Climbing My Grandfather

Question 1

Author:

Answer 1

Waterhouse

Question 2

‘Free, without a rope or net’

• STRONG BONDS
• FAMILY RELATIONSHIP

Answer 2

Feels confident and comfortable with his grandfather, element of risk. Climbing vocabulary shows reader that poem = extended metaphor of an imagined climb up mountain.
‘Free’ adds danger and excitement to child’s game.

Question 3

‘Overhanging shirt’ and ‘earth-stained hand’

• NATURE
• ADMIRATION

Answer 3

‘Overhanging shirt’ suggests a large person, stomach perhaps like the overhanging mountain ridge.
‘Earth-stained’ hand suggests someone who has done practical work; maybe a physically powerful man. Could suggest he likes gardening - connection with nature, could be why Waterhouse explained mountain.
Throughout the poem the reader has to infer personalities that poet implies through physical description.

Question 4

‘Skin of his finger is smooth and thick / like warm ice’

- GETTING OLDER

Answer 4

Reference to ‘warm ice’ is obscure - oxymoron, a contradiction and may mean that, though the elderly man’s hands are cold, the boy senses the inner warmth of the man. It could also be a metaphor for a complex personality.
As a child, poet wouldn’t have thought about his grandfather’s inner life but as adult poet, would be aware of character of a man that he didn’t fully understand.

Question 5

‘Feeling his heat, knowing the slow pulse of his good heart’
- ADMIRATION

The resolution is in the final two lines.

Answer 5

Consonant ‘heat’ and ‘heart’ - suggests an old man who is still warm and passionate about life, resolving contradiction of earlier reference to ‘warm ice’.
‘Good heart’ encapsulates kindness of someone who is tolerant, and has a loving realtionship with his grandson. It’s a satisfying conclusion.
‘Slow pulse’ could suggest life coming to end, heart is slowing down.

Question 6

Compare with:

Answer 6

Eden Rock - bond between family members

Follower - child-like love is presented