'An Easy Passage'- Julia Copus 

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'An Easy Passage'- Julia Copus

On a sunny day, a 13-year-old has just climbed up on to the porch roof of her house while her friend watches from the street below. It is like the girl on the roof sneaked out without her mother's permission and she has not been trusted with the key of the house. The girl climbs through an open window and into the house. The two girls are also observed by a rather frustrated secretary over the road, whose head is full of various and perhaps abortive plans for the future

Commentary- The apparent simplicity of this poem in which, effectively, only one event takes place disguises an impressive range of complex methods and ideas. The passage of the girl from the sunny outside to the shady darkness of the house could be read as an allegory of the progression from childhood to adulthood. The image of the girl, who is most of the poem poised between inside and outside, embodies the concept of liminality which lies at the centre of the poem that is, the girl is at a threshold of two states, but occupying neither. So it is perhaps no surprise that the poem contains a range of opposites: Inside/outside; dark; light; childhood/adulthood; work/play.

The form of 'An Easy Passage' matches the content brilliantly. The poem's sustained, almost slow-motion focus on a single moment finds a visual correspondence in the shape of the poem: a single stanza, with long, enjambed lines. The overall effects are of both stasis and anticipation. Copus' clever use of complex syntax and long sentences also contributes to this effect. Structurally, the poem is book-ended by two very long sentences in the present tense (of 13 and 21 lines respectively) each slowing down what little action there is.

The childhood which the girls seem about to leave behind is associated closely with light and colour. Light seems to emanate from within the girls themselves. This internal source of light might suggest something about their inherent innocence and freedom. The girl on the roof is also wearing gold earring and an anklet along with the possibly garnish nail vanish. All of these seem to catch the light in the same way and some help to suggest the delicate, possibly even vulnerable, qualities of the girls and childhood in general.

The girls are contrasted with the adult world which surrounds them. The street is described metaphorically as having a menacing gaze which suggests how adult surveillance seeks to control and limit children. The mother does not seem to trust her daughter with any adult responsibilities, which in turn suggest the worry and anxiety of parenthood. The uninviting electroplating factory is a glimpse into the dreary world work which awaits the girls. However, it is in the character sketch of the red-faced secretary where the adult world finds its greatest expression in the poem. He heard is full of plans which we can infer, she will never fulfil. She is also reading an astrology column, another implied reference to the future. The conversational phrases used to describe the girl's ages and semi-nakedness suggests that this is the secretary's voice. She looks disparagingly at the freedom that these young girls seem to have- and the fact that they are wearing bikinis. perhaps it is this, rather than the hot weather, that is making the secretary blush. The problems with future adulthood are also suggested symbolically in the narrow windowsill and the dangerous drop of the staircase that the girl is about to step onto.

The poem's structure is also carefully crafted. Copus takes full advantage of the opportunities f a third-person narrator by describing the events from several different perspectives. the poem begins with the girl's perspective. We are given access to her thoughts, such as reflections on her waiting friend who she has romantic feelings for. In almost the exact mid-point of the poem, the adult narrator intrudes with a direct question which sums up so many of the key ideas in the poem about childhood and adulthood.

How can the girl comprehend or foresee what he future has in store? She blissfully does not know of the difficulties of her forthcoming adulthood. The world becomes less accommodating more different and uncomfortable- physically and perhaps also psychologically the older we get. This more distant viewpoint is then continued until the description of the secretary. It is from her perspective that the friend is described. the secretary looks up to see the girl and perhaps her childhood.

The perspective and structure of the poem, therefore, chimes with the poem's central concerns- it moves from the brightly-lit girl to the world-weary viewpoint of the adult.