the furthest distances ive travelled

Question 1

Half rhyme, imperfect

Answer 1

• Comical effect
• Failure - desperate struggling to make the poem rhyme

Question 2

“sherpa pass”, “krakow” “zagreb” “siberian white”

Answer 2

speaker uses a range of unfamiliar sounding place names

Question 3

“in restlessness, in anony / mity”

Answer 3

split word over line
- constantly on the move - travelling constantly

• moving around constantly means that no one in these places knows you
• escaping from her own identity

Question 4

“some kind of destiny”

Answer 4

• her dreams of travelling are just dreams and not reality

Question 5

“catching a greyhound from madison to milwaukee /
than to be doing some overdue laundry”

Answer 5

• juxtaposition between reality and fantasy
• she had a mundane and ordinary life - comical juxtaposition to her dreams

Question 6

“However, when, during routine evictions”

Answer 6

Emotional turning point of the poem

Question 7

“alien pants, cinema stubs, the throwaway comment…”

Answer 7

listing objects from previous relationships
- despite not following her dreams and travelling, she has still lived a fulfilling life - she hasnt missed out

Question 8

“I know these are my souvenirs”

Answer 8

Metaphor
- travel associated with previous relationships

Question 9

“And what survives of holidaying briefly in their lives”

Answer 9

speaker has the realisation that they value the emotional journey rather than the physical journey

Question 10

travel as a metaphor

Answer 10

for emotional jounreys

Question 11

rhyme throughout the poem

Answer 11

• the rhyme in the first half of the poem is loose and half rhyme
• the rhyme in the second half is more constructed and perfect as the speaker recognises her true feeligns