The Value of Age and Experience

The juxtaposition of youth and old age is present throughout the poem, most overtly in the opening stanza which establishes the schoolroom setting. Despite the social inclination to place youth on a pedestal, this poem avoids this trap and instead presents the two polarities as equals. The children are characterized by their innocence and wonder, while the older man is a novelty due to his worldly wisdom. In the second stanza, the speaker again contrasts youth and experience through the elderly woman’s memory of her childhood sleight. She acknowledges how her heightened emotions and lack of life experience “changed some childish day to tragedy” (Line 12). In the present, the two adults are able to draw from their accumulated wisdom to look back on this moment with endearment. This highlights the way age allows one to experience the highs and lows...