My moms birthday is coming up, and she is really into poetry
her favorite poem is “portrait of a girl with a comic book”
For her Birthday i wanted to analyze the poem and frame it,
thing it, i dont know where to start,
i dont even know what the poem is about!
any help would be great
thanks so much!
Thirteen’s no age at all. Thirteen is nothing.
It is not wit, or powder on the face,
Or Wenesday matinee, or misses’ clothing,
Or intellect, or grace.
Twelve has its tribal customs. But thirteen
Is neither boys in battered cars nor dolls.
Not Sara Crewe or movie magazine,
Or pennants on the walls.
Thirteen keeps diaries and tropical fish
(A month, at most); scorns jumpropes in the spring;
Could not, would fortune grant it, name its wish;
Wants nothing, everything;
Has secrets from itself, friends it despises;
Admits none or the terrors that it feels;
Own half a hundred masks but no disguises;
And walks upon its heels.
Thirteen’s anomalous – not that, not this:
Not folded bud, or wave that laps a shore,
Or moth proverbial from the chrysalis.
Is the one age defeats the metaphor.
Is not a town, like childhood, strongly walled
But easily surrounded, in no city.
Nor, quitted once, can it be quite recalled –
Not even with pity.
Thirteen’s no age at all. Thirteen is nothing.
It is not wit, or powder on the face,
Or Wenesday matinee, or misses’ clothing,
Or intellect, or grace.
Twelve has its tribal customs. But thirteen
Is neither boys in battered cars nor dolls.
Not Sara Crewe or movie magazine,
Or pennants on the walls.
Thirteen keeps diaries and tropical fish
(A month, at most); scorns jumpropes in the spring;
Could not, would fortune grant it, name its wish;
Wants nothing, everything;
Has secrets from itself, friends it despises;
Admits none or the terrors that it feels;
Own half a hundred masks but no disguises;
And walks upon its heels.
Thirteen’s anomalous – not that, not this:
Not folded bud, or wave that laps a shore,
Or moth proverbial from the chrysalis.
Is the one age defeats the metaphor.
Is not a town, like childhood, strongly walled
But easily surrounded, in no city.
Nor, quitted once, can it be quite recalled –
Not even with pity.
1 Answer
That’s a very sweet idea for a birthday gift. I’m sure your mother will be touched that you’ve paid such attention to her love of poetry. Since you don’t understand what the poem is about (I think it’s meant to represent the musings of a loving mother thinking about her 13-year-old daughter who is poised between childhood innocence and something more complicated, exciting, and dangerous), you probably shouldn’t try to write an analysis. Instead, why not get your mother a book by Phyllis McGinley, the author of that poem? Here’s a link to some information about her books: