Mother, Any Distance Flashcards
“You come to help me”
Technique: verb
-“help” denotes to making something easier for someone. His mum has literally come to help him move in to his new house.
Reader sees that mother is supportive.
“the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors”
Technique: metaphor
-Emphasises the distance mum would go for him.
-House is big, might get lost/feel lost/alone.
Reader sees that he trusts he can rely on his mum but also that he’s scared of leaving her safety and comfort.
“You at the zero-end”
Technique: metaphor
-“zero-end” metaphorically means the beginning of his life.
-She has been there since day one and he knows she always will be.
Sense of reliability created. Reader sees strong connection.
“then leaving
up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling
years between us.”
Technique: symbolism
-Stairs symbolic of distance.
-“line” symbolises their memories which will always tie them together.
Readers are made aware of the strong bonds between them, maintained through their memories.
“Anchor. Kite.”
Technique: caesura, metaphor
-Mother is anchor; supports son as anchor does a kite.
-Son is the kite as he wants freedom, independence.
Symbolic in making reader notice the different roles.
“I space-walk through the empty bedrooms”
Technique: adjective
-“empty” reflects his inner feelings of emptiness without his mum.
Reader starts to see how he feels insubstantial without her.
“span” and “hands”
Technique: half-rhyme
feels incomplete without his mother.
“towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky
to fall or fly.”
Technique: alliteration, superlative
- Brings attention to the consequences of his separation.
- “endless” symbolic of his endless options/newfound freedom.
Context, rhyme scheme
- About a general mother-child relationship; relatable to all adult readers.
- ABACA rhyme scheme
