Anthology - Walking Away

QUOTE: semantic field of flight, simile, enjambment

“like a satellite // wrenched from its orbit“

QUOTE: semantic field of flight, metaphor, fricative alliteration, natural imagery, zoomorphism

“pathos of a half-fledged thing set free“

QUOTE: semantic field of flight, simile, natural imagery, phytomorphism

“like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem“

QUOTE: sibilance, anaphora

“the small, the scorching“

QUOTE: pathetic fallacy, natural imagery

“sunny day with leaves just turning“

QUOTE: direct address

“you walking away“

QUOTE: 3rd person conversion

“that hesitant figure“

QUOTE: assonance, ‘l’ alliteration, period

“selfhood begins in the walking away, // and love is proved in the letting go.“

QUOTE: religious imagery, internal rhyme

“what God alone could perfectly show“

FORM AND STRUCTURE [5]:

• dramatic monologue

• four regular quintains

• regular ABACA rhyme scheme

• irregular metre

• enjambment

FORM AND STRUCTURE: dramatic monologue

represents speaker’s loneliness and isolation

FORM AND STRUCTURE: four regular quintains

contrasts theme of change and presents change as normal

FORM AND STRUCTURE: regular ABACA rhyme scheme

contrasts theme of change and presents change as normal

FORM AND STRUCTURE: irregular metre

represents tumultuous emotions and change

FORM AND STRUCTURE: enjambment

represents undue separation

CONTEXT [3]:

• written by Cecil Day-Lewis

• semi-autobiographical - originally subtitled ‘for Sean’, Day-Lewis’ son who went to boarding school

• brought up by his father as mother died when he was very young

THEMES [5]:

• aging

• childhood

• paternal/parental love

• distance

• memory