National 5 Set Texts
‘It’s my first experience of having him away this length of
time and I’m missing him dreadfully.’ Jackie Kay, Sunday
Times, 25/03/14
‘Gap Year’
Analysis
Before you look at the poem, bullet point the connotations the title of the
poem suggests to you. What do you think it will be about? What do you think
the key theme/message will be?
• Highlight and identify the key poetic techniques used (word choice,
imagery, repetition, tone etc.)
• Analyse how these techniques are used to convey the speaker’s
personality, views, key themes etc.
‘Gap Year’ comes towards the end of the collection and addresses
the feeling experienced by all parents when their children leave
home.
‘It seems like a relevant circle, between ‘The Adoption Papers’ and
then having my own baby, and then having my baby growing up and
going back out into the wide world.’
Jackie Kay (interview with the Sunday Times 25/03/07)
I
I remember your Moses basket before you were born.
I’d stare at the fleecy white sheet for days, weeks,
willing you to arrive, hardly able to believe
I would ever have a real baby to put in the basket.
Her on her own,
excited, eager,
waiting for her
son’s birth
Title:
• Alludes to physical ‘gap’ between Kay and Matthew
• Also reflects the 18 years that have felt like a short ‘gap’ to Kay
between Matthew’s birth and him now being 18
Image of basket referred to at end of poem – framing device
Starts with Matthew absent and Kay yearning – how the poem also ends
Word choice – ‘stare’ – repeated throughout poem, conveying intensity
of longing as does ‘willing you to arrive’ – sentiment repeated at end of
the poem
Inability to believe baby will arrive reflected at start of section 2 when
cannot imagine his return from Gap Year
I’d feel the mound of my tight tub of a stomach,
and you moving there, foot against my heart,
elbow in my ribcage, turning, burping, awake, asleep.
One time I imagined I felt you laugh.
Metaphor – image of a container. By the end of poem, it is clear
Matthew cannot be contained and her sadness/acceptance that she
must let him live his life how he chooses.
Word Choice and list of baby’s actions of ‘foot against my heart’ and
‘elbow in my ribcage’ – source of joy and pain. Always able to feel him
near; now, she cannot. Reflected at end of poem with mixed emotions
of pride and longing.
Synaesthesia ‘felt you laugh’ –– closeness of pregnancy. His
experiences are hers. (cf. later in poem when she experiences
happiness/joy vicariously)
I’d play you Handel’s Water Music or Emma Kirkby
singing Pergolesi. I’d talk to you, my close stranger,
call you Tumshie, ask when you were coming to meet me.
You arrived late, the very hot summer of eighty-eight.
She does the things
parents are told to
do – shows she
wants to give him
the best start in life.
• Oxymoron – ‘close stranger’ – physically close but unknown.
Mirrored/inverted at end of poem: mother-son bond is close, but he
has become a stranger physically through distance
• This section adds to atmosphere of contentment, calm and
peacefulness.
• Highlights/emphasises connection between them (e.g. pet
name/term of endearment that she shares only with him so we can
understand how empty/lost she felt when he left.)
• You arrived late – almost accusatory – like he kept her waiting for
him, on his terms, even then. Now, she waits for him to decide to
come again.
You had passed the due date string of eights,
and were pulled out with forceps, blue, floury,
on the fourteenth of August on Sunday afternoon.
I took you home on Monday and lay you in your basket.
• Rhyme of ‘date’ with ‘eