Interestingly, Armitage cannot make up his mind which metaphor to use to describe the ribcage - it is the chassis or cage or cathedral of bone (line 7). The alliteration links these otherwise very separate objects, which suggest that Armitage is weighing up the functions of the body. Is it a chassis - the strong frame of a vehicle that we use to power us; a cage - a structure which keeps the heart safe but in which we are imprisoned; or a cathedral, reminding us of the spiritual aspect of life (as in the biblical phrase 'Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost')?
Sound
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There is some rhyme in the poem, but it does not follow a regular pattern (use / glues; bone / alone). There is also some internal rhyme ( myself / health).
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There is a lot of repetition of and as Armitage lists various bits of his body. It seems as if he could go on and on!
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This gives a certain rhythm to the poem, as most of the words consist of just one syllable: the loops and coils and sprockets and springs and rods (line 10). Do you think that the rhythm imitates a heartbeat?
Attitude, Tone and Ideas
Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses toward its subject matter. 'Attitude' can be thought of as a combination of the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to the reader.
A good way to decide on the tone of a poem is to work out how you would read it aloud. Should the poem be read:
- in a casual way, as if the poet didn't care about his body (except the heart)
- with a romantic feel: the poet wants to preserve the part of him that represents love, perhaps to commemorate one special relationship.
- in a morbid way, as if the poet is anticipating that he will die soon.
Most readers will probably feel that the tone should be mainly jaunty and casual. However, with all that talk of body parts there has to be some morbidity in there too; and for most people there will be a little romanticism in the mix as well!
Ideas
The ideas in this poem concern the value we attach to our bodies. The table shows some key phrases from the poem, with commentaries describing what each one reveals about the poet's attitude to his body parts.
Comparison
In the exam, you will be required to write about several poems, some pre-1914 and some post-1914. To which poems would you compare I've made out a will? There will be a number of ways in which the poems can be compared, and you may well be able to think of ones which we have not!
HOMECOMING:
The poem is about relationships and trust. It opens with the description of a 'trust exercise', often used in school drama lessons. Next, a child (almost certainly a teenager) is told off by their mother for having allowed their yellow jacket to get dirty; a row develops. The child is sent to their room, but sneaks out at the dead of night to a phone box: interestingly, the narrator of the poem is waiting by the phone, but it doesn't ring. The child then returns home and meets a father figure who wants to make up.
Stanza 4 deals with the reconciliation - a 'father figure' is asking a child to try on the yellow coat again, by stepping backwards into it, like in the trust exercise of stanza 1. It's not clear who this father figure is: perhaps it's the narrator's father, still in memory; perhaps it is the narrator himself addressing his childhood self (it's sixteen years or so before we'll meet); perhaps he is talking now to a friend or lover to whom the yellow coat incident happened when they were a child; perhaps it is the narrator, now a father, addressing his own child.
The poem consists of 4 stanzas of varying lengths (4 lines, 7 lines, 6 lines, 6 lines). The lines are roughly equal in length, ranging from 9 to 13 syllables. The verse is therefore quite irregular (it doesn't fit a strict pattern), perhaps reflecting the idea in the poem that relationships can be awkward and don't follow a set pattern.
Language
Think about how the language the poet uses helps to convey his ideas. Here are some points to consider:
- Consider the title of the poem. There are two homecomings described - one, when the child arrives back with a dirty jacket which leads to a family row, and one when the family embraces and all is forgiven. The second homecoming is the most significant: the child is welcomed 'home' into the love of the family.
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Armitage gives us instructions on how to read the poem. We are invited in the first line to Think, two things on their own and both at once. He is alerting us to the idea that two apparently very different things - the trust exercise and the row over the jacket - can be linked. He does not refer to the comparison again until the final lines of the poem.
- We are presented with little sketches. We are given only sparse details. Although we know the colour of the jacket, we do not know about its owner or their family. They are anonymous. We are not even sure whether the child is a boy or a girl - although the colour of the jacket may make people assume that is a girl. Nor do we know anything about the narrator figure. Yet it doesn't matter: both boys and girls fall out with their parents at times. By leaving out personal details, Armitage is directing his message at everyone: he is perhaps acknowledging that bad rows start with the simplest things.
