Compare the ways in which poets explore youth in ‘Ode on a Grayson Perry Urn’

and one other poem of your choice from Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of
the Forward Books of Poetry 2002–2011. In your answer you should consider the
following:

• the poets’ development of themes

• the poets’ use of language and imagery
• the use of other poetic techniques.

'An Easy Passage' by Julia Copus delves into youth and growing up by
narrating a personal experience, focusing on the transition from innocence
to maturity. Copus’ use of an extended metaphor throughout the poem,
describing a teenage girl escaping from her house represents the transition
to adulthood “Once she is half way up there’ Ode, on the other hand is told
from a 3rd person perspective exploring the negative effects that youth sub
culture has on wider society. The plosive alliteration “ pensioners and
parents telephone the cops to plead for quiet, sue for peace” creates an
aural effect, illustrating the menace and strife the actions of the teenagers
cause on the wider community. Both poems deal with issues of youth and
growing up but do so from different perspectives.

In Helen Dunmore’s poem ‘To My Nine Year Old Self’, youth is portrayed as a
stage in life that is filled with various excitement and boundless freedom. Dunmore
implements pathetic fallacy to illustrate the liveliness of childhood as a ‘summer
morning’. The climate during summer is typically hot, therefore it represents the
energy that the speaker’s younger self possesses, whilst ‘morning’ is associated
with the sun rising from the horizon, symbolising the high intensity of that energy
as if it has the ability to illuminate its surroundings. Additionally, ‘morning’ also
marks the beginning of a new day, alluding to how the poet is desperate to escape
his current, monotonous adult life and return to childhood. In contrast, youth are
described as being adventurous and potentially violent in Turnbull’s poem ‘Ode on
a Greyson Urn’. The onomatopoeia of ‘screech’ in stanza 2 provides a vivid
imagery of cars dashing across the ground shows how reckless the teenagers are
while driving and are therefore in ‘peril’, they believe that they are invincible and
will not be injured from committing such perilous act. Indeed, they are simply the
painted depictions on Greyson’s vase and will last forever. Overall, both poems
identify youth as containing a frenetic amount of energy.