climbing my grandfather

Question 1

synopsis

Answer 1

• speaker starts at his grandfather’s shoes and begins to ‘climb’ his body
• he comments on his shoes, hands skin and nails
• he gets up to the shoulders and reflects on his ‘journey’ so far
• climbs to his grandfather’s head and continues to reflect about his grandfather’s good heart

Question 2

context

Answer 2

• struggled with mental illness and took his life at 42
• often wrote about nature - much of his work focuses on nature
• wrote a series of natural walk guidebooks

Question 3

key themes

Answer 3

childhood, familial love, grandparent/child relationship

Question 4

structure and form

Answer 4

• ONE SINGLE UNBROKEN STANZA - continues the theme of mountaineering and a continuous and relentless journey, also reflects the child-like nature of the speaker
• NO SPECIFIC METRE except from the first line (iambic pentameter) which could exhibit the disruption of planning during this journey. there was no way he could’ve planned this trip exactly as he had first hoped
• ENJAMBMENT - to reflect the pace of the conversation or exploration or to ‘change direction’

Question 5

climbing my grandfather and follower

Answer 5

• both use the extended metaphor of extreme sports to exhibit the experience of getting to know a relative or the difficult experienced in trying to stay close to a relative
• these extended metaphors are used to juxtapose traits in each of the poems
  
  • in follower, the father is adept at farming whilst
    the son is not
  • the grandfather has experience, whilst the
    grandson (as a child) does not
• both have themes of idolising a family member
• they have different structures, climbing my grandfather is written in free verse, whilst follower has a constant ABAB rhyme scheme that is split into rigid quatrains with iambic pentameter
• follower is a reflection of a childhood memory, whereas climbing my grandfather is speaking in present tense in the perspective of a child

Question 6

climbing my grandfather and mother, any distance

Answer 6

• both use extended metaphors: in mother any distance, it is the measuring tape and the semantic field of measuring in general to suggest distance and in climbing my grandfather climbing is used as a metaphor for a grandson getting to know his grandfather from his experiences
• both in the first person narrative, in the present tense
• both follow a loose structure

Question 7

extended metaphor of climbing

Answer 7

• suggests that the speaker sees the grandfather as a monumental piece of nature OR someone that is hard to get to know/get close to
• the journey of climbing may therefore be representative of the speaker’s development of a person as he finds out more about his grandfather
• could be that the grandfather has gained a high status and experience through living his life or the admiration or reverence that the boy has for his grandfather
• alternatively, the choice of metaphor may be to portray the grandfather as distant and too complex to ever fully know

Question 8

use of oxymoronic language

Answer 8

• “warm ice”, “easy scramble”
• demonstrates the complex nature of memory of nature
• how the grandfather and grandson have opposite traits: experienced/novice, warmth/distance
• highlights generational divide