Walking Away Flashcards
Author:
Day Lewis (he)
‘Leaves just turning’
- NATURE
Image of leaves turning brown suggests change.
Boy is transitioning from childhood to adolescence; turning away from his father into a new more mature person.
The sunny day suggests positivity, but winter follows autumn - viewed as negative. Poet is also ‘turning’; facing challenge of watching his child break free of him, and the pain that involves.
‘Like a satellite wrenched from its orbit’
- DISTANCE
- INTERDEPENDENCE
Negative simile - satellite isn’t meant to fall out of orbit, makes Son supping helpless and in danger.
Simile also emphasises how Father has stopped being at centre of son’s life.
‘Half-fledged thing’
- NATURE
- DISTANCE
- GETTING OLDER
Suggests a young and vulnerable bird just beginning to venture from the parental nest.
This comparison sets up an extended metaphor that continues in the next stanza with the ‘winged’ seed. We speak idiomatically of a maturing child ‘spreading its wings’. See other flash card.
‘Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem’
- NATURE
- DISTANCE
The ‘winged’ seed continues bird imagery - suggests helplessness in the face of nature’s forces, just as a bird is driven by instinct to leave the nest, like speaker’s son.
Natural simile contrasts with satellite simile in stanza 1 - ‘loosened’ is less painful/forceful than ‘wrenched’. Shows father understands maturing is natural.
‘Eddying away’
- DISTANCE
‘Eddying’ suggests ripples and ongoing movement, the fluctuating and forever changing relationship that is part of the overall process of separation.
Also shows lack of control and uncertainty of both boy and father.
‘Fire one’s irresolute clay’
- NATURE
- GROWING UP
Kiln bakes and glazes clay until it become solid shape - child growing up will mature into a adult with a defined personality and experience.
If clay is left in the kiln too long, it becomes china - fragile and thin. Child is put under too much pressure and stress, he will become delicate and unable to cope with the world.
Compare with:
Climbing My Grandfather - close family relationship
Mother, Any Distance - how children growing up affects parents
Eden Rock - memory
