An appreciation of a Tony Harrison poem.
Natalie Ktena
An appreciation of a Tony Harrison poem
Death is perhaps the only certainty that we as humans have in life. That it will come, both directly and indirectly, is inevitable and each person has their individual response to that: some are afraid, some are upset and some are even excited by the idea. In his poem, Tony Harrison expresses his own views on death generally and particularly on how death has affected his own life.
One obviously does not know what the subject of the poem shall be before reading it. The poet takes advantage of this blank page and rather than bringing in the theme smoothly he chooses another method. The poem's very first line reads:
'Though my mother was already two years dead'
Harrison chooses to get straight to the point. From knowing nothing, the reader now has to get to grips with the idea quite quickly. Death is quite a shocking thing to be faced with anyway so by being introduced to it in such an abrupt manner, the reader is forced to take notice. One can be sure that the poet wants us to note this due to his word order. It is far more natural to say that his mother had been dead for two years, as opposed to 'two years dead'. The emphasis falls on the word dead, not to mention the fact that the poet then changes line, and so there is an inclination for the reader to pause slightly and reflect, yet again building up an environment for the overall theme. In addition, one may observe the fact that death is straight away related to the family, his family. This makes the whole subject very personal and more touching than an account of just anyone's death.
What follows is an account of his father's day-to-day actions following his mother's death. One would expect to read that time has healed the wounds however this is contradicted. For example:
'Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas... and still went to renew her transport pass'
The passage of time has done nothing to the father, he is still acting as though his wife never died. There is a sort of childlike innocence that is evoked through this image and throughout the poem. There is a vulnerability that follows losing someone so close to you, someone you love and Harrison uses this as imagery. This sort of helplessness to let go of love is what makes this poem so very heart-breaking.
The father's insistence is almost ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
'Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas... and still went to renew her transport pass'
The passage of time has done nothing to the father, he is still acting as though his wife never died. There is a sort of childlike innocence that is evoked through this image and throughout the poem. There is a vulnerability that follows losing someone so close to you, someone you love and Harrison uses this as imagery. This sort of helplessness to let go of love is what makes this poem so very heart-breaking.
The father's insistence is almost as though he is in denial: 'He knew she'd just popped out...'. And one can only sympathise and identify with his longing to hold on to the past. It shows that no matter how long passes, be it a day or two years as in this particular case, love cannot simply disappear, it is 'still raw' and yet it makes one feel guilty as one is supposed to get over these happenings. The passage of time is often referred to with the poet often using the word 'still' and 'very soon', but most importantly he says that the father wanted him to 'give him time'. This is ironic as perhaps with time, dust covers the tracks, but the impression of the tracks are still there.
Harrison also makes an impression with his use of mundane, everyday images such as going shopping and the use of hot water bottles. These do not reflect passionate, romantic notions of love, but instead they evoke more homely images. This is something unexpected and so is more easily observed, unlike the old cliché. The size of the images are also insignificant in comparison to the monumental topics of life and death, and so they become more effective.
This inability to let go shows the despair that death brings. But the poet identifies the precise reason for the upset. It is not death in itself, it is the absence of communication with the one you love that causes the sadness. There are references made to using the phone showing the importance of communication in the theme but it is the last light that truly epitomizes the idea:
'the disconnected number I still call.'
The phone line could also be interpreted as the life-line and so it is no longer in existence, in other words life is communication and death means no communication. In fact the poet states this:
'I believe life ends with death, and that is all.'
There is a finality to death, that there is nothing beyond or at least nothing that one can be sure of beyond. The poet realises that communication has ceased with whoever has been lost, something made more effective by the second part of the sentence. By using the word 'and', one expects an addition, but what they get is a reassurance that 'that is all'. Harrison takes care that you note this line by use of a short, to-the-point
statement. This comes as a shock after the constant use of enjambement. Therefore the statement stands out even more than it would have had it been in the midst of shorter sentences. But it does not stop the poet from calling, even though it is disconnected. It does not cease the poet from putting the names in his phone book, which is appropriately described as 'new' and 'black' in order to fit in with the new experience of black death.
This absence of communication has implications of loneliness. Harrison tries to demonstrate that this is what he wants to communicate to us through his father. He describes him as looking 'alone' and one assumes that he does in fact live alone. He stresses the idea by using the word 'alone' at the end of line 7, in hope that people will pause and take notice.
One could interpret a certain amount of annoyance of the poet with the inability to surpass the loss of someone. He explains that his father would clear evidence that he had placed of his mother away as he 'couldn't risk my blight of disbelief'. One is expected to recover from such events, however it is not as easy as it sounds, but others do not see that. And so people are forced, once again, to be alone, suffer alone, grieve alone.
The poem is very heavily structured: it is made up of four four-line stanzas with a very regular rhyming scheme. The regular rhyme seems almost childish, enforcing the whole image of vulnerability throughout the poem. It also gives the poem a 'sweet' feeling which, combined with the theme makes the overall feeling bittersweet and hence, more effective. The great control of form may also be seen to show that control of your sadness, or how you appear to be coping, as the father always tried to, does not mean that the sadness is not there. In other words, the structure does not evoke a feeling of 'outpouring' grief, however, grief can certainly be found in its content.
Perhaps the most effective weapon Harrison uses in this poem is what you can call a build up. For the first three stanzas we are led to believe that he is currently observing his own father in his dealings with death. In fact, in the fourth stanza we realise that yes, his father was suffering, but his father is now too dead and he too is experiencing all that his father experienced. The build up, followed by the so-called 'jolt' we receive in realising that he is in fact talking about himself give this poem that extra ingredient that makes it more attractive in nature. Just when you fall into the pattern of reading, Harrison shocks you with a revelation. He too is trapped in that difficult position his father was and he admits 'the disconnected number I still call',ie. The disconnected telephone number of his own parents. His repeating of the same mistakes he accused his father of are haunting him to, his message being that we all, whether we like it or not, have difficulty coming to terms with death.
In appreciating this poem, one cannot help but feel saddened by Harrison's experience. Ironically, the only fact of life is that there will be death, and he exemplifies the reality of coping with the matter very effectively through mundane images and with the demonstration of 'disconnected' relationships. It is often difficult to demonstrate effectively one's feelings on such common matters as all have their own opinions of it. However, Harrison shows us that, as he and his father before him, we are all prey for this sad fact of life and there is no escape from the upset and loneliness that accompanies it and that is common to us all.
