From line seven, this is where the mood and meaning changes, at the end of line six going on to line seven it says “then leaving up the stairs” this is him leaving home and is an emotive verb and elevates the significance of this. After this is “the line still feeding out” this phrase is mentioning that they are still connected and then “unreeling years between us” is saying that years go by and they are now different and only just connected. “Anchor” is the mother and like an anchor is stable and in this case important for the kite to fly, the “kite” being the son is dependent on the anchor at first to get started and fly. In line 9 onwards it is first person narrative. “Space walking” this shows the distance between the mother and son as space is very far away.
The next line “ladder to the loft” this is alliteration, “where something has to give” and in this case either the anchor moves which is unlikely as heavy and stable, the kite can go no further or cut the cord and lose connection with the mother and son and the kite will fly off and the anchor will stay. “Below your fingertips still pinch” this is saying mother is holding on and not letting go and is still there but on the next line (line twelve), “the last one-hundredth of an inch” now the mother really doesn’t want to let go and is losing him and the son is aware of this but continues to separate himself as it says “I reach towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky” is saying that he is carrying on and going into the real world, this phrase is also saying that there is no limits on where he can go just like the kite going off and flying when it loses connection and the line is gone and in this case the anchor being the mother has no control over it. “to fall or fly” this is alliteration and fate is the kite/the son destiny and whether he flies will be the work of his mother as she has guided and helped him through life, on the last two lines there is a rhyming couplet with “sky and fly”.
The relationship between the mother and son is of deep affection and at the start they were very close but have grown apart over the years. In the first 3 lines it represents how close they are as the mother helps him when he is in need doing things. In the second stanza he mentions back to base and reporting and this is telling the mother what he is doing as measuring is his life doings and experiences. As the two grow further part they are left in a dilemma as when it says something has to give this is more than just losing touch as one of them has to let go and does the mother let go and lose touch with her son or does he let go and disappoint his mother and gain full independence or do they carry on and start tension between the two as he will want to go and live his life but the mother will want to hold onto the past. In the end he has to make the move and this was probably a very emotional event as he lets go and the mother should feel better knowing that she has taught him and brought him up for living independently and fine without him and he is probably grateful but will also feel guilty for his decision.
The next poem by Simon Armitage is “My father thought”, when he says the first word: “Father” this is a formal and traditional saying of his father. When he says “bloody queer” this is looboo and abusive language and it is not just abusive but also shows the father is masculine and not soft hearted as it is a very strong criticising line. “The day I rolled home with a ring of silver in my ear”, this phrase is the reason of the abusive language, it also shows that the son is laid back and cocky about it as he says “I rolled home” which is also a bit of a hip way of saying I got home and that he is very casual. “Half-hidden” this is saying that he is self-conscious and considering his father is quite traditional it doesn’t help having longish hair as it says “hidden behind a mop of hair”. “You’ve lost your head” this is direct speaking, it is also saying the son is crazy for what he has got done and is not exactly motivating the son. The father underestimates the son and on the fourth line “if that’s how easily you’re led”, and doesn’t even give the son any credit for making the decision and blames it on peer pressure. On line five, he says “you should’ve had it through your nose instead” this is direct speaking again, it is also a opinion on what the father thinks about it and saying that the son is silly having it in his ear and would have been better having it in his nose and the father is slightly accepting it. It also has a hidden meaning and that the son is like an animal as cows have rings through there noses and that they follow the shepherd just like the son following the group.
In line six, there is alliteration with “nerve and numb”, this is saying that the son took it bravely trying to show masculinity by not making it less painful. In the next line there is a lot of masculine words, “it took a jewellers guns” this is showing that the son did it properly and safely by using the right stuff. “Pierce the flesh” this is describing the pain and then “a friend to thread a sleeper in” this is saying it is a gentle sophisticated process and once again is a painful event. “where it slept” this is word play as the sleeper is the ear-ring but he says it slept in his ear and as well he is saying it hasn’t been taken out. “The hole became a sore, became a wound, and wept”, this is describing the product of hurt, it is hurt in two ways the physical piercing and the fathers criticising him, “wound and wept” are also alliteration. In line thirteen, “my own voice breaking like a tear”, he is own voice begins to break and it is a point of change, the tear is the damage but also the crying of his pierced ear from before “it wept”. “Cried from way back in the spiral of the ear” this is also saying that his ear is still hurting from the piercing and it still weeps. “If I were you, I’d take it out and leave it out next year”, this is saying his voice has broken and his voice is like his fathers.
The relationship between the father and the son is a traditional and old fashioned relationship where not much affection or feelings are shown. The father does not appear to be the most admirable father as he is quick to criticise his son when he has done something stupid or wrong and he doesn’t rate much of his son and when he got his ear pierced he just blamed it on peer pressure and that he has been led on and doesn’t believe his son could of done it. The father was unaware that his criticising was personally and mentally hurting his son, in the end of the poem he begins to understand his father as his own voice breaks it is like a turning point as he grows out of rebellious, casual teenage rand is turning into his father.
The differences between the fathers` relationship with the son and the mothers` relationship with the son is the fathers` relationship is an old fashioned relationship where the father doesn’t show any affection to the son and criticises him and doesn’t really help him but mentally scared as this is a defined moment with his father so there mustn’t be any loving moments with his father. But with his mother, he shares a much more showing affection relationship whether his mother has helped him through his life when he needed help and she brought him into the world and in the end there is an atmosphere where no-one wants to let go without hurting the other but this is not the case with the father as nobody cares about hurting each other in this relationship.
