Eden Rock

poet

Charles Causey

theme

memory & idealisation, afterlife, separation & reunion

context

• Speaker recalls a memory from childhood as father passed away when he was 7 then mother later in life.

• Eden → garden of eden, heaven (idyllic) biblical reference

• rock→ impenetrable object symbolises distance between them

• metaphor for afterlife

They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden rock:

• suffix -ing → currently even after all those years 

• indefinite pronoun ‘somewhere’ → distance created as they are dead → not tangible

• preposition ‘beyond’ → difficult to each

• semicolon (end-stop) → separates/creates pauses represents emotional challenges that comes with grief → divide between life and death

My father, twenty five in the same suit

adjective ‘same’ → frozen in time as if nothing has changed → strong sense of feeling even if he’s gone

Her hair colour of wheat takes on the light

• noun ‘wheat’ → nature, baking and bread - domestic mother/ provides

• imagery → wholesome depiction of mother, angelic (idyllic)

The sky whitens as if kit by three sons

• simile → comparison to holy trinity - unity and divine

• heavenly connotations → them rejoining in the afterlife → will be happy once reunited

• supernatural imagery

Crossing over is not as hard as you might think

• euphemism → reassurance of the safety his parents provide

• death isn’t the be all end all he will go into the afterlife

I had not thought it would be like this

• monosyllabic → emphasises loneliness/reflects somber tone

• shows separation from parents/separation of soul from flesh

• simplicity of the memory and death

structure

• final split quatrain → emphasises separation from parents, he’s in the world of living they’re in the afterlife

• past vs present

• life vs death