FULL POEM - SCROLL DOWN FOR LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS
Mother, any distance greater than a single span
requires a second pair of hands.
You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,
the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.
You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording
length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving
up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling
years between us. Anchor. Kite.
I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb
the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something
has to give;
two floors below your fingertips still pinch
the last one-hundredth of an inch…I reach
towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky
to fall or fly.
LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS
STANZA 1
Mother, any distance greater than a single span
The poem begins with the speaker directly addressing their mother, immediately creating a personal tone. ‘Mother’ being the opening word foreshadows her significance in both the poem and the speaker’s life.
requires a second pair of hands.
You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,
‘Any distance greater than a single span requires a second pair of hands’ refers literally to the help that the speaker’s mother is giving him as he prepares to move into his new house. The phrase is also a metaphor for their close connection, referring to how reliant the speaker is on his mother in day to day life.
the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.
‘acres’ and ‘prairies’ symbolise vastness, a hyperbolic description of the walls and floors which suggests that the speaker is daunted about the move that he is undertaking. It can be inferred that he is leaving home for the first time, hence, is worried about the greater responsibilities he’ll have to take on with less help from his mother.
STANZA 2
You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording
length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving
up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling
years between us. Anchor. Kite.
The second stanza further develops the idea that the literal narrative in the poem is an extended metaphor for the maternal bond between the speaker and his mother, with the ‘unreeling’ of ‘the spool of tape’ symbolising the ageing and stretching of this bond as the speaker grows up and becomes more independent. The speaker’s mother is at the ‘zero-end’, such that her presence is static and unwavering – it’s the speaker who’s venturing away from her and stretching their bond and not vice-versa. The two words ‘anchor’ and ‘kite’ encapsulate this idea perfectly – the mother is the steady, secure ‘anchor’ in their relationship, whilst the speaker is the flying ‘kite’, soaring into the endless expanse of the sky. The ‘anchor’ prevents the ‘kite’ from soaring away indefinitely, thereby maintaining their bond and ensuring it doesn’t break.
STANZA 3
I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb
the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something
has to give;
The speaker ascending the floors of his house, from going up the stairs, to space-walking (further emphasising distance) ‘through the empty bedrooms’ on the second flaw, to climbing ‘the ladder to the loft’ leads to increasing physical distance between himself and his mother in the literal narrative which signifies increasing emotional distance between them in the metaphorical narrative to a point where ‘something has to give’ – a breaking point in their relationship!
two floors below your fingertips still pinch
the last one-hundredth of an inch…I reach
This is an image of desperation, as the speaker’s mother desperately fights to keep their bond intact as he ventures still further away from her. A suspenseful tone is created due to the uncertainty of whether their relationship will survive.
towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky
to fall or fly.
The speaker is now at the top of the house, his mother still on the ground floor. He has reached a ‘hatch that opens on an endless sky’, which links to the symbol of the ‘kite’ and is a metaphor for adulthood and the endless freedoms and opportunities available to him. The poem ends on a cliffhanger as it is left unclear whether the speaker ‘flies’ and pursues these freedoms and opportunities at the expense of his connection with his mother or whether he ‘falls’, whereby sacrificing them to keep their bond alive.
