Julia Copus's "An Easy Passage" won the 2010 Forward Prize and was later published in her 2012 collection, The World's Two Smallest Humans. The poem follows a young girl who is trying to climb back into her house through an open window after sneaking out. It contrasts the intense joys and difficulties of adolescence with the more mundane routines of adulthood, and suggests that the transition from innocence to maturity is far from "an easy passage."

• Read the full text of “An Easy Passage”

• “An Easy Passage” Summary

• “An Easy Passage” Themes

  • 

    Adolescence vs. Adulthood

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-38

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “An Easy Passage”

  • Lines 1-2

    Once she is ...
    ... family's house, trembling,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 3-8

    she knows that ...
    ... somewhere beneath her,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-13

    keep her mind ...
    ... of the house.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-17

    But first she ...
    ... on her thighs.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-22

    What can she ...
    ... of the street,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 23-28

    who does not ...
    ... looks up now

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 29-33

    from the stirring ...
    ... a pale calf,

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 34-38

    a silver anklet ...
    ... of the house.

    

    

    

    

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• “An Easy Passage” Symbols

  • 

    The Passage

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “Once she is halfway up there, crouched in her bikini / on the porch roof of her family's house, trembling,”
    • Line 38: “dropping gracefully into the shade of the house.”
  • 

    The House

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “the porch roof of her family's house”
    • Lines 4-5: “the narrow windowsill, the sharp / drop of the stairwell”
    • Lines 9-13: “the open window, / the flimsy, hole-punched, aluminium lever / towards which in a moment she will reach / with the length of her whole body, leaning in / to the warm flank of the house.”
    • Lines 14-16: “the grains of the asphalt / hot beneath her toes and fingertips, / a square of petrified beach.”
    • Line 38: “the shade of the house.”

• “An Easy Passage” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Imagery

    

    

    

    

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    Where imagery appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2
    • Lines 4-5
    • Lines 7-8
    • Lines 9-17
    • Lines 19-22
    • Line 26
    • Lines 28-38

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Lines 19-20: “For now both girls seem / lit, as if from within,”
    • Lines 20-21: “ their hair and the gold stud / earrings in the first one's ears;”
    • Lines 34-37: “the five neat  / shimmering- / oyster / -painted toenails of an outstretched foot / which catch the sunlight briefly like the / flash of armaments”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Lines 13-16: “But first she / steadies herself, still crouching, the grains of the asphalt / hot beneath her toes and fingertips, / a square of petrified beach.”
    • Lines 21-22: “the long, grey / eye of the street”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 16-19
    • Lines 19-22
    • Lines 24-26
    • Lines 26-38

  • Rhetorical Question

    

    

    

    

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    Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:

    • Lines 17-19: “What can she know / of the way the world admits us less and less / the more we grow?”

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “thing,” “think”
    • Line 6: “whom,” “half”
    • Line 7: “who”
    • Line 17: “What”
    • Line 18: “way,” “world”
    • Line 22: “far,” “from”
    • Line 26: “far,” “far,” “from,” “flush,” “faced”
    • Line 27: “full”
    • Line 28: “to take,” “trip”
    • Line 31: “next,” “nothing”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “crouched,” “bikini”
    • Line 2: “porch roof,” “family's”
    • Line 3: “thing,” “think”
    • Line 4: “narrow windowsill”
    • Lines 4-5: “sharp / drop”
    • Line 5: “stairwell”
    • Line 6: “whom,” “half”
    • Line 7: “who”
    • Lines 7-8: “blond / gravel”
    • Line 8: “beneath”
    • Line 10: “flimsy, hole-punched, aluminium lever”
    • Line 11: “towards which”
    • Lines 11-12: “will reach / with”
    • Line 12: “length,” “whole,” “leaning in”
    • Line 13: “warm flank”
    • Line 15: “toes,” “fingertips”
    • Line 16: “petrified beach”
    • Lines 16-17: “tiny breasts / rest lightly”
    • Line 18: “way,” “world,” “admits us less,” “less”
    • Line 21: “earrings,” “ears”
    • Line 26: “far,” “far,” “from,” “flush-faced secretary”
    • Line 27: “full”
    • Line 28: “to take,” “trip”
    • Line 29: “stirring,” “astrology”
    • Line 30: “standing”
    • Line 31: “next,” “nothing”
    • Line 34: “silver anklet”
    • Lines 35-35: “oyster / -painted toenails”
    • Line 35: “outstretched foot”
    • Line 36: “catch”
    • Line 37: “flash”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 9: “open,” “window”
    • Line 11: “which in,” “will,” “reach”
    • Line 12: “with”
    • Line 16: “breasts”
    • Line 17: “rest,” “lightly,” “thighs,” “know”
    • Line 19: “grow”
    • Line 20: “lit,” “if,” “within”
    • Line 23: “does,” “trust”
    • Line 25: “over,” “road”
    • Line 29: “astrology,” “column”
    • Line 38: “gracefully,” “shade”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “bikini / on”
    • Lines 3-4: “think / of”
    • Lines 4-5: “sharp / drop”
    • Lines 5-6: “mind / on”
    • Lines 6-7: “love / and”
    • Lines 7-8: “blond / gravel”
    • Lines 8-9: “mind / on”
    • Lines 10-11: “lever / towards”
    • Lines 11-12: “reach / with”
    • Lines 12-13: “in / to”
    • Lines 13-14: “she / steadies”
    • Lines 14-15: “asphalt / hot”
    • Lines 16-17: “breasts / rest”
    • Lines 17-18: “know / of”
    • Lines 18-19: “less / the”
    • Lines 19-20: “seem / lit”
    • Lines 20-21: “stud / earrings”
    • Lines 21-22: “grey / eye”
    • Lines 22-23: “mother / who”
    • Lines 24-25: “drab / electroplating”
    • Lines 26-27: “secretary / who”
    • Lines 27-28: “class / she”
    • Lines 28-29: “now / from”
    • Lines 29-30: “column / at”
    • Lines 30-31: “standing / in”
    • Lines 32-33: “one / shielding”
    • Lines 34-35: “shimmering- / oyster / -painted”
    • Lines 35-36: “foot / which”
    • Lines 36-37: “the / flash”
    • Lines 37-38: “before / dropping”

  • Diacope

    

    

    

    

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    Where diacope appears in the poem:

    • Line 18: “less and less”
    • Line 26: “far,” “far”

• “An Easy Passage” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Flimsy
  • Aluminium
  • Flank
  • Petrified
  • Electroplating
  • Flush-faced
  • Omens
  • Shimmering-oyster-painted
  • Armaments
  • (Location in poem: Line 10: “the flimsy, hole-punched, aluminium lever”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “An Easy Passage”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “An Easy Passage” Speaker

• “An Easy Passage” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “An Easy Passage”

• More “An Easy Passage” Resources

  • External Resources

    • Copus on Writing — Listen to Copus talk about what brought her to writing. 

    • More About the Poet — An introduction to Copus's life and work from the Poetry Archive.

    • The World's Two Smallest Humans — Read a review of the collection in which "An Easy Passage" was published.

    • An Interview with Copus — Watch clips from a 2014 interview with the poet for The Bloodaxe Archive Project.

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