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One of the characters featured in 'Mother..' is presented as a possessive and over protective mother: 'Anchor. Kite.' Armitage uses this phrase to show the difference between the mother (anchor) and the son (kite). The son desires independence away from his mother; he's trying to get away (emphasized by 'fly' in the concluding sentence of the poem) but yet is always being held back by his mother. Armitage shows the mother as a very caring person, perhaps even excessively protective over her son, whom she does not want to let go of.
ReplyDeleteIn the 'Song of the Old Mother' Yeats presents the mother in such a way that could suggest jealousy and resentment of her children's freedom and idleness. The phrase 'young lie long' makes the young seem lazy and unhelpful, the allitration emphasizing this by dragging out the sentence.
Both Armitage and Yeats write about a mother and their responsibilities that assist this role in the different time periods. Both poets use an extended metaphor to suggest the different attitudes in society at that time. In 'Mother..' the references to open space, such as 'acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors' suggest the generation gap and possibly even a gap in the mother and son relationship because of differences in opinions. However, in 'The Song of the Old Mother,' Yeats uses the metaphor of 'fire' to emphasize the mother's life. It begins as 'fire flicker' and ends 'fire gets feeble' showing how the woman's role as a mother is being swallowed slowly by her responsibilities of her idle young. Both the representation of the woman's lives are important in both poems as they show the difference in society when either poems were written.
-- Jenny Howse
Excellent work Jenny- really good quality writing. Only thing I would say is make more reference to the question- you do this well at the end but you should talk about the personas representing women in general a little earlier. You could then also make a point about women being epitomised/stereotyped as "mothers" (particularly as there is no indication that the persona in "Song of the Old Mother" actually is a mother at all- it appears to be only a title, and a derogatory one at that.
ReplyDeleteIn ‘mother’ Simon Armitage portrays the woman as an over protective mother by using a metaphor: “Anchor. Kite.” This shows the mother is decreasing her son’s freedom. “Anchor” implies she is pulling him down towards her, keeping him in and restricting his life. The word “kite” suggests Armitage is the kite trying to escape/fly away from his mother but the string attached is pulling him back. By using this with the word Anchor it implies he is being pulled back by his mother, proving she is stopping his freedom.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, in ‘The song of the old mother’ Yeats shows women as jealous: “the young lie long and dream in their bed” this implies the mother is desperate to be like them. The alliteration used ‘lie long’ suggests the mother is dreaming about sleeping due to the ‘l’ at the beginning of the words, dragging out the sentence which implies she is getting distracting by her dreams. Also the word ‘their’ suggests the mother is emphasising how much she gives her children and how she lives without pleasures for herself. Interestingly, both Yeats and Armitage show their view of women through the use of mothers. Both show how protective they can be, Armitage proving his mother cannot let go and Yeats implying the mother gives up all for her children. However, Yeats shows the mother as jealous because the alliteration ‘lie long’ implies she wants the same as them. Whereas Armitage shows the mother as over protective and wanting what is best for her son by using the metaphor ‘anchor’ implying she cannot let go.
Helen O.
This is excellent and I like the fact that you link the mothers together as representatives of women. Only thing I would add here is some comparison of language. Maybe compare "acres" or "praries" from "Mother any distance" with the "fire" in "SOTOM" as Jenny did in the previous post.
ReplyDeleteIn Havisham, Carol Ann Duffy depicts the female persona in the poem as being troubled and filled with a murderous revenge; “Bang. I stabbed at the wedding cake”. This quotation portrayed by Havisham reveals the astonishing amount of anger running through her due to the emphasised effect of violence on the word ‘stabbed’. However, the fact that she is speaking of a wedding cake indicates her dreaming of the day she was supposed to have. The onomatopoeia of the word ‘Bang’ implies how she woke up suddenly and abruptly with fury and anger, making her want to destroy the cake. This conveys how Havisham’s persona is envious of other lifestyles and roles because of her appearing to be constantly confused on what she wants, contradicting with the security and care-freeness portrayed from the mother in ‘Mother any distance…’.
