The poem is a record of what may happen to a human being as soon as he/she observes the world. Such an individual engages the world at his/her youthfulness. As the years tick away like a clock, there is a growing awareness that one "from year to year” is growing older. Thus, “panic spreads" its “fluttering wings” round its victim. At the age of twenty, one swims in hope and expectation of a successful future At thirty, one is quite healthy such that if one were to be visited by pain nothing would show in the laboratory tests. About this age, perhaps, one has been involved in marriage during which "legs cribbed in domesticity”, and there is no more room for junketing or dancing around. It may be because of the enormous responsibility of raising a family. This is followed by a period of evaluation which may be akin to a “copybook” filled with “red ink and failures”; one even realizing that there is "nothing to show the world.” The individual may have begotten “three children” which is not a big deal since there is “no specialist's effort” required to procreate. Science gives the hope of longevity, of doubting human lifespan but hope is not something tangible, an object one can hold on to. The satisfaction may not be there since expectation may not yet have been achieved. At the point “the world has you.'' one may be weak or defeated as in a wrestling contest.

With the sincere tone of the poem, a sober mood of realization is created through the 32 lines of the poem; in which the 8 stanzas are quatrains mostly linked by enjambments.

Stanza 1 means that the fear of aging increases by year. Stanza 2 implies that one will be filled with sweet hope at twenty. Stanza 3 says the expectations began to wane. Stanza 4 adds more implication of growing older where one has long hours of working. Stanza 5, little or no result for those hard works. Stanza 6; except have children which is not even a big deal at all. Stanza 7 speaks of the uncertainty of having a long life. Stanza 8 says that the uncertainty further makes humans highly unsatisfied in comparison between all that has been achieved and those yet to be achieved.

Line to Line Analysis of The Panic of Growing Older

Lines 1-4

Fear envelopes the growing person. As the years roll by the panic of realizing the purpose of one's existence may “spread” over the individual. The word “panic” is appropriate since with age comes the trepidation of the coming responsibility associated with adulthood.

Lines 5-8

The individual is twenty or thereabout. There is so much optimism, so much hope, hope of "gigantic success.’* It is a period when one has lots of time to oneself. It is also a period of experimentation arid exploration.

Lines 9-12

One has reached thirty years or so. Were there to be a pain on any part of the body. no laboratory test would reveal it since the body is still strong and healthy.

Lines 13-16

At age of thirty and a little after, girls may have married The same is with the boys to a large extent. Age and social constraint and expectation may have set in. No more gallivanting, and no "sudden leap at the moon now.” Even if one were not married, one is no more expected to engage in the excitable games of teenagers and early adults.

Lines 17-24

At this stage, life has turned into a “copybook bisected/with red ink." Life is like a sheet of paper divided into two one side filled with successes and the other side filled with failures, In the ease of our protagonist, the person he is assessing is a failure with “nothing to show the world.’’ What he has to show may simply be “three children’’, whose procreation requires no “specialist s effort to achieve

Lines 25-28

Although science leaves man with the hope that the normal three score years and ten (iod promised human beings may be doubled, it is only a mere hope and no more The reason is that “hope is not« grain of sand That is, hope is neither tangible nor can it be felt.

Lines 29-32

This is die last stage of a person's existence. “Inner satisfaction’’ may not have been realized since it would have been shattered by the revolving “blades of expectation” set up at the beginning. At the point of old age, weakness sets in, one having been defeated by the world.

Themes of the Poem The Panic of Growing Older by Lenrie Peters

1. Fear of inevitable Old age:

Theme Analysis

Older age is the central idea portrayed in the poem as the reader is made to understand how difficult things can become at old age if things are not set straight at the early stage of life.

2. Mortality

Theme Analysis

The poem is primarily centred on the mortality of human existence. We are born, we move about clothed in our various ambitions, quite buoyant and vibrant. Then, we step into a sober life of domesticity followed by a period of self-evaluation of where we may have done well and where we had performed badly. Our share of age is 70 although science promises "twice three score and ten." But this is only a promise, nothing to hold on to as it has not yet materialized.

3. Youth

Theme Analysis

Stanza two of the poem started the description of human development starting from the days of youth which is characterized by strength and youthful exuberance.

4. The twist in human fate

Theme Analysis

Life is full of expectations. Man creates for himself these expectations. Life starts with strength and activities and ends with closeness/domesticity and a plummeting sense of satisfaction. Age comes with lots of hope, of what is to be achieved. One leaps up and down in an effort to achieve these hopes. But age is a period of self-assessment which may not be fully satisfying. Age comes as a contrast between optimism and the practical outcome which may not be as had been anticipated. In this way, life may after all be a movement from activity to docility, from high hopes to be realized to ordinariness

5. Anxiety associated with ageing

Theme Analysis

The "panic" having to do with growing old is tied to what one had set out to achieve and the reality of one having spent or about to consummate one's span of existence. Although there are people who had come into this world achieving so much for themselves and for humanity, the poet's persona is a failure, and so the lots of much of humanity. It is about such people that the poet formulated his poem Thus the poet writes "on the average" what happens in human existence. In other words, the initial excitement in youthfulness does not often last into old age.

