Mother, Any Distance

Question 1

Themes:

Answer 1

• Family Bonds
• Letting Go
• Childhood
• Parental Love

Question 2

Compare With:

Answer 2

• Walking Away
• Follower
• Climbing My Grandfather
• Before You Were Mine

Question 3

Family Bonds:

Answer 3

• “You at the zero- end, me with the spool of tape”

- “Greater than a single span, requires a second pair of hands”

Question 4

Letting Go:

Answer 4

• “The line is still feeding out, unreeling years between us”
• “I reach towards a hatch that opens an endless sky to fall or fly”

Question 5

Childhood:

Answer 5

• “You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors, the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors”

Question 6

Parental love:

Answer 6

• “Two floors below your fingertips still pinch”

- “Mother, any distance, greater than a single span”

Question 7

Compare With: Walking Away

Answer 7

• Parent and child relationships
• The child has grown old
• The parent can’t let go of the child

Question 8

Compare with: Follower

Answer 8

• Growing up as the poem goes along

- The parents are the role models

Question 9

Compare With: Climbing My Grandfather

Answer 9

• Need the support from the parental figure

- Metaphorical poem

Question 10

Structure:

Answer 10

• Independence exaggerated through the enjambment to ‘ breaking point’ where something has to give

Question 11

Form:

Answer 11

• The poem is loosely written in a sonnet form. Unlike a sonnet, the poem has an irregular rhyme scheme and this reflects the narrators feelings of uncertainty

Question 12

Tone:

Answer 12

• The son needs the support at first, but in the end, he is ready to go