To Sir John Lade: Of His coming of Age
Long-expected one and twenty
Lingering year at last is flown,
Pomp and pleasure, pride and plenty*
Great Sir John**, are all your own.
*Comment: Alliteration. All of the words are happy and celebratory. The alliteration adds to this. Adds to the joyous tone of the poem, and supports the initial perception of the tone as a happy, congratulatory one.
**Comment: Anastrophe shifts the focus to "Great Sir John", making the tone rejoicing, effusive, but also somewhat reverent.
(shift 1)
Loosened from the minor's tether**,
Free to mortgage or to sell,
Wild as wind, and light as feather***
Bid the slaves of thrift* farewell.
*Comment: The metaphor casts a rather harsh view of Sir John's parents: scrooges whose sense of economy comes at the expense of independence.
**Comment: Parallelism celebrates the liberation from restriction, as well as newfound authority and liberty.
***Comment: Similes. Shows how he now has freedom. Also implies that there is not much substance which can lead to instability if one is not careful.
(shift 2)
Call the Bettys, Kates, and Jennys,*
Every name that laughs at Care,
Lavish of your grandsire’s guineas,
Show the spirit of an heir.**
*Comment: The names are nicknames. Not the proper names that were considered appropriate at that time.
**Comment: It's strange that the speaker, probably an adult friend of Sir John, should encourage him to adopt a sense of entitlement. The diction suggests that the speaker takes wealth for granted.
(shift 3)
All that prey on vice and folly**
Joy to see their quarry fly,
Here the gamester light and jolly,*
There the lender grave and sly.
*Comment: Parallelism is used again, but this time as contrast. The speaker sympathizes with the "innocent" wealthy youth and denounces the "grave and sly" creditors for exploiting them.
**Comment: The analogy of the con men as hunters and young heirs as game creates a cautionary tone. The speaker is advising Sir John not to get carried away with gambling away his assets.
(shift 4)
Wealth, Sir John**, was made to wander,
Let it wander as it will;
See the jockey, see the pander,*
Bid them come, and take their fill.
*Comment: Repetition and parallel structure reemerge to create a light-hearted tone. The speaker is encouraging Sir John to spend on sports and pleasure. The speaker really has no qualms about splurging wealth on material comforts.
**Comment:With "wealth" separated from the rest of the line, more emphasis is drawn to it. Ultimately showing that wealth has a lot of power and can sometimes be controlling.
(shift 5)
When the bonny blade carouses,**
Pockets full and spirits high,
What are acres? What are houses?*
Only dirt***, or wet or dry.
*Comment:Ironically, the speaker argues that "acres" and "houses", metaphors for material wealth, are insignificant as compare to material comfort. The pleasure produced by wealth is worth more than the wealth itself.
**Comment:British slang lowers the diction to romanticize the joys of a lifestyle without restraint. The speaker fully accepts the vulgarity of indulgence, and subverts the high morals of temperance and abstinence.
***Comment: Devalues the acres of inherited land to merely dirt.
(shift 6)
If the guardian or the mother
Tell the woes of wilful waste*
Scorn their counsel and their pother,
You can hang or drown at last.**
*Comment: Alliteration is employed again to disparage the virtues (or rather vices) or economy, restraint and thrift.
**Comment: Slant rhyme. Shows the true intentions of the speaker who carries a sarcastic tone throughout the poem.
****When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
“Give crowns and pounds and guineas***
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies*
But keep your fancy free.”//
But I was one-and-twenty,**
No use to talk to me.//
*Comment: Parallels the two lines before it in order to create emphasis.
**Comment:The speaker makes it sound like there was no point in talking to him because he was too young to understand. This is ironic because "one-and-twenty" is generally seen as the "coming of age" age or the age when one becomes an adult.
***Comment:Polysyndeton. Draws emphasis to how many material things are not as important as his heart. Basically, he is saying that his heart is worth much more than the material possessions.
****Comment: The meter alternates between 7 and 6 syllables per line
When I was one-and-twenty*
I heard him say again,
“The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
’Tis paid** with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.”//
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.***
*Comment:Repetition of the first line draws emphasis to the age "one-and-twenty". The second line changes slightly but is similar in order to emphasize what the "wise man" was saying.
**Comment: "Paid" often indicates paying for something with money. However, in this case, the speaker is paying with "sighs a plenty" and emotional pain.
***Comment: Repetition. Shows that at twenty two, the speaker has now learned from his experiences and become wiser.