‘such waltzing was not easy’
this suggests that the child might have been standing on his father’s feet as he was a small child and wasn’t tall enough to waltz properly.
In the second stanza it recalls how they
‘romped until the pans slid from the kitchen shelf’
which suggests that when they were waltzing, the father was staggering into shelves causing them to slid and fall off the shelves. Also the child delights in this energetic movement, this is captured in the word ‘romp’, which describes childish play.
‘My mother’s countenance could not unfrown itself’.
The mother is either very angry at her husband for coming home drunk and causing an uproar in the house but doesn’t say anything to him in fear that an argument might arise, or it could be that she was just concerned for her child as his father was drunk and not able to look after his own safety, never mind take into consideration his son’s safety.
There is more evidence to suggest that the child was standing on his father’s feet because in the third stanza the poet points out how
‘at every step you missed my right ear scraped a buckle’
that buckle is most likely to be the buckle of his belt around his waist.
I am aware that the father is a violent man as his hand is
‘battered on one knuckle’
This would suggest that he might have been in a fight earlier in the day, possibly when he was drunk and disorderly. Also in the course of the poem there are quite a few words which suggest aggression and violence e.g. beat, scraped, battered and death. There is also a darker side to the man that the child maybe isn’t aware of when he was a child but being older now is conscious of the small things his father done e.g. beating time on his head. The child is having fun but not in a suitable way, but he is confident that his father could look after him. The mother might not have wanted to say anything to the father in fear of him turning aggressive towards her. Maybe he has done it in the past?
‘You beat time on my head
with a palm caked hard by dirt’
might imply that the father had just finished work and gone straight to the pub, without going home to have a wash. It was late at night because when they finished the father he
‘Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt’
The mother might also have been angry at the father for coming in and maybe disturbing the child from his sleep to dance with him.
I will now look at ‘Our Father’ by Ray Mathew. This poem is written by an adult who recalls his childhood and his father who
‘swore like a fettler and drank like a bottle.’
But on Sundays he would change into a completely different person altogether, and the children would prefer their father the way he was on a Sunday morning at church, than the way he was the remaining six days of the week. The opening paragraph you get a lot of information quite literally thrown at you, this would suggest that the person telling the story was very angry with his father and just wanted everyone to know what he was like before anyone said different.
In the first stanza the poet is telling the story and remembering what a woman told him about his father,
‘she said he has whiskers and looked like god’
the woman might have been the mother, and she was telling the child what attracted her to him when they first were together.
‘He swore like a fettler, drank like a bottle’
would suggest that he had little or n respect for those around him as he swore a lot, also he must have been an alcoholic or a very heavy drinker making life in that house awful.
He used to
‘run away from mother, left money for food’
The father might have had to work away from home and not able to return every night, the child, being very young wouldn’t have understood that. The father would leave money for food maybe because he felt it was his responsibility to keep his family right financially.
‘he called us by numbers; had a belt with a buckle’
this would suggest that he didn’t take much interest in his children to even call them by their names, or else he just has a very large family. The child remember the belt with a buckle so they were probably hit with it, this might be why he remembers the buckle particularly.
In the third stanza the poet talks about ‘Churchday’ meaning Sundays.
‘We children walked behind’
this would imply that he was quite a sociable person and they walked like model citizens towards the church, but only the minister knew that they were far from perfect as he let them
‘give the bells a telling-
four dong-dells; and we decided that Nell’s
was to be the end of the world; it was time for going.’
The bell knelled, in a funeral this happens. When the bells stopped they had to face hell, their ‘home’, the world had ended.
‘we made jokes about him, we were afraid
because already we understood about hating.’
This would imply that they hated their father, hate is a very strong word to use about your own father but they obviously felt that strongly about him.
‘we’d left the church that was so nice and still’
It is very unusual that a young child would use them kind of words to describe church, the children must have really disliked their life at home and the only reason they liked it so much was because they could get away from the torment of home life and enjoy the quiet stillness of the church service.
The title of the poem is very appropriate for this poem as it captures the religious feel, as they went to church and not mass. Also the children never referred to their father as ‘Dad’ or ‘Papa’ which would imply that they never felt very much love for their father.
‘When we got home he’d take off his collar, shoes and his Sunday-special braces; and we’d whisper he isn’t like God.’
Metaphorically speaking, when the father was taking off his clothes it was like he was taking of his personality and attitude towards the children that he has on a Sunday morning.
The children in this poem have unfortunately experienced a harsh childhood, due to their father’s intolerance towards them and their mother. The children probably feel as if their whole lives are a catalogue of violence and arguments.
The third and final poem I will be looking at is ‘Clearances 3’ but Seamus Heaney.
The poem is about a child of a large family who spends time with his mother while everyone else is away at Mass. Together they peel potatoes for the family’s Sunday dinner. There was silence between them but the sounds of the potatoes falling into the water broke it. The poet then goes on to say about the priest being at his mother’s bedside just before she dies and how differently the various family members react to the situation.
The poem is divided into a sonnet, the first part of the poem the poet is remembering when he was child and when they were together peeling potatoes then in the last part the poet is telling the story of how the mother is on her death bed.
In the first stanza the poet talks about them being alone in the house while the others are away at mass.
‘I was all hers as we peeled potatoes’
This is very intimate and private. Their attention was on know one but each other.
They were in absolute silence and the only thing that broke it was the potatoes falling one by one
‘like solder weeping of the soldering iron’.
He seems to remember that experience with his mother very clearly, so it must have been a great deal to him. They were obviously very close to one another as they didn’t feel the need to talk; they felt very comfortable in each others presence.
‘Cold comforts set between us, things to share
Gleaming in a bucket of clean water’.
The ‘cold comforts’ refers in part to the bucket of cold water between them, while things to share are the peeled potatoes which are in the ‘bucket of clean water’.
‘Little pleasant splashes
From each other’s work would bring us to out senses.’
The water being splashed on their faces brings them out of their day dreams, as the splashes rise from the potatoes being dropped in the water by the child and the mother.
Then in the last stanza the poet recalls the parish priest being at her bedside going the
‘hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying’
The mother is obviously on her death bed and her family were around her praying.
‘Some were responding and some crying’
This was clearly a very emotional, heartbreaking time for the family.
‘I remembered her head bent towards my head
Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives-
Never closer the whole rest of our lives.’
He recalls how, as a child, his head was bent towards his mothers. They were extremely close at that moment, he will never forget it. Now he realised how strong their love was for one another at that time and he recalls those special moments with great affection and gratitude.
‘Our Father’ by Ray Mathew is my favourite poem, as it shows no matter how perfect a family may appear to be, there is always going to be some kind of flaw being closed doors. The children are very much aware of their father’s behaviour towards their mother; it shows that children aren’t as stupid as adults might think. They know what goes on and they can hear their parents arguing.
The children like the peace and tranquillity of the church. Not all the children like excitement and noise all the time!
By Laura Clinton 11a1.