To A Daughter Leaving Home By Linda Pastan

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The Contemporary American poem chosen for this essay was “To A Daughter Leaving Home” by Linda Pastan. I felt that this would be a great poem to use because of the strong hearted personal view. This poem exercises the emotion and feelings parents go through when their daughters leave home, they have to learn and accept that they can no longer protect their daughters on a daily basis. In the first section of the poem, it gives a brief introduction of the personal connection. The poem states, “When I taught you at eight to ride a bicycle, loping along beside you as you wobbled away on two round wheels my own mouth rounding in surprise when you pulled ahead down the curved path of the park,”. In the beginning of a daughter’s life, they depend on their parents for everything since they cannot behave alone. Most parents enjoy this feeling and have a hard time letting it go as the daughter grows older. As the child grows and learns to do new things the parents become proud, but eventually they realize this means they are becoming more and more independent. …show more content…

The poems expresses, “I kept waiting for the thud of your crash as I sprinted to catch up,”. This section of the poem illustrates that when daughters begin to grow older their parents can no longer fix every mistake they make, or prevent them from making them. This is something parents have a hard time adhering to since they have become so accustomed to it. Eventually, parents won’t even know about mistakes daughters make because they have taken care of it

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