When Is It Time to Let Go

Clayton Cain

Essay 1

English 102

Dr. Yu Liu

When is it Time to Let Go

        Linda Pastan’s poem, “To a Daughter Leaving Home” is a very simple poem but, also has a lot of meaning in it. Linda wants to see her daughter grow up and move on with her life, while she would like her to stay at home and be with her on the other hand. She realizes that staying home isn’t what she wants for her child and understands that it’s not what’s best for her daughter. This relates to me and probably every kid that lives at home in college, we want to move out and begin our own life. It also goes for my parents and other parents they want their children to stay but deep down they understand that’s not what is best for them and they must let them go. This poem goes to show that a parent will do whatever is best for their children.

        In the poem Pastan is teaching her daughter to ride a bike. The learning curve of riding the bike was tough at first as the daughter “wobbled away” (5). But the daughter got better Pastan the mother was, “surprised when you pulled ahead down the curved path of the park” (8). What Pastan is getting at her is her daughter is beginning to move on without her, becoming more independent and less reliant on her mother. Pastan was waiting for her daughter to crash to come back to her but that didn’t happen. Finally, Pastan realizes that it is time to let go of her daughter and let her begin her own chapter in life, even though she does not want her daughter to go she knows this is what’s best for her, and her future.

One part of the poem that stuck out to me was lines three through 7. Those lines state, “a bicycle, loping along beside you as you wobbled away on two round wheels, my own mouth rounding”. The use of the reoccurring letters “o” and “w” the alliteration is what made that part of the poem stand out when I was reading it. The assonance the repeating sounds those reoccurring vowels make also help to make this specific part of the poem stand out. Pastan may want this part to stand out to the readers because I think this was the part of the poem where Pastan realizes it’s time to let her daughter grow up. Even though, Pastan didn’t want to let her child go she knew that letting her become independent is what’s best for the daughter.

        This poem stood out to me because as a young man there is nothing more I want to do than move out of my parents’ house. Moving out will solidify that I can be independent and move on with my life away from my childhood home. I am sure that my parents will do just as Pastan did in this poem. Our parents have already been in the shoes of a child, getting to move out and start a fresh life on their own, at their own place. Parents don’t want to see the kids they raised move on and become independent, but they recognize that it is what is best for them and any parent should do for their kids.