Mother any disatnce

poet

Simon Armitage

context

speaker is moving into new house and asks mother for help

themes

• independence

• uncertainty

• freedom

• attachment

a single span                                                                                         requires a second pair of hands

• adjective ‘single’ → relies of mother for the smallest things 

• verb ‘requires’ → needs his mothers help to carry out a simple task shows his dependency on mother

Anchor.Kite.

caesura → shoes separation between mother and son anchor=mother kite =son

end-stop → finality + simplistic irrefutable 

metaphor → anchor - stability, immovable support                                              → kite - freedom, anxiety 

I space-walk through the empty bedrooms

• imagery → freedom, openness, floating, uncertainty

• hard to find solid ground

• ‘empty bedrooms’ → isolated

still pinch                                                                                              the last one-hundredth of an inch

• hyperbole → emphasises mother’s desire to keep her son connected making the weight of emotional separation seem more real

• adverb ‘still’ → reflects mothers unrelenting hold

• verb ‘pinch’ → emphasised even more as there’s practically nothing to hold onto yet she is still holding onto that ‘one-hundredth on an inch’ → reaching limit of the tape

• extended metaphor of tape measure → letting go and growing emotional distance/separation

a hatch that opens on and endless sky to fall or to fly

• avian imagery → bird flying the nest = freedom but anxiety and uncertainty (Walking Away)

• adjective ‘endless’ → opportunities/ possibilities that lie ahead → adventure

• fall=struggling or fly=thriving

structure

AABB rhyme scheme in first stanza - shows one relying on the other

enjambment → continuity of life and moving on