul.

You tell me it is too early to be looking back,
but that is because you have forgotten
the perfect simplicity of being one
and the beautiful complexity introduced by two.
But I can lie on my bed and remember every digit.
At four I was an Arabian wizard.
I could make myself invisible
by drinking a glass of milk a certain way.
At seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince.

But now I am mostly at the window
watching the late afternoon light.
Back then it never fell so solemnly
against the side of my tree house,
and my bicycle never leaned against the garage
as it does today,
all the dark blue speed drained out of it.

This is the beginning of sadness, I say to myself,
as I walk through the universe in my sneakers.
It is time to say good-bye to my imaginary friends,
time to turn the first big number.

It seems only yesterday I used to believe
there was nothing under my skin but light.
If you cut me I could shine.
But now when I fall upon the sidewalks of life,
I skin my knees. I bleed.

-- Billy Collins

[J-Mac]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"If" by Rudyard Kipling

Scott

[/ QUOTE ]
i was going to post this [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

I thought of this when I saw the thread and realized that it would be nearly impossible for it not to be already mentioned. OP, FWIW, Im pretty sure I read somewhere that "If" is the most widely translated and read poem in the world, so if this is a class assignment I imagine that "If" is gonna show up in about 80% of the papers handed in. So Id be sure to at least have other stuff in there.

[IronUnkind]

This one might be too close to Kipling's.

[diebitter]

[ QUOTE ]
It's enough to make you hate sh*t that's profound.

Seriously, who the f*ck is going to live up to that? I want two weeks worth of tea and sympathy every time I get a damn papercut. And this from a fairly weathered, angry son of a b*tch.

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I do.

[kazana]

Here's a very profound, poetic haiku just for you:

Some day, young I've been
One day, I'll be really old
Who then, am I now?

Author, date, reason: Me, 2006, on a whim.

Oh, boy this sucks.

[samjjones]

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Men have pubic hair
And now you do too

[diebitter]

Is the one with the line 'time is the fire in which we burn' any good? Rosetti, I think.

[DrewDevil]

Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

[WhoIam]

A lot of Bukowski deals with his boyhood/adolescence/early manhood. My books are in storage right now so I can't help you out with any specific poems.