The first line is split into two short sentences, which gives the effect of grumpiness that Tony Harrison is trying to portray about his father. Tony Harrison’s speech is written in normal writing, but the father’s is colloquial. This represents how much Harrison has changed from his father.
After 3 of the father’s sentences Harrison has used exclamation marks, “Ah, can’t stand it no more this empty house!’, this shows that Harrison believes some of his fathers talk, is plain ranting and raving, and is far too ludicrous to be take seriously. When Harrison’s father speaks, he does nothing but moan and whine, and doesn’t say anything happy. I think he did it like this so that the readers come to dislike the father, so he doesn’t feel so bad about not overly liking him himself!
The last verse is from Harrison’s viewpoint.
“When I come round they’ll be laid out,
Lifesavers my father’s New World treats,
Still in the big brown bag, and only bought
Rushing through JFK as a last thought”
I think this is the most important part of the poem, as it shows Harrison’s true feelings towards his Dad. I think he thinks of his Dad as an obligatory chore to look after him. He obviously doesn’t think very carefully about him, as he knows he can’t eat sweets, and only bought “the New World Treats” rushing through JFK as a last thought. The word Lifesavers is used ironically, because if the Dad ate them he could die form his diabetes. So this poem shows that the Dad and son are too distant and different, and doesn’t show that Harrison loves his dad.
This poem ends with two couplets, this finishes the poem well, and emphasises the importance of the last stanza
Long Distance 2
This poem is different to the first in that it is more orderly; there are four stanzas, each with four lines, alternately rhyming:
Dead
Gas
Bed
Pass
Each line has about 10 or 11 syllables.
In this poem, Harrison’s mother is dead. He says this bluntly, and without feeling. “Though my mother was already two years dead…” The way he says this shows that he is not overly upset about all this. In this poem, it portrays his father’s feelings, rather than just his grumpy, snappy ways as it did the in the 1st poem. We see this in the 2nd stanza:
“You couldn’t just drop in. You had to phone.
He’d put you off an hour to give him time
To clear away her things and look alone
As though his still raw love was such a crime”
This is the first time we see the father as a human with feelings.
The next stanza goes on to say, “He couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief” This shows how the father feels inferior to his son, this enhanced by the long distances between them that I have already discussed.
The finishing line to the last stanza is “ He knew she’d just popped out to the shops” This is instantly contradicted by Harrison’s opinion. “I believe life ends with death and that is all” It’s as if Harrison can’t leave his farther to have his own opinion. This shows, as the title explains. More long distance!
The final stanza reveals the most about Harrison and his feelings for his parents.
“ I believe life ends with death, and that is all
You haven’t both gone shopping all the same,
In my new black leather phone book there’s your name
And the disconnected number I still call”
I interpret this to mean that although he pretends he doesn’t miss them, he does deep down inside. When he says about “…my new black leather phone book there’s your name, and the disconnected number I still call”
I think he means that his phone book is his mind, and he calls it new, because it has changed since he realised he loved his parents, which I think he does. When he says he calls them, I think it means he thinks about them or remembers them.
So I think under all of his emotions I think Tony Harrison really does love his parents.
My Grandmother – Elizabeth Jennings
This poem contains four quatrains. Each stanza has two alternate rhymes in each ending with a couplet:
Her
Glass
Furniture
Brass
Prove
Love
Not all of these are full rhymes, but the half rhymes help to keep the poem flowing steadily.
On reading this my first impressions about the structure of the poem is that the 1st and 3rd Stanzas are talking about the facts, and the situations, and the 2nd and 4th are more to do with her feelings.
This stanza is all about the nature of her grandmother.
“She kept an antique shop, or it kept her,
Among apostle spoons and Bristol glass”
The antique shop is very important in this poem.
The 2nd stanza goes on to say about how the grand daughter refused to go out with her because she feared being treated like an object. I don’t think that the grandmother really did love her grand chills, but looked after her because it was expected of her, she didn’t do anything more for Jennings, and did not ever try to get to know her. I think Jennings must have picked up on this, and not returned the love.
One of the themes throughout this poem is polishing. “Polish was all, no need for love” It is basically saying that the Grandmother spent her whole life polishing with no time for love, and once she died all the work she did was just forgotten about, “only the new dust falling through the air”
This caused a distance to grow between the two, as in the first tow poems I talked about. Unlike Harrison, she quotes “ When she died, I felt no grief at all, only the guilt of having once refused.” This is the difference between the two poets feelings.
I liked the Long Distance Poems more than My Grandmother, mainly because I prefer the style of Tony Harrison to Jennings. I also don’t like to think of old people not being cared about, even if they are not very nice people in themselves. So I much prefer the happy ending of the Long Distance poems.
