Mr. Cowley had found out, that no kind of Staff is proper for an Heroick Poem; as being all too lirical:

We discovered trout and bears and foxes. And bees nests! Not to mention how to swim bare-bum down rocky falls.

He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused or abandoned.

Perhaps one of the triggers to a midlife self-transition is the recognition that this “grownupness” may never happen, that it is a myth.