Blog #14 "To Sir John Lade, On Coming of Age" and "When I was One and Twenty"

In “To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age” Johnson describes Lade’s twenty-first birthday as the gateway to his inheritance. In “When I was One and Twenty” Housman uses his memory of a heartbreak to describe his maturation through his experiences. While both poems discuss the age of twenty-one, “To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age” Johnson purposefully crafts a flawed argument to sarcastically disclose the careless attitude and disregard for financial responsibility while in “When I was one and twenty” Housman alludes to the idea that society sets the age of maturation as twenty-one, however, argues that individuals mature on their own timeline through experience and reflection. “To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age” and “When I was One and Twenty” use the specific point of views from each subject and ever-changing tone shifts to achieve the different perspectives the age of one-and-twenty bring about.

"To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age" is told by the narrator/speaker, Johnson, about a subject, John Lade, on his, “Long-expected one and twenty”. Johnson congratulates Lade, anticipating his long-awaited coming-of-age, yet alludes to the idea that Lade is not ready for the responsibility that is to come. The diction choice “pomp and pleasure, pride and plenty” gives the first hints that Johnson believes Lade does not understand the consequences of being 21, and that Lade isn’t mature enough for adulthood. In the second stanza, the focus shifts from the initial congratulation to a celebration of the reminders of the powers that Lade now possesses. Johnson uses parallelism within the stanza to sensationalize the liberation from restriction. This is shown by the lines "Loosened from the minor's tether...Bid the slaves of thrift farewell."

Johnson's tone becomes more sarcastic within the third stanza. He begins to tell Lade to live his life like a heir, which connotes a lavish style of life. While this is the advice being written, it is not sincere, supporting the idea of a sarcastic tone. In the fourth stanza, Johnson shifts the focus to Lade's carefree attitude towards money. The tone shifts from a cautionary approach to didactic as Johnson tries to get inside Lade's head to warn him of the dangers of coming to age. Johnson personifies wealth, "Wealth, Sir John, was made to wander... Let it wander as it will”. In the fifth stanza, the tone becomes notable sarcastic again. The diction becomes colloquial to romanticize the joys of a lifestyle without restraint while introducing that the coming of age and introduction to wealth may lead to a financial downfall if not responsibly driven. In the final lines of the poem, Johnson reveals that the poem was a satire of Lade's careless attitude towards wealth. Lade believes that his new wealth will provide him stability but he is mistaken. Not only does Lade's careless attitude put him in a dangerous position financially, it may cause him to dishonor the reputation of the family.

While the first poem talks of a coming of age represents maturation, the second poem contrasts this idea by implicitly alluding that twenty-one is society's standard of maturity and not actually what happens.

The first stanza of the second poem starts off by saying, " When I was one-and-twenty, I heard a wise man say,“Give crowns and pounds and guineas, But not your heart away;" This is significant, because we can assume that the speaker failed to take in this advice. Within the first two stanza of the second poem, the writer implies that he is too young to listen by saying, “But I was one-and-twenty, no use to talk to me”. The age of twenty one represents an age of maturation. But it's ironic because for the speaker, at age twenty one, he was too foolish to listen to advice. We see that as the poem goes on, the speaker agrees with the wise man's advice. Just as the poem goes on, the speaker matures. The speaker went through a heartbreak, one he was not prepared for. The ending of the poem intends to make clear that the speaker has now matured at the age of twenty-two, different from society's idea of a coming of age. The tone is reflective as he realizes what experiences it took for him to become an "adult".

Both poems have the same subject about the age of twenty-one being the coming of age, but the second poem combats the idea of the first. "To Sir John Lade, A coming of Age" was written first. "When I was one and twenty" came second as a response to the first poem. The first poem represents a maturation at the age of twenty-one, where you are allowed your rights and inheritance, however, emotionally and mentally, you may not be mature enough to handle responsibility. The second alludes to the age of maturation being whenever the person naturally occurs through his or her own experiences. While both took contrasting routes to get to the final point, both support the idea that twenty-one does not mean complete maturation.