The Summer I was Sixteen

In “The Summer I was Sixteen” Geraldine Connolly uses a thoughtful tone and imagery to reflect on her teenage years and explain what it was like to be young. The speaker uses imagery in the first stanza to show the reader her fun experience swimming in a pool. She says, “The turquoise pool rose up to meet us,” and “we plunged, screaming, into a mirage of bubbles,” to give the reader the ability to see into her memories and give the reader the sense of being there. The line, “We came to the counter where bees staggered into root beer cups and drowned. We gobbled,”  gives the reader the ability to imagine the food stand that they went to eat at. At the end of the poem she says, “tossing a glance through the chain link at an improbable world.” Which shows the way she felt about growing up and not being young like this anymore. Through powerful imagery Connolly shows the reader carelessness and freedom of a teenager.