From Long Distance Flashcards
Planning & guidelines towards a Grade 9 English Literature essay (9 cards)
Who is the author of From Long Distance?
Tony Harrison
What are the central themes of From Long Distance
- Grief
Suggest an introduction for From Long Distance.
It is often said that the price we pay for love is grief. ‘From Long Distance’ charts the aftermath of the death of a mother and how the family respond to the loss. It is poignant in tone and an elegy to the speaker’s parents.
What is the rhyme scheme of From Long Distance?
- ABABCDCD = Suggesting movement as the father attempts to cope with the mother’s loss in Stanzas #1 - 3
- ABAB/ Envelope rhyme scheme = Suggesting closure, as the speaker begins to understand and sympathise with his father’s method of coping with grief
How does the writer present ideas about loss in the poem From Long Distance?
Evidence #1
4 pieces of evidence recommended
- ‘Though my mother was already two years dead Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas’
- ‘Two years dead’ = Direct with no euphemism, suggesting the speaker is realistic about the finality of death
- ‘Kept’ = Emphasises the father’s preservation of the past in this poem
- ‘Gas’ = Tenderness, care
How does the writer present ideas about loss in the poem From Long Distance?
Evidence #2
4 pieces of evidence recommended
- ‘and still went to renew her transport pass’
- ‘Transport pass’ = The father clearly cannot move on yet and renews her ‘transport pass’ as if they are still able to go to places together
- Strong sense of pathos for the father in the poem – in losing his wife, he has clearly lost part of himself
How does the writer present ideas about loss in the poem From Long Distance?
Evidence #3
4 pieces of evidence recommended
- ‘You couldn’t just drop in. You had to phone. He’d put you off an hour to give him time to clear away her things and look alone’
- ‘You couldn’t just drop in’ = Blunt declarative emphasising set expectations
- ’,’/ Caesura = Makes this a blunt sentence, showing that it was non-negotiable
- ‘Look alone’ = The father moves quickly in order to ‘look alone’ tp his visitors, the speaker perhaps realises how, with hindsight, that the father felt the weight pf the speaker’s cynical judgement of his actions to hold on to his past
How does the writer present ideas about loss in the poem From Long Distance?
Evidence #4
4 pieces of evidence recommended
- ‘as though his still raw love were such as crime. He couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief’
- ‘Raw love’ = Oxymoron is poignant and implies the pain of true love. ‘Raw’ suggests something too sensitive
- ‘Blight’ = Metaphor for infected/ ruined implying the speaker’s cynicism
- There is a sense of the father’s shame and embarrassment about his difficulty in moving on from the death. He needs time to tidy away her items that he keeps in the house as if she is still alive
What is your personal response for From Long Distance?
OR How can the ending of From Long Distance be interpreted?
The final stanza shows the change of perspective of the speaker over time (as suggested by him now seeing things from a long distance). It is implied that his view of grief and loss changes with hindsight and age. He is scathing and cynical of his father’s attempts to hold on to his mother’s presence after his death – but he finds himself doing something similar after they have both gone
