16 pages 32 minutes read

Billy Collins

On Turning Ten

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1995

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Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

Fiftieth Birthday Eve” by Billy Collins (1995)

This poem is featured alongside “On Turning Ten” in Collins’s 1995 poetry collection The Art of Drowning. The former, perhaps ironically, directly follows the latter in the collection and they work as foils of each other, each reflecting on a milestone age in life.

To Mrs. M. B. On Her Birthday” by Alexander Pope (1723)

Pope’s birthday gift to his friend Martha Blount echoes the melancholy and self-awareness of “On Turning Ten” as the vanities of youth are left behind to make room for a new perspective. Though the era and voice are very different, Collins’s poem can be seen as a satire on this sort of “coming of age” poetry.

One And Twenty” by Samuel Johnson (c. 1750)

This poem celebrates another milestone birthday where childhood is left behind—though not, as in Collins’s poem, for maturation and awareness, but for frivolity.

Further Literary Resources

Billy Collins speaks candidly about both his approach to poetry and his introduction to the art form beginning at 10 years old.

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