walking away Flashcards
Themes?
Parental love, Protectiveness, Loss
Tones?
Anxious, Authentic, Melancholy
Context
-Cecil Day Lewis was an Irish poet who lived between
1904 and 1972. This poem was published about 1962
and is about his first son, Sean.
-He was the poet laureate for five years until his death.
-Day Lewis had himself attended boarding school and
so could appreciate the anxiety and pain from both
sides of the relationship: this is apparent in the
descriptions of his nervous son.
Content, Meaning and Purpose
-First person narrative where the poet reflects back on
the anxiety of dropping his young son off for his first
game of football at boarding school.
-Eighteen years on, he is still affected by the image of
his son nervously walking away.
-The poem ends with the acceptance that this is a
process that all parents must go through, and “love is
proved in the letting go”.
Language
-Painful verbs convey the intensity of the experience:
“Wrenched”, “scorching”, “Gnaws”.
-Images of nature convey how the father now realises
that this is a natural process for parents: “A sunny day
with the leaves just turning”, “nature’s give and
take”. “Into the wilderness” also conveys anxiety.
-“The touch-lines new-ruled”: new boundaries were
set for the father, symbolising the son’s independence.
-“Ordeals will fire one’s irresolute clay”: irresolute
means ‘uncertain’. He now accepts that the experience
will make his son more solid and strong, like fired clay.
Form and Structure
-First-person narration conveys personal nature of the
poem.
-The use of enjambment and caesura create a
conversational tone, further adding to the personal
tone and authenticity of the poem.
-Steady rhyme scheme of ABACA reflects the
consistency of the father’s love for his son.
-First two stanzas describe the day (eighteen years
ago) and the final two stanzas reflect on how the
memory still pains him after so long.
