Poetry / I grow old, I grow old!

I am a woman now
I guess
and I guess I’ve
been one always
even when
overlapping girlhood
but now I am a woman
only and I tiptoe
through the world
I once trampled
bold and barefoot

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November 09, 2007

ElizaBell

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
44	100.0% (2 votes)	31.7%

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Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
50	F	Eaton Rapids, MI	March 12

ElizaBell reviewed Version 1 - Read 100%% of the Item

An interesting image of the movement from girlhood without fear to young womanhood, a place of uncertainty and perhaps fear? The uncertainty in the poems voice (“I guess”) matches the image of tiptoeing. The contrast with bold and barefoot captures the imagination. Reminiscent of Imagist poetry (are you familiar? If not, check them out!)

One question. A woman ONLY? Or a woman barely out of her cocoon?

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November 09, 2007

by pennyloafer

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
68	70.6% (17 votes)	44.4%

Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
23	F	Rocklin, CA	September 30

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A woman only…without the girlhood attached to it (without the girlhood overlapping).

In a way, girlhood is a wild and active time (bold, brazen) and womanhood implies more responsibility and maturity. That’s what I meant, instead of being bold and careless I have now transitioned into mellow adulthood.
If you think of womanhood in the old fashioned, kitchenbound sense…it makes a bit more sense I guess.

Not I, exactly. The speaker in this poem, anyway. I’m still very much a child.

November 09, 2007

by pennyloafer

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
68	70.6% (17 votes)	44.4%

Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
23	F	Rocklin, CA	September 30

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The title of this is taken from a line in a T.S. Eliot poem, who succeeded the Imagists and is often mislabeled as one himself. So yeah, it’s a definite influence.