Question

When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
When I taught you
at eight to ride
a bicycle, loping1 along
beside you
as you wobbled away
on two round wheels,
my own mouth rounding
in surprise when you pulled
ahead down the curved
path of the park,
I kept waiting
for the thud
of your crash as I
sprinted to catch up,
while you grew
smaller, more breakable
with distance,
pumping, pumping
for your life, screaming
with laughter,
the hair flapping
behind you like a
handkerchief waving
goodbye.

HOW DOES LINES 21-25 CONTRIBUTE TO DEVELOPMENT OF THE PEOM THEME?
CITE EVIDENCE FROM THE POEM TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER

Answer 1

Lines 21-25 makes all the difference when you look at the theme of the poem which speaks to Children Growing up and eventually leaving home.

Explanation:

The learning how to ride a bicycle is a metaphor for life.

Every other line seems to be talking about her eight-year-old daughter learning how to ride a bicycle. See lines 1-6.

Her surprise is ignited when her daughter starts "pumping away" at the pedals screaming with life. She is surprised to know that the mother-daughter experience as she knows it is over already. See lines 7-10.

But when you read those lines "like a handkerchief waving goodbye" all of a sudden the entire picture, the intended message hits you and you are almost moved to tears when you see from a mothers perspective how ti feels to quickly a daughter grow up and leave home.