Simon Armitage’s poem “Mother, any distance…” is literally about his mother helping him to measure up rooms, windows, floors and what seems like, to him “the acres of the walls , the prairies of the floors” in his new house or flat. His mother is the “second pair of hands” that he needs the help of to measure “any distance greater than a single span”. He travels around the house while his mother stays still, and he reels out a tape measure, calling figures for her to record. Eventually he reaches the limit of the tape - as he looks at an open hatch, maybe an open window in the ceiling or attic.
The poem explores the emotional connection of mother and child. The tape measure becomes a metaphor for this. Now the child is ready to let go, but is unsure whether he can succeed on his own.
The reeling out of the tape is like the passing of the years - and the poet compares it to other kinds of line. He describes his and his mothers roles in the relationship as “anchor. Kite” and it is obvious to us that she is the steady, safe, secure anchor, and he is the unpredictable, unsteady wavering kite - this may bring security but may also limit his freedom to fly. Another image of attachment comes in the suggestion that the poet is “space-walking” like the nervous, wary men who first walked on the moon, and he is also literally walking through the “empty” space of the bedroom.
The “last one hundredth of an inch” marks the end of the tape measure - beyond this, the speaker has to let go (or break the tape) The mother's fingertips “still pinch” on to this last tiny piece of tape, symbolising she is unwilling to let the child have its independence, she has come to help the child measure up, but now may be reluctant at the last to let go. He also says that he reports figures back to “base” meaning where he started from, in terms of where he measured from, and also the fact that he came from her, and he still thinks of her as a base, somewhere to begin, come back to. The conclusion of the poem is vague, but reflects a real experience most of us have had, not knowing whether independence is a chance for us to succeed or to fail.
“Mother any distance…” and “Before You Were Mine have similar ways in which they present family relationships. For example, they both are about mothers, and speak about the mother in a warm-hearted way, with affection. Another similarity is that both poems use one word sentences, like “Marilyn” and “Anchor. Kite” to show thoughts and ideas, along with metaphors, imagery, and much description to convey feelings. The differences are that Carol Anne Duffy’s poem has descriptions of people, actions and places and Armitage’s poem uses personification of the measuring tape and metaphors to show the emotional and physical parting of him and his mother.
“Song of the old mother” by William Butler Yeats is a simple monologue in rhyme - an old woman describes her daily routine and contrasts it with the easy time that young people have. She gets up at dawn to light the fire, wash, prepare food and sweep up. Meanwhile the young people sleep on and pass their day "in idleness", worrying about what she considers to be silly small things, such as sighing if the “wind but lift a tress”, meaning to blow their hair. More than a century later, few old people in the west will live quite such hard lives - but the poem is still an accurate portrait of the lives of poor old people in much of the world and also how many adults feel after a long day when they come home to children, who don't seem to appreciate what they do.
The old mother as described in the poem seems to be a little jealous of the younger generation, as she must work “because I am old” while they “lie long” dreaming of "matching" ribbons on their clothes and in their hair. Not only are they lazy, but they get upset if the wind disturbs their hair slightly. The poem ends with the image of the fire's going cold. This may be a metaphor for the loss of energy that comes with old age. It is certainly a reminder of how the next day will start - and every other day.
The difference with this poem is that although it is about a mother, it is also from the point of view of a mother, who is complaining about the laziness of the younger generation. It is also a monologue, and is an account of her day, and reminisces and reflects on how tough it is and how the younger generation live totally opposite lives to her.
The poem records and laments the death of the poet's first son. The poem is an elegy in which Jonson contrasts his feelings of sorrow with what he thinks he ought to feel - happiness that his son is in a better place. The death of a child still has great power to move us. It would have been a far more common event in 17th century England, where childhood illnesses were often fatal. The modern reader should also be aware of Jonson's Christian faith - he has no doubt that his son is really in a “state" we should envy, in God's keeping, in heaven. Sometimes poets write in the first person (writing "I") but take on the identity of an imagined speaker. Here we can be sure that Jonson is speaking for and as himself.
Jonson writes as if talking to his son - and as if he assumes that the boy can hear or read his words. He calls him the child of his "right hand" both to suggest the boy's great worth and also the fact that he would have been the writer's heir. This image comes from the Bible - it reflects ancient cultures and the way Jesus is shown as sitting at God's right hand.
The poet sees the boy's death as caused by his ,the father's, sin , in that he loved the child too much - an idea that returns at the end of the poem. He thinks that god has taken the son away because the poet was too proud of the fact that he had created the boy whom he was so proud of. He sees the boy's life also in terms of a loan, which he has had to repay, after seven years, on the day set for this ("the just day"). This extended metaphor expresses the idea that all people really belong to God and are permitted to spend time in this world.
Jonson looks at the contradiction that we "lament" and feel extreme grief and also weep over something we should really envy - escaping the hardships of life and the misery of ageing. The writer suggests that "his best piece of poetry" the best thing he has ever made, that is, is his son. Remembering his sin of loving too much he now expresses the hope or wish that from now on, whatever he loves, he will not love it "too much", for fear of it being taken from him again.
This poem is similar to “the song of the old mother” in that both poems have the same rhyme scheme, as every word on the end of each line go in rhyming couplets with the one below.
The difference with this poem is that it is a moving poem about grief over a dead beloved son, and the others are reflecting and reminiscent of the characters or the characters day, or something that had been between the two characters.