Key word – extended metaphor: when the metaphor
runs throughout the poem
Mother any distance….
Lesson Objective:
To assess the use of metaphors in a poem
To discuss how the metaphors emphasise meaning
What might a ‘kite’ be a metaphor of?
…and an anchor?
If a kite and an anchor could
symbolise a relationship – what
type of relationship might that
be?
Read the poem once and give
it a title.
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.
What’s the poem about?
• Who do you think is talking – is it a
‘narrator’ or the poet himself? What makes
you come to that conclusion?
• How does the son feel about moving into
his new home?
• What is the relationship between the son
and his mother?
• What is distinctive about the line ‘years
between us. Anchor. Kite.’?
– Who is the anchor and who is the kite = how can
these roles be reversed in a mother/son
relationship?
Metaphors
• First of all – identify the metaphors
in the poem
Metaphors.
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.
Metaphor
for what?
How do these
metaphors illustrate
how the poet feels?
Metaphors.
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.
Metaphor
for what?
How do these
metaphors illustrate
how the poet feels?
An extended
metaphor. When
an idea runs
throughout a
piece of writing
Metaphors.
Metaphor
for what?
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.
How do these
metaphors illustrate
how the poet feels?
An extended
metaphor. When
an idea runs
throughout a
piece of writing
What does he mean by this?
The metaphor continues
How metaphors add to
meaning
• Pick out one of the metaphors which you think is particularly
effective
• Write a paragraph answering the following question, using
your chosen metaphor as your quote:
– In Mother Any Distance, in what way does Simon
Armitage’s use of metaphors add to the overall meaning
of the poem?
Extension:
Which metaphor can you relate to or empathise with when you
compare how the poet feels towards his mother with the
relationship you have with your parents?
Which other poems in the literature anthology can this poem be
compared to?