Fifteen By William Stafford

Judgement of a Man The fifteen year old boy in the poem “Fifteen,” by William Stafford, makes a very adult decision when faced with a conflict of choosing maturity or immaturity. One day, this boy finds a motorcycle laying on its side, which Stafford describes when he writes, “I found back of the willows one summer day a motorcycle with engine running” (Line 2 and Line 3). There is no one around to catch the boy, giving the boy the option to steal the motorcycle or to find the owner and return his bike to him. Furthermore, this is a very difficult decision for a 15 year old boy to make, due to immaturity lack of better judgement. Stafford explains the boy’s thoughts when he writes, “We could find the end of a road, meet the sky on out Seventeenth”