The Importance Of Coming Of Age In Poetry

Coming of age is a huge step towards adulthood. At this period, one is filled with responsibilities and privileges. While young adults are free and privileged to do what they want, many are foolish and make mistakes that could affect the rest of their adulthood. Samuel Johnson's "To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age" and A.E. Housman’s "When I was One-and-Twenty" describe the experience of the coming of age. Through the use of different point of views and tones, the poets each describe their different views and experiences with the coming of age and how their ideas and experiences connect and link to a greater understanding of adulthood.
Johnson’s use of point of view and tone helps contribute to the underlying theme of the coming of age. In Johnson's poem, the point of view is third person. The speaker is experienced with the coming of age, and he

is describing the way in which Lade deals with the coming of age. It seems that the perspective is from an elderly one as he is focusing on Lade’s life instead of his own. Lade is celebrating his transformation into adulthood, feeling "pomp and pleasure, pride and plenty". Subsequently, Lades freedom is presented when "Loosened from the minors tether / Free to mortgage or to sell". Johnson is showing the comfort and happiness experienced when Lade turned 21. However, Lade is taking his freedom to an extreme level when he decides to bomb all the money he had on jockeys, panderers, and other women. According to the poem, "Here the gamester light and jolly / There the lender grave and sly. / Wealth, Sir John, was made to wander, / Let it wander as it will; / See the jockey, see the pander." The speaker is trying to show that some adults can take advantage of their privileges. In addition, Lade's excessive gambling leads him not to care about what's most important; land and house. Johnson supports this using two theoretical questions. "What are acres? What are houses?" To the speaker, being able to have a home and land is more valuable than wasting money on useless things. Finally, Lade notices the mistakes he has made. Having nothing, he wanted to "hang or drown at last". The whole poem consists of an ironic and mocking tone that the speaker presents. While the speaker does present all the things Lade did and could do as a young adult, he also expressed the pain that Lade experiences as a result of excess gambling and pride on his becoming of an adult. Both poems showed different stories of adulthood but how having too much privilege as an adult can lead to chaotic results.
Housman’s use of point of view and tone help create his differing message and perspective concerning the coming of age. Housman's poem uses first person point of view. The speaker is describing his own experience as he reaches adulthood, When he was 21, a wise man told him to give his money and precious values but not his heart and personality. According to the poem, "I heard a wise man say, / Give crown and pounds and guineas / But not your heart away." Still too young, ironically, the speaker disregards the man's warning and does what he wants. However, he later understood what love can do to oneself and how his personality and his body should not have been given. Housman shows this when the poem states, "And sold for endless rue. / And I am two-and-twenty / And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true." The tone expressed in this poem is that of nostalgia and seriousness. The speaker was not able to understand the wise words of the old man until he was 22 and as a result, he “paid” a price as he suffered in love. Subsequently, as a result of the reminiscence of coming of age, the speaker advises young ones to be cautious and aware of what they do when they reach 21.
While there are key differences in the two poems, the poems also share striking similarities of the coming of age.

Both poems are different perspectives and different stories of how adulthood affected their lives but they both stress the importance of abusing the powers of adulthood. Both poems stress the importance of turning 21 and how adulthood is stage to be aware and smart (as well as have fun). In Johnson’s poem, the first line, “Long–expected one and twenty,” helps set the gist of the poem, signifying that Lade has turned 21 and now his actions will be different and more overpowering than when he was a teenager. Housman’s use of repetition helps signify the importance of turning. In the first and second stanzas, the first line is always “When I was one-and-twenty.” Repetition is a way to show importance and order of significance in a poem or literary merit. Also, while the theme of adulthood could be expressed in literal terms, the poets felt that conveying the message of adulthood in a form of poetry would make the theme of coming of age more connected and touching rather than boring and straight to the

point.
Overall, the coming of age impacted Lade and the speaker of the second poem in a bad, catastrophic way. The use of tone and point of view show variations of the two poems as well as how the poems connected in a way that would contribute to understanding adulthood. Teenagers who are 20 should beware of the coming of age. There is more to adulthood than many suggest. Becoming an adult not only should be fun but should also be serious and not taken for granted.