Walking Away Vs Mother Any Distance

Question 1

Exploring concept of letting children go off into adulthood

Different perspectives

Answer 1

‘Mother’

• first word - emphasises the importance of his mother (from child’s POV - stability, love, protection)
• suggesting he is reliant on her and has appreciation for mothers help

‘Half fledged thing set free’

• from fathers POV, unformed and not ready
• protective and sees son as vulnerable
• dehumanising ‘thing’ (almost doesn’t recognise son)
• connotations of hope when letting out trapped things juxtaposes with the unready child setting out into dangerous unknown

Question 2

Both use extended metaphors to present connection

Answer 2

‘Winged seed loosened from its parent stem’

• simile, parent is secure and reliable provider, father views child as vulnerable and exposed
• suggests a natural cycle, inevitable

‘The line still feeding out, unraveling years between us’

• extended metaphor for maternal bond, symbolises ageing and natural stretching of bond
• reference to umbilical code, feeding them, emotional nourishment, reliant and connected
• ‘zero line’ x mother is contestant, mirroring many mother daughter relationships

Question 3

Use ending of poems to conclude the poems reflections with a hopeful message

Answer 3

‘Love is proved in the letting go’

• strong declarative, shift from melancholic rest of the poem to understanding of necessity and inevitability
• end stopped line, resolved after coming to his own conclusion

‘Endless sky / to fall or to fly’

• never ending opportunities
• daunting and uncertainty yet exciting feeling of potential
• written as Sonnet (typically love, perhaps to reflect mother and daughter bond)
• however these uneven lines reflect shift and breaking point, dramatic emphasis on bittersweet independence