Farther Flashcards
What is the title an aural pun on?
‘Father’, suggesting that there were still things left for the father and son left to do together.
Why are we being given the the fathers grief?
To create a certain symmetry with Sheers’ grief over his father’s mortality.
Why is it important that the poem occurs directly after ‘Border Country’,?
We are still left with the impression that the poet is unable to engage with any seemingly enjoyable activity without having it marred by his knowledge of death.
Describe the difference in generation and what effect this has.
In this poem, we see the cross-over point; ‘ I felt the tipping of the scales of us, / the intersection of our ages’.
Sheers is presenting this as the turning point where he has become the man of the family and his father is the weaker one – although ‘Inheritance’ gives us the depiction of the father as quite a weak figure from the start.
Comment on the structure of this poem.
It is one unbroken stanza, with uneven line lengths. This could be seen as a reflection of the long, uneven walk to the top of the mountain, or could also been as a rare moment between Sheers and his father where they do not feel any sense of separation.
