Analysis of"Adolescence" by Larry Levis Larry Levis’s poem “Adolescence” is a rambling yet descriptive poem about looking back on his own teen-age years. In his mind, these years were a missed opportunity. He reminisces of his youth when at age 15 he encountered a girl whom he did not love. She passed away from spinal meningitis and he regrets not bestowing his love before she passed away. Maybe nothing would have happened had he …showed first 75 words of 1954 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1954 total…be done to make it a page-turner. However, manipulating the text the way Levis chose communicates the emotion of the poem in a way far superior to any brief story. Its seemingly random line breaks and awkward random straggling adds a sense of a story straight from the heart. Consequently, a poem was the best choice as it can be written in anyway the author chooses, and molded to create a work of art, “Adolescence.”