6. The weakness of the old

Theme Analysis

The poem points out that one has only the strength to achieve things when still at youth. But, the aged is weak and can hardly do anything other than sit and retrogress on the things s/he has done. At this point, the poetic persona asserts that , “… the world now has you”

7. Man engages the world as in a contest

Themes Analysis

In the poem, it is as if humans are engaged in a contest of will with the world or with life. Youthfulness is imbued with lots of life and energy. However, with age this energy dissipates with little or no achievement to credit to life itself. What man achieves is no more than what does not require a specialist's effort to achieve. Thus, it is as if man sets out to conquer the world but has himself been conquered by the world: "From now on the world has you.

Setting of The Panic of Growing Older

The setting of the poem is a stretch of human life, stating from one's teen years to later life. As one ages, one wonders what is in stock for one. Thus, the setting could be said to be the various stages of one’s existence, imbued with going into the future with expectation and of the actual old age which may not be as one had thought at the beginning. As the poem is about the end, the initial aspiration has no corresponding sense of self-satisfaction. Moreover, one is now enfeebled by age such that “the wot Id has you.”

Structure of The Panic of Growing Older

The poem has a total of thirty-two lines. It has eight stanzas of four lines each. The first stanza bean the title which although is in four lines is essentially a sentence; it also announces what the poet has in mind, namely the anxiety of ageing. The structure can be squeezed into three compartments namely the anxiety of ageing, what happens during the process of ageing and the feeling one has upon arriving at the appointed date of “three score and ten.” Stanza 7 seems to have been used to announce the fact that longevity is still far-fetched since achieving “twice three score/and ten” is only a matter of hope and conjecture.

Language and Style

The language of the poem is direct and the subject of the poem is announced in the initial lines. There is the exaggerated use of “panic” which though arouses our interest is not anything panicky in its full meaning.

1. Imagery

The imagery which is prominent in the poem is that of engulfment, of shrinkage as age mounts. The panic of growing older like a bird’s wings spreads and engulfs the human person as he/she gains in age. There is a flowering of optimism at twenty and thirty, and shortly after that legs begin to lose their agility. The ‘copybook’ of life is filled with failure marks, and one has little to show for all the years. Even inner satisfaction shrinks to a point of dissatisfaction as expectation has not been met.

2. Repetition

The poet uses repetition even though this is subtly done in some cases. The “sudden throb of pain” in lines 10 and 11 is a subtle repetition of ‘the panic’ which could be a painful throb. Again “nothing to show” (/. 12), “Nothing to show the world” (/. 20), “No/specialist’s effort there” (/. 23-24) and “Hope/ is not a grain of sand” (/. 27-28) are repetitions of the same idea, namely that of a sense of futility.

3. Personification

Personification is the attribution of human qualities or human attributes to non-human objects or phenomena.

i. "Laboratory tests” are said to “have nothing to show” (/. 11-12)

A. “Copybook bisected” equally has “nothing to show the world” (/. 17-20)

fit t "Science” is said to "give hope” (/. 25) iy. “the world has you” (/. 32). The world is painted as a possessor.

6. Litotes

Litotes is a figure of speech that employs understatement. In it, an affirmative is expressed by a negative of the contrary. By using double negatives like, ‘not bad’ or positive statements expressed by negating opposite expressions, ‘She’s not unkempt at all’; ‘I’m not unaware of the dangers of bungee jumping, etc.’ Peters writes, ‘The pains of not meeting up with one’s expectation cannot be seen in laboratory test.’ And ‘The copybook of life’ which ordinarily should be filled with achievements, are instead filled with failure marks of ‘red ink’; ‘hope is not a grain of sand’ and finally, ‘inner satisfaction dwindles in sharp blades of expectation’ (meaning that a harvest of dissatisfaction is what mortal man gets at the leaps of milestones of time/age – nothing to show for all man’s efforts at the twilight of age).

Caesura

In the rhythm of poetry, caesura is a rhetorical break in the flow of sound; it is an interruption, a break in the flow of sound caused by a pause in the middle of a poetic line rather than at the end. It’s a break in the middle of a sound in a verse. We can see this on lines 11, 23 and 27 of the 32 line poem.

In line 10/11 the interruption is seen in: /a sudden throb of pain. Laboratory tests…/

Line 23: /the world expects it of you. No …/

Line 27: /of twice three score and ten. Hope…/

7. Metaphor

When a writer or speaker asserts that something is or is equivalent to something else which may really be like it, the figure used there is a metaphor. Peters uses a few of such a figure of speech us poem.

L “Panic” is equated with “fluttering wings” (/. 1 and 3)

ii. At the age of twenty, life is “stiffed by hope” (/. 6).

lit. At the age of thirty, life is again “a sudden throb of pain” (/. 10 & 11).

tv. The “sudden leaps/at the moon” depicts agility and liveliness.

v. “Copybook” is a record of life which in the case of Peters” poem is fined with “red ink",

ink is a metaphor for failure grades.

vi. “Hope/is not a grain of sand” is metaphorical, depicting what hope is not.

vii. The phrase “blades of expectation” (/. 31) is a metaphor for a blend of what one looks us

life as one ages.