16 pages • 32 minutes read
Billy CollinsOn Turning Ten
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1995A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Light
Light appears as a repeated motif in three out of the five stanzas, shown as a complex symbol with both positive and negative connotations. The first reference is to headaches triggered by “a bad light” (Line 4). Interestingly, “light” is presented here as a singular noun, suggesting one type of light among many. It is a tangible, material, and containable type of light, likely a dim reading lamp or a flashlight. The next mention of light is “the late afternoon light” (Line 18), which has taken on a melancholy appearance. This light is also bigger and less controllable than the light mentioned in the earlier stanza. The “late afternoon” (Line 18) suggests a passing of time, the golden glory of midday slipping away into evening. The final mention of the motif comes in the last stanza, “nothing under my skin but light” (Line 29). It’s notable that in its final iteration it becomes an abstract noun, compared to “a light” and “the light” (Lines 4, 18) of the previous stanzas; here it simply “light,” something much bigger and more uncontainable. This is arguably light at its brightest and most powerful; it symbolizes all of the magic and hope and potential that existed in the child, now mixed with the cold and harsh reality of sidewalks and blood.
The Bicycle
The bicycle appears in the third stanza, leaning against the garage with “all the dark blue speed drained out of it” (Line 23). As a symbol of movement and freedom, the bicycle is in stasis, unused. We can easily imagine the sorts of adventures the child may have once had with it, but now, instead of riding it, he simply watches the bicycle from his window. It appears to him as if it has been stripped of its very life force, much like the child himself. The “dark blue speed” (Line 23) may be made of the same intangible magic as the light the child imagines to be under his skin, and now both are left unmoving and drained of what made them whole. Although the bicycle still has the same moving parts, it no longer has the limitless potential it had before.
Numbers
Numbers, digits, and counting are repeatedly woven throughout the poem, starting right at the title. The narrator takes numbers very seriously, and each one is a distinct entity. Unlike adults, who may remember their childhood as a wash of interconnected memories, the speaker places special significance on each individual age: “at seven I was a soldier, at nine a prince” (Line 16). In the same stanza he mourns the “perfect simplicity” of one and the “beautiful complexity” of two (Lines 10-11). In the fourth and shortest stanza, the speaker says, “time to turn the first big number” (Line 27). In fact, the author chooses the word “number” to close the stanza, emphasizing its significance. Here the speaker doesn’t lament an age, or a time period, or an experience, but simply “the first big number” (Line 27), suggesting again the weight he puts on the particular digits. For him, each one is a milestone to be either celebrated or lamented.
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By Billy Collins
