Simon Armitage

Mother any distance

Context
On the surface it is about the character moving away from home, however deeper it is about the breaking of emotional as well as physical bonds.

Structure
15 lines approximately the length and form of a sonnet. Sonnets are stereotypically love poems. Armitage may have selected to use a sonnet to provide an immediate representation of love, in this case love of his mother.

Language
The tape measure could symbolise the umbilical cord, the greatest physical bond between mother and child. It could also suggest the emotional distance he is know from her. She is the anchor and he is the kite trying to escape. Images in the poem suggest great distance, “aches, prairies”, physical as well as emotional. However, the character still has a long way to go. The tape is stretched “to breaking-point”, something or someone has to give.

My father thought it

Context
Conflict between parents and children, in particular how parents and children often do not understand each other, however, as the poem expresses as he gets older they too begin to conform.

Structure
15 lines, external/end-rhyme occurs throughout the poem, alliteration occurs frequently. Helps to provide pace, making the poem more memorable.

Language
Poem opens with ‘bad’ language “thought it bloody queer” which creates the impression of a male-traditionalist. The word “queer” could be interpreted by the audience in the sense of strange, or gay. In the poem we are told that the ear became infected and wept pus from the infection. This could be interpreted as a metaphor by the audience as the reaction of the boy to his father’s opinion. The word “wept” complements the idea of breaking “like a tear”, the child may actually be upset, despite his rebellion. This could also be interpreted metaphorically as the breaking of the boy’s voice as he becomes a man. The line “you should have had it through your nose instead” could suggest that the father feels he should have had a piercing through the centre of his nose like a cow, because he is easily led.

 

Homecoming

Context
The poem asks the reader to see how two things are connected, the first is trust and the second a jacket which could be a metaphor for the parent child relationship and the protection it provides. The poet shows how even the “model of a model mother” can let down their children, yet this does not mean that they love them any less.

Structure
The poem is written using an iambic pentameter. There are also occasional rhymes which add to the flow. The effect of this is to give the poem a somewhat mature tone.
Language - There is some action within the poem, for example “Temper, temper” and parents' command: “Bed.” could have been used by the poet to suggest violence, in particular “blue murder”. The use of colour also helps to provide an interpretation of the emotional depth. In the future the father may be trying to make things right, which proves successful because the same canary-yellow jacket still fits.

 

November

Context
Armitage deals with taking a elderly relative to the hospital to die. We all know that we will eventually die but we choose to think of other things when “the sun spangles”. Other images in the poem may have been selected by the poet to add to the depressing tone, for example they parked the car badly.

Structure
6 stanzas, 5x3 lined stanzas and a final concluding couplet. There are occasional rhymes and a final rhyming couplet.

Language
The two men find the experience “shattering” partially because of the emotional termoul it induces. They too relise that one day they will become these “monsters”, a repelling thought. The poems name “November” is also the month where winter has begun and the year draws to a close reflected in their grandma who is about to die. There are images related to time, “It is time John”, could suggest they feel it is time to leave Grandma behind, they drive through “the twilight zone”. The final line of the poem is ambiguous, “One thing we have to get, John, out of this life” the punctuation appears to suggest that we all have to get out of life-to leave it and die. However, it could also mean we have to enjoy life while we still can.

 

 

Kid

Context
This poem centralises around Batman and robin and what would happen when Robin grows-up whilst Batman grows old. In this poem Armitage describes how Robin has broken free from Batman’s shadow and is successful on his own. Robin reveals the hero’s weaknesses.

Structure
24 rhymed lines. These rhyming words ending in -er run throughout the poem. The lines consist of ten syllables using a rhythm opposite to an iambic pentameter. The rhythm is rushed through the use of enjambment and rhyme, which provides humour, making the poem more memorable and emphasising the final words of each line.

Language
Robin the side-kick has broken loose, he is now “taller, sharper, harder”. While Batman is struggling to look after himself. Armitage could be saying that even the greatest of superheroes have faults, that nobody’s perfect. The poem also makes reference to other works of literature – a newspaper in the form of headlines: “Holy robin-redbreast-nest-egg-shocker” and Robin Hood “Sherwood-Forest”. The use of Batman is also very effective because many in the audience will have watched the Batman cartoons or read the comics as a child, reflected in the poems title: ‘kid’. The poem suggests that we all must grow-up.

 

Hitcher

Context
There is a sharp contrast between two characters in the poem. The speaker, a violent individual, contrasts with the ‘hippy’ hitchhiker. The poem also makes reference to elements of pop culture “The truth/he said, was blowin’ in the wind”- a line from a Bob Dylan song. This reference helps to make the poem more memorable. The poem centralises on the theme of mindless, uncontrollable violence.

Structure
5x5 lined stanzas. Rhyme and half-rhyme occur regularly throughout the poem. Mixture of short and long lines in the poem and the use of enjambment adds to a conversational tone.

Language
The man’s causal violence is emphasised by his language and the conversational style of the poem. The man has been “under the weather” he “let him have it”. The character also seems to be proud of what he has done; he describes how he “didn’t even serve”. This has a disturbing effect on the audience and further moves the man’s violence into the recesses of instability.