Outline Commentary

Adolescence - II

1. Introduction
a. Beginning sentence: As our bodies grow physically, our minds slowly mature.
b. Thesis statement: In Adolescence - II, Rita Dove uses diction and metaphor to create the dominant effect of how the power of maturity affects the adolescent.
2. Body 1
a. Topic sentence: Throughout the entire poem, Dove uses diction to create detailed descriptions showing how the adolescent feels or reacts to the changes occuring with maturity.
b. Examples: "...sweat prickles behind my knees..."
"...the baby-breasts are alert..."
"I clutch at the ragged holes..."
3. Body 2
a. Topic sentence: Dove strengthens her dominant effect of the affects of maturity on the adolescent by using diction once again to describe maturity through the use of personification and simile.
b. Examples: "...the three seal men with eyes as round as dinner plates..."-simile
"...eyelashes like sharpened tines..."-simile
"...glittering like pools of ink under moonlinght..."
4. Body 3
a. Topic sentence: Through her entire poem, Dove uses an extended metaphor, conceit, to show the adolescent's reaction to the changes, and creative description of maturity as if it is three seal men.
b. Examples: "...three seal men..."
"One sits in the washbowl, one on the bathtub edge; one leans against the door."
"They leave behind, here at the edge of darkness."
5. Conclusion
a. Through the use of a conceit and diction throughout the entire poem Dove strengthens her main effect of the affects of maturity on the adolescent. She also uses personification and similie to play on these main literary devices and help bring out her creative description of maturity and reaction of the adolescent.