ReplyDeleteIn comparison with the female persona emerging to be melancholic and resentful; Simon Armitage depicts a possessive yet similar aggressive persona in the poem ‘Mother any distance…’; “The line still feeding out unreeling years between us. Anchor. Kite” This enjambment conveys how her character is very protective of her son and that she doesn’t want this security to fade away. The reason for this is because the word ‘still’ indicates how she is afraid of what kind of separation their relationship is leading to as she is moaning about the time ahead, making her persona a paranoid and a scared female. Furthermore, the short sentences of Anchor (being the mother) and Kite (being the son) also mirrors this as it reveals her trying to stop him escaping and having his independence and freedom corresponding to the enjambment. Where Duffy uses the word ‘stabbed’ to depict the adrenaline rush of Havisham, Armitage uses the word ‘still’ to show that he wants this pain to disappear quickly. Because these words are both seen in a time of anger and frustration, the authors both reveal there characters to be destructful and selfish creating a callous and belligerent persona of women.
Antonia Kissias
This is truly excellent writing: stylistically sound, detailed and original. The only point I have for immprovement (apart from checking your homophones: their/they're/there) is that your analysis of "Mother any distance..." at the end is maybe a little too focused on the male character (whose voice we hear) rather than his mother (the "woman" who the question asks about). Otherwise, great!
ReplyDeleteIn "The Laboratory" by Robert Browning the female persona shows a very jealous attitude towards her love rival. Browning writes:
ReplyDelete"He is with her, and they know that I know / Where they are, what they do: they believe / my tears flow"
This clear paranoia sparked by her jealous attitude is prevelent throughout the whole of the poem. However the enjambment:
"they believe / my tears flow"
suggests that she could be seen as self-obsessed, shown by this link back to herself, ephasised by the enjambent.
This envious attitude could be compared to the persona's feelings in "Havisham". Duffy writes:
"...I've dark green pebbles for eyes".
This metaphor of "green eyes" represents jealousy, in this case of love, in everything she looks apon. The colour "green" is often linked with envy, therefore showing her true attitude and mood. This jealousy, in the last stanza could be seen to drive her to violence and agression:
"Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake."
The word "Bang" is significant as it exaggerates anger by it being ononatopoeia and being a one word sentence. This is similar to "Brand, burn up, bite into its grace" in "The Laboratory" as the voiced plosive letter "b" is also used show a violent attitude sparked by jealousy of love.
Also both female personas are trying to stain or mame perfection; "bite into its grace", "stabbed at a wedding-cake" respectively. Both "bite" and "stab" are vicious attacks at seemingly beautiful images in the readers' minds, hence creating a shocking piece of imagery.
Georgina White
This is excelent writing as always Gina, I particularly like your final point about "staining or maiming perfection"- highly original and very apt. I also like the point you make when you write: "could be seen as self-obsessed, shown by this link back to herself". This idea of introverted egocentricity is one you could make more of, particularly were you to develop this answer into a full essay. Both personas here are clearly self obssessed and this has obvious implications in terms of their attitude to others in that, in their view, everybody else appears to be in the wrong. You could compare this to, for example "Kid" and "The Man he Killed" and this central concept could tie the essay together.
ReplyDeleteIn Mother any distance, Armitage presents women to be calm, responsible and selfless. He illustrates this to the reader through the use of a full stop, and a metaphor:
ReplyDelete" Anchor. Kite."
The use of these structural and lingustic devices has the same overall implications. The metaphor shows women to be ' down-to-earth' with their attitudes and ideas. This means that they are therefore responsible and mature in their decision making and actions. What's more, the full stop supports this statement. It clearly shows that women are 'seperate' from those who are following unrealistic ideals and always have their head in the clouds: thus the seperation of the 'anchor' and 'kite'.
Also:
'you come to help me measure',
presents the selflessness, and kindess of a womens' natural attitude towards life and others. This links to 'anchor' and it's implications.
This illustration of women strongly contrasts to how they are presented in ' Before you were mine'. In this they are shown to be irresponsible, immature and ignorant of reality. This is shown through the metaphor:
" Shriek at the pavement".
The metaphor in this sentence is the 'pavement', for life. This shows the reader that women are too busy enjoing their own life to help others, thus women are selfish and ignorant. Consequently, they are the 'kites' of society, not 'anchors', who the caring and helpful human beings of society.
jack stone
Jack-
ReplyDeleteExcellent comparison as always, I presume this means you can now access this OK despite earleir email? This is clearly A* quality but you could show off a little perhaps by pointing out the irony of the woman as "anchor" in "Mother.." when in modern society women are often portrayed as being flighty and impulsive (far more like the memory of the mother in DUffy's poem implied by the word "Marylin"). This could therefore represent that women are changed and matured by motherhood in both poems.