On Reaching Forty
On Reaching Forty - meaning Summary
Forty Forces a Reckoning
The poem depicts turning forty as an intrusive, unavoidable event that rudely interrupts youthful scripts. Earlier years enter gently, but forty arrives boldly, personified as a uniformed cop that halts action and exposes losses and laughter alike. The closing lines offer wry resignation: only a premature death at thirty-nine spares one from this confrontation. The tone blends blunt humor with sober acceptance of aging.
Read Complete AnalysesOther acquainted years sidle with modest decorum across the scrim of toughened tears and to a stage planked with laughter boards and waxed with rueful loss. But forty with the authorized brazenness of a uniformed cop stomps no-knocking into the script bumps a funky grind on the shabby curtain of youth and delays the action. Unless you have the inborn wisdom and grace and are clever enough to die at thirty-nine.
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