Mother, Any Distance Flashcards
summary of poem
The poem is about a son measuring up his first house, with the help of his mother. He acknowledges that he is beginning to physically and emotionally move further away from her, into adulthood.
1) The narrator’s mother comes to the house he’s moving into to help measure things such as walls and doors.
2) She holds the end of the tape measure while he walks away to measure things. This makes him think about how she’s always looked after him
- but now she has to let him go.
3) The narrator is looking forward to being independent, but he’s also a bit scared by it. He doesn’t know if he’ll succeed without his mum or not, but there are hints that she’ll always be there for him if he needs her.
what viewpoint?
first person, viewpoint of poet
quote about the sons fear / anxiety of letting go
‘the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors’
-> hyperbole - overwhelmed, intimidating
->’acres’ & ‘prairie’ = hyperbole
-childlike, naivety
structure of mother any distance
-based on sonnet form (15 lines)
-instability/irregularity of rhyme symbolises evolving nature of poem
-> renegotiating roles
STRUCTURE - The speaker talks about how he needs his mother in the first stanza. In the second stanza he begins to explore independence, and in the last stanza he understands that “something / Has to give” he’s going to be independent. The poem ends with the reader unsure whether he will “fall” or “fly”
quote about familial love?
“i space-walk through the empty bedrooms”
-space walking means exploring an unmapped world, like an astronaut exploring outer space.
-like astronaut, they always have a life-line, attaching him to the ‘spaceship’ - the security of the safety of his home.
-it is here that he recognises that ‘something has to give’, the ‘breaking point’ of separation from his mother.
-‘empty bedrooms’ suggest the future will be empty, like having hole in heart
-referencing an astronaut who has a spaceship attaching them to home shows that they are inextricably bound irrespective of physical distance.
context of mother, any distance
originally untitled, adds to ambiguity
Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in West Yorkshire and studied Geography at university. This poem was published in 1993. As well as poetry, he writes for TV, film and radio and has also written stage plays.
who wrote ‘Mother, Any Distance’?
Armitage
mother any distance themes?
Family Bonds
Parental Love
Letting Go
Childhood
what can you compare mother any distance to?
-Walking Away
-Follower
-Climbing my Grandfather
-Before You Were Mine
quote about longing + age?
“Anchor. Kite.”
-omitted the connective “and”, to form a caesura at this point = the contrast between these two objects & inevitable separation they have to endure
-craves more freedom, but anxious about exploring uncharted territory without security of her support.
-The conflict between independence and dependence underpins the poem.
speaker longs for autonomy but remain reliant mother for support
-> the complexity between self-sufficiency and reliance within parent-child relationships.
form
FORM - This poem is loosely written in the form of a sonnet - sonnets are traditionally used for love poetry, so this choice of form shows that the speaker still loves his mother. Unlike a sonnet, the poem has an irregular rhyme scheme - this reflects the narrator’s feeling of uncertainty. The uneven lines of the last stanza reflect how the bond between mother and son is reaching “breaking point”.
language about measurement
LANGUAGE ABOUT MEASUREMENT - Measurements and distances are an extended metaphor in this poem. They represent the poet’s changing relationship with his mother.
language about movement
LANGUAGE ABOUT MOVEMENT - Movement is used to show how the poet is breaking away from his mother. Walking around his new house is like exploring a new world, and he feels ready to try to “fly”
imagery
IMAGERY - The visual image of the tape as a link between the mother and son suggests an umbilical cord (a cord that connects a baby in the womb to its mother). The image of the narrator as a “Kite” and his mother as an “Anchor” suggests that she keeps him secure. At the end of the poem, this link seems to be about to break, which shows that the narrator is breaking away from his mother.
