Walking Away and Mother, Any Distance

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Walking Away and Mother, Any Distance

Similarities

  • Caesura is used to separate past from present.
  • The two final lines convey complementing messages of acceptance; the narrator in Walking Away accepts that he needs to let his son go ('love is proved in the letting go', and the narrator in Armitage shows that he is prepared to take the step into the world, even if he is not ready.
  • There is a suggestion in both that the child may not be ready, but an insistence (particularly in Armitage's imperative 'has') that they need to be let go to make their own mistakes. Lewis describes his son as 'half-fledged'; Armitage implies it more subtly through his use of childish narration.
  • The tone of acceptance and theme of familial separation carries throughout both.
  • Direct address is used in both to convey similar messages; in Walking Away, the father wishes to make his son aware of his fears but show that he ultimately accepts that he has to let him go. In Mother, Any Distance, the speaker acknowledges the mother's 'fingertips... pinching the last one hundreth of an inch' but expresses his yearning to 'fall or fly'/take the risk anyway.

Differences

  • The perspectives; one is from the son's perspective, and the other from the father's.
  • Mother, Any Distance is one line longer than sonnet form, which conveys the irregularity and imperfection of familial love. Walking Away has consistent stanza lengths to convey growing up as a natural, steady process; which contrasts the painful imagery.
  • Mother, Any Distance creates hopeful imagery of 'the endless sky' to show the potential available to the son; whereas Walking Away creates harsher imagery of 'a satellite wrenched from its orbit' to convey the pain of watching your son leave you.
  • The rhyme scheme of Armitage's poem is AABB, which is disharmonious OR paired to show the discomfort, but ultimate connection maintained during growing up. Lewis' is ABACA, which remains consistent to show the consistent connecting and disconnecting of a child during its adult life.
  • The narrator of Mother, Any Distance is unknown; we just know that it is a son growing up. Walking Away is directly dedicated to Lewis' first son.
  • Three stanzas of Walking Away involve memories, gradually going up in age to show how much these memories consume the father's mind; in Mother, Any Distance, the "acres of the walls" show opportunity to make new memories in the child's adult life.

Overall comparison

While the perspectives are different- and in Armitage's case, unclear- the tone of acceptance and the acknowledgement that familial separation is painful for the parent is consistent throughout both poems. Lewis' poem focuses on the parental pain more, but both carry the ultimate message that they have to let the child go. The rhyme schemes and structure are different to convey different ideas about family ties and growing up. 

Comments

hsvejdar

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Thank you so much this has helped me so much for my exam tomorrow x

osmben

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Yay

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