Poetry Assignment

               

"Get Ready, Get Set, Don't Go"

               There comes a certain point in time where a parent has to let go and allow their child to grow up.  That may be a difficult thing for a mother or father to do.  In the poems “To a Daughter Leaning Home” and “Those Winter Nights”, there is a child learning to grow up and realizing what their parents did for them.  Both poems evoke that feeling of life moving on whether one likes it or not.  The song “Get Ready, Get Set, Don’t Go” written by Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus, introduced both how one has to learn to live without the other.  Billy’s daughter, Miley, is all grown up and he has to accept the fact  that she isn’t a little girl anymore.

                In “To a Daughter Leaving Home”, written by Linda Pastan, she reminisces on the day she taught her daughter how to ride a bike.  That feeling she expresses was to let the audience know it’s challenging to let a child go but it’s a part of life.   “The hair flapping behind you like a handkerchief waving goodbye” (Pastan 21-24).  Pastan uses her daughter’s hair as a symbol to represent the feeling as her daughter leaving her. Just as in “To a Daughter Leaving Home”, “Those Winter Nights” portrays the same emotions but from a different perspective.  “Those Winter Nights”, written by Robert Hayden, is written from a point of view from a child realizing what his father did for him as a child and how much he sacrificed. 

                A song that relates both poems to the theme is “Get Ready, Get Set, Don’t Go.”  Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter Miley, both have a strong father-daughter relationship after her father and mother filed a divorce.  “I’m at the starting line of the rest of my life as ready as I’ve ever been” (Cyrus).  All Miley Cyrus wants to do is to begin her journey as a young adult.  She is also trying to explore new things and is ready for brand new experiences.  “I painted this big ol’ smile on my face to hide my broken heart, if only she knew.” (Ray Cyrus).  After a mother and father’s child grows up, they start to realize they need to let go of their childhood to allow them to being their adult life.

                Growing up is a part of being a human being.  No one is use to changes but after they go through them, the experiences begin.  After a child goes through the stage from being a child to a young adult, their adventure is worth wild.  Both poems “To a Daughter Leaving Home” and “Those Winter Nights” represent a stage a parent has to go through in some point during their lifetime.  “Get Ready, Get Set, Don’t Go” by Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus reflect on both poems expressing the same mood about life.  This is a stage that I will eventually have to go through with my parents.