# Girl of Fifteen explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by James Weldon Johnson.

## What happens

The speaker observes a fifteen-year-old girl passing by each morning, feeling a mix of admiration and shame due to the age gap. The girl's youth momentarily lifts the weight of the speaker's forty years, evoking a bittersweet reflection on time and longing.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Beauty

The speaker's admiration for the girl's beauty and youth, and the emotional response it evokes, centers on themes of love and aesthetic appreciation.

### Death and Mortality

The contrast between the girl's fifteen years and the speaker's forty summers and winters highlights the passage of time and the awareness of aging and mortality.

## Key lines

> Girl of fifteen, I see you each morning from my window As you pass on your way to school. I do more than see, I watch you. I furtively draw the curtain aside. And my heart leaps through my eyes And follows you down the street; Leaving me behind, half-hid And wholly ashamed.

Each morning, I secretly watch a fifteen-year-old girl walk to school, my heart yearning to follow her while I remain hidden and embarrassed.

_The speaker confesses his covert observation and the emotional turmoil it causes._

> What holds me back, Half-hid behind the curtains and wholly ashamed, But my forty years beyond your fifteen?

The only thing stopping me is the age gap—my forty years compared to your fifteen.

_The speaker identifies his age as the source of his shame and restraint._

> Girl of fifteen, as you pass There passes, too, a lightning flash of time In which you lift those forty summers off my head, And take those forty winters out of my heart.

When you walk by, it feels like a brief moment where your youth relieves me of the burden of my forty years.

_The girl's presence momentarily alleviates the speaker's sense of aging and sorrow._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_13_se/chapters/girl-of-fifteen
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_13_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_13_se/chapters