🚶‍♂️ WALKING AWAY – Cecil Day-Lewis

Context: Autobiographical origin

The poem is based on Day Lewis sending his son to boarding school which caused lasting guilt and explains the poem’s reflective and remorseful tone

Context: Post war values

Post war attitudes prioritised emotional restraint and independence which conflicted with parental affection and created moral tension within the poem

Quote: “Like a satellite wrenched from its orbit”

Technique Simile where wrenched implies violence and damage and the satellite metaphor conveys dependence highlighting the emotional cost of forced separation

Quote: “He almost didn’t want to leave but I forced him”

Technique Syntax and diction as the blunt admission foregrounds guilt and forced undermines parental authority showing love can inflict harm

Quote: “None that so gnaws at my mind still”

Technique Metaphor as gnaws suggests persistent psychological pain showing memory as invasive and love as emotionally unresolved