According to the poem "Hanging Fire" all of the following are holding back the speaker except?

a) age

b) skin

c) braces

d) illness

D. The narrator of the poem is a fourteen year old boy, who has lost confidence in himself because of his age and going older (lines 1-4); by his skin breaking out (line 2); the braces he wears (line 30); and due to his paranoia of dying young (lines 8, 15, 32). Illness is not implied as holding him back.