Zach Miller
AP Lit & Comp
Period 1B

Upon Julia’s Clothes

The poem, Upon Julia s Clothes, is about a man admiring the way Julia looks. Nearly everything in its six short lines contributes to its admiring tone. Perhaps the most surprising thing about the poem is that it uses highly suggestive words. Through these words, the reader is able to find his opinion of Julia. Is he in love with her or does he have a relationship with her, or is she just a woman he admires from afar? While Upon Julia s Clothes starts off as just a man noticing a beautiful girl, upon close reading of the poem, the speaker transforms into a man who actively sought after this woman of beauty. One of the first things that comes to mind when reading Upon Julia s Clothes, is this a momentary glimpse of a pretty girl or is this poem describing a frequent scene? If this is a mere sighting of a ravishing lady, then most likely the speaker has not had a chance to speak to her and try to win her affections he is nothing more than a distant admirer. The first word in the poem addresses this question. While not much detail is given about the setting or the situation surrounding the poem, the word when as implies that he has yet to speak to her but plans to at a later time, perhaps when he has built up more confidence or simply just the next time he sees her. The speaker claims to feel joy and admiration whenever Julia dons her silks. Julia s beauty is not a frozen image of a split-second of time. The scene has repeated itself apparently fairly often at least in the person’s memory or imagination. Throughout the poem a rather elaborate, though somewhat disguised metaphor appears, which suggests the person’s awareness of his own obsession and lust for Julia. In the beginning of the second stanza he describes how he casts his eyes. In fishing, someone casts his line in order to catch the intended prey. In this case, the speaker casts his eyes in order to catch Julia s attention and affection. It also implies that the person has taken some sort of action to gain her affection. The metaphor continues two lines later, but the fisher himself is caught, the glittering beauty takes him. Here glittering has the definition of brilliantly attractive. While the person has been trying to catch Julia, this attractive female has caught him. The long ee sounds of the rhyming words see, free, and me in the second stanza, becomes almost like an exclamation, drawing