Comparisons

Compare how poets present growing up in ‘Mother, any distance’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’. 2018

Compare how poets present family relationships in ‘Walking Away’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.

  • Both poets show the sacrificial nature of parental love

  • WA - explores the change family relationship and how he realises that it is inevitable to let go

  • BYWM - narrator shows love and therefore guilt for her mother and dedicates this poem as an elegy to the mother’s past

    ‘I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello’

Compare how poets present relationships between parents and children in ‘Before You Were Mine’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.

OR

Compare how poets present attitudes towards a parent in ‘Follower’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’.

  • Both poets show admiration for their parent

    ‘All I ever did was follow’​

    ‘His shoulders globed like a full sail strung’

    ​

    "Your polka dot dress blows around your legs."​

    "You'd teach me the steps"

  • F - narrator speaks of childhood memories and a growing negative attitude towards his father

    ‘I stumbled in his hob-nailed wake’

    ‘ It is my father who keeps stumbling behind me, and will not go away’

  • BYWM - narrator dedicates poem as an elegy to mother’s past and makes assumptions based on it

    ‘You'd reckoned it's worth it’

    ‘I knew you’d dance like that’

Big picture ideas

F

  • how one can break from following family’s footsteps and traditions and find their identity and passion

  • how one’s parents are imperfect, however still a model who showed traits of hard-work that perhaps contributed to shaping their own morals

BYWM

  • shows women in 1950s subverting a roman catholic, motherly image

  • shows child feeling guilty as their mother lost her youth and charm to them

  • becoming a parent is a heavy responsibilty

Compare the ways poets present strong bonds in ‘Letters from Yorkshire’ and in one other poem from ‘Love and relationships’

  • Both poets and their respective relationships have a strong bond by maintaining a close relationship

    ‘the line still feeding out’

    ‘your fingers still pinch the one-hundredth of an inch’

    ‘came indoors to write to me’

    ‘pouring air and light into an envelope’

  • L.F.Y. Relationship is able to overcome distance, therefore showing their strong bond (visual imagery)

    ‘our souls tap out messages across the icy miles’

    ‘Still, it’s you who sends me word of that other world’

  • M.A.D. relationship loses their strong bond due to distance (metaphorical)

    ‘Anchor. Kite.’

    ‘I reach towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky to fall or fly’

Big picture ideas

LFY

  • communication shows how people can love each other even over a long distance, as long as both puts in the effort

  • a relationship doesn’t have to be romantic, but still bring joy and understanding for each other

  • even with contrasting lives, people can still connect

  • perhaps Dooley is content with their friendship as it might be less burdening than maintaining a romantic relationship

MAD

  • contrast between a parent holding onto the emotional connection, having parental instinct, love and concern for their child to a child wanting seperation, independence, self identity

  • mother is resistant to let go, however she does not stop him, helping him move in still, demonstrating unconditional love

  • children have innate curiosity and have the desire to explore while parents want to keep them safe, protected