Analysis of "Harmonium" by Simon Armitage

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Henok Gheotom 10L En2

Reading Record: Harmonium

Main ideas/Message/Feelings/Attitudes:

The poem ‘Harmonium’ explores the relationship between a son and his father. Taking this into consideration, I feel that Armitage has made this poem specifically for parents and children since they would be able to relate to the bond being portrayed in the poem. In the poem ‘Harmonium’, Armitage is able to take the love he has for an inanimate object and personify it in a way where it is able to reflect the love he has for his father. In the beginning of the poem, the narrator specifically states that he was in ‘Marsden Church’ to possibly make the poem more realistic – seeing as ‘Marsden Church’ is a genuine Church located in the West of Yorkshire.

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The church’s harmonium has been left in the church porch, ready to ‘be bundled off to the skip’. The narrator asks his elderly father to help him carry out the harmonium out of the church. As the two men carry the harmonium the father makes a joke where that the next time the son carries a heavy weight out of the church in a box it will be his coffin. The persona of the poem tries to respond but he is unable to, perhaps due to the emotion he feels at the thought of his father’s death.

Structure/Shape of the ...

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