ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by a peaceful citadel.

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Until, of course, midnight comes and it's converted into a popular, swanky nightclub.

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Woo-hoo!

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[ sings disco song ]

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All right, well, forget the Bee Gees.

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Ask your parents about it when they have a break.

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All right, from the poem, it can be inferred

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that the author's attitude toward his youth is...

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what?

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And here are the potential answers.

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Read 'em and weep.

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And that pause waiver thing... Yeah, we know it's annoying. Tough.

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So this question wants to know what we can glean from the poem about

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the author's opinion of youth.

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Like, is he one of those guys that shakes his fist out the front door

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and shouts, "You dang kids!"?

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Or is he more the forever young type?

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Yeah, that guy.

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We aren't directed to any specific lines, so it's basically just asking us

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to look at the poem as a whole and make a broad

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determination about where the writer is coming from.

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Does he exhibit

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bittersweet regret over his mistakes?

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If he does, he doesn't let us in on it.

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There's no mention of past mistakes, so we can safely assume B

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is not the correct answer.

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So don't pick B unless you wanna regret one of your mistakes. Haha.

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Is his attitude one of sadness and remorse?

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Well, again, he can't be expressing remorse if the author hasn't

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hinted what he might be remorseful about.

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Since we aren't given a window into the speaker's past,

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we can be certain it's not about regret or remorse.

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So is his attitude one of joyous acceptance about youth's passing?

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Well, as far as we know, there isn't a line of his poem that says,

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in essence, "Oof. High school, am I right?

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I wouldn't wanna do that again."

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Nah. The speaker seems pretty hot on youth, as a matter of fact.

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We doubt he would diss it. Is he cautious

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or fearful for what youth imports for the future?

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Well, in other words, does he think youth

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is like a gateway drug to some awfulness in old age?

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Well, no. There are no ominous warnings here about potential threats

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or anything of the kind. So we can count E out.

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So our answer must be A - nostalgia and longing.

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Sure enough, that's exactly what the writer is going on and on and on about.

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He sees youth encapsulated in the urn

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and longs for the blissful simplicity of his own youth.

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Back when he was, you know, in school

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taking AP tests and whatnot.

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[ sobbing ]

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