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Much of the poem is written in the second person, directed to You. The first person I is not introduced until the third stanza. The relationship between the grown-up child and the persona of the poet must be close, because the child is confiding something that must have troubled them for a long time.
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We are not told exactly what happened to cause the row. The jacket was uncoupled from its hook and let to get dirty on the floor of the cloakroom (presumably at school). The child's mother accuses the child - points the finger (line 10) - perhaps of being careless, someone not to be trusted, although the child obviously feels misjudged: the mother makes a proper fist of it (line 9). The phrase Temper, temper (line 10) is sometimes humorous, but here it seems more serious: perhaps both mother and child are in a temper, which causes the child to be sent to bed acrimoniously.
- Even though it deals with events spanning 16 years, the poem is mostly in the present tense, which gives immediacy (we feel it is happening now) and adds tension.
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The link between the trust exercise and the jacket is developed in the closing lines. Step backwards into it / and try the same canary-yellow cotton jacket. The embrace between the child and their parents is likened to falling backwards, as in a trust exercise. It shows that trust within the family has been restored: the child trusts their parents once more.
Imagery and Sound
Imagery
- The exercise in trust in stanza 1 is clearly a metaphor for trust in real life situations. In the exercise, the person falling trusts that they will be caught by those behind them. In the minefield of personal relationships, you rely upon family and friends to 'catch' you.
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The second stanza is full of colour. The jacket is canary-yellow (line 5) and becomes blackened (line 7). The child see[s] red - Armitage chose a phrase that uses colour to depict anger - and Blue murder is threatened. Yellow, red and blue are the primary colours: perhaps Armitage used these to show how vivid and 'colourful' the child's memories of the row are - it is obviously still important to him many years later.
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The mother is described as the very model of a model of a mother (line 8). Does this suggest that she is a typical mother figure (as if like a child's model toy, reproduced in a factory) or a more-than-perfect mother (model as an adjective can mean 'ideally perfect')? Either way, she makes the wrong assumption about how the jacket got dirty - in the child's eyes, as least.
- It is midnight when the child escapes to the phone box - always a time when special things may happen! This call seems to have been a symbolic attempt to get in touch with his future adult self.
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The father figure (line 17) is in silhouette: the child can see his shape, but not his whole body. Does this suggest that their relationship with him is not now as 'rounded' as a result of the row? It is not definite that he is the child's actual father - only a father figure. The fact that he is waiting outside shows that he is concerned for the welfare of the child, but also that he wants to set things straight (line 17) - perhaps implying that the argument is not over yet!
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The final stanza is an extended metaphor. The embrace between the child and the family is likened to putting on the yellow jacket that caused the row in the first place. Parts of the body become parts of the jacket, to show us how warm and loving the hug is. The poet does not know exactly what the jacket looks like - these fingers make a zip / or buckle, you say which (line 20), but it does not matter as It still fits (line 23). In other words, continuity is restored, the family is whole again.
Sound
We can 'hear' some of the family row. Stanza two has many short phrases, showing tension rising in the household. Armitage uses colloquial phrases like Temper, temper that the child and the mother may actually have spoken. Bed (line 11) could be the order of a furious parent: we can imagine their finger pointing towards the door!
Attitude, Tone and Ideas
Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses toward its subject matter. 'Attitude' can be thought of as a combination of the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to the reader.
A good way to decide on the tone of a poem is to work out how you would read it aloud. Should the poem be read:
- with warmth, to emphasise the love between the family (and between the poet and the child)
- wistfully, to emphasise his sadness at a painful childhood memory
- with irony, as the poet reflects on an episode of (possibly) poor parenting, and on what he has learnt since he himself was a child
There is probably a bit of all three, and the tone you adopt will depend in part on who you think the 'you' in the second half of the poem is. Certainly the tone at the end of the poem is overwhelmingly one of warmth and connection between parent and child.
Ideas
The ideas in the poem all concern the relationships between children and parents. The table shows some key phrases from the poem, with commentaries describing what each one tells us about childhood and adulthood.
Comparison
In the exam, you will be required to write about several poems, some pre-1914 and some post-1914. To which poems would you compare Homecoming? There will be a number of ways in which the poems can be compared, and you may well be able to think of ones which we have not!
