Walking away Flashcards
“half-fledged thing”
L: metaphor
Thinks the child is not ready to be independent
“into a wilderness”
L: metaphor
The father thinks his son is unprepared for the real world
C: biblical reference
God sent his son out into the wilderness to be tested
“gnaws at my mind still”
L: verb
Emphasises the emotional impact still eats him away even tho it was years ago
R: the reader feels sympathy for the father because this wasn’t the only parting he has been through because he went through a divorce
What does the caesura in line 17 emphasise? “Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps…”
It emphasises how much the parting has hurt him
“love is proved in the letting go”
The father is letting go of his child because he cannot protect him from pain and suffering
C: God gave up Jesus on the cross knowing that he would suffer, just like the speaker
“you” “me” “school”
L: pronouns, noun
- the space between the pronouns emphasise the need for the child to break free
- school is a rite of passage from dependence to independence
What does the rhyme scheme represent?
It represents the emotional bond between the father and his son, the 2nd and 4th lines are free of the rhyme scheme
- this represents how children need to develop independence free of their parents
“like a winged seed”
L: simile
His son is compared to a seed loosened from its parents
I: another interpretation is that his son needs to move away and become independent in order to grow
“like a satellite wrenched from its orbit”
L: simile
A satellite orbits a larger body and the smilie suggests the child is a small being who is attached to its parents
L: verb
“wrenched” implies a difficult and unwanted parting which shows that force is required
“away”
L: repetition
The word is repeated 4 times which emphasises the parents concern
What poems can this be compared with?
- Mother, Any Distance
- Before you were mine
