walking away

Question 1

CONTEXT

Answer 1

• his mother died young whihc could explain the emphasis he places on the father-son relationship

Question 2

STRUCTURE - rhyme scheme?

Answer 2

• conisistent rhyme scheme and consitnetly in quintetes (5 lines)
  -> reflects staediness of father and control he used to have and still wants to have on son
  -» why it is so hard for his to let go
  -> contrasts the theme of change and individual development within the poem

Question 3

STRUCTURE - ending?

Answer 3

• conlucsive ending
  -> father has learnt to partially let fo and accept the change - ((moral message type thing))

Question 4

STRUCTURE - enjambment and caesura effects

Answer 4

• challenge father’s control

Question 5

STRUCTURE - enjabment and caesura quotes

Answer 5

• enjambement = “wrenched from its orbit go drifting away // behind a scatter of boys.”
• caesura = “behind the scatter of boys.”

Question 6

STRUCTURE - repetition of away

Answer 6

• every single stanza
• continues the theme of separation and development in the father son relationship as son is growing up and leaving home and school

Question 7

LANGUAGE - “leaves just turning”

Answer 7

• autumn
• transsissions son’s life as he enters new season
  -> causes pain for father
  -» the ((autmnal)) leaves dying and dropping off reflects the speakers sense of loss and pain
• natural imagery
  -> speaker understands it is a natural thing to do and is ordained by life
  -> but it is painfual for him

Question 8

LANGUAGE - simile “like a satellite // wrenched from its obrit go drifting away”

Answer 8

in the beginning =
- the man made object contrasts lots of natural imagery
- the satellite is meant to orbit so something has gone wrong for it to be “wrneched from its orbit”
((- the satellite is father))
- enjambement here which not only wrneched sentance apart (reflecting sateliitel) but symbolsies how th efather and son are being wrenched apart

Question 9

LANGUAGE “a half-fledged thing set free”

Answer 9

• natural imagery
• bird
• “half” - adjective
  -> speaker doesn;t feel like his son is ready
• “set free” - relecutance that emphasises that son didn’t want to let himg go

Question 10

LANGUAGE - like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem”

Answer 10

• “winged” - adjective
  -> meant to leave - contrasts satellite which is meant to stay
  -» a shift to acceptancee (kinda)
• “loosened” - verb
  -> softer verb = father coming to terms more
  -» contrasts the aggressive “wrneched”
• image that father has less control over son

Question 11

LANGUAGE - “the scorching ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay”

Answer 11

• “CLAY”
  -> image of humans being malleable things changed by the environments they are subjected to throughout their childhood
  -» painful events can be permaament and leave fixed marks on a person

Question 12

LANGUAGE - religious reference

Answer 12

• “saying what God alone could perfectly show”
  -> sacred imagery (poem goes from natural to sacred)
  -> godly, morally right thing is to let go
• conclusion speaker reached to was inevitable

Question 13

MEANING - final stanza (tone)

Answer 13

• reflective tone
• enjambement shows the thought takes up more than one line in the speaker’s memory

Question 14

MEANING

Answer 14

• thinking back to son’s first day of schooln
• change in relationship over time - sacrifical nature of parental love
• he didn’t want to let go of son

Question 15

LANGUAGE - seasons

Answer 15

• poet references seasonal changes to compare to changes experienced with son

Question 16

LANGUAGE - address

Answer 16

• direct language such as “i wacthed you” and “you walking away” which ceases in last 2 stanzas as he becomes more reflective and contemplative
• this shift mirrors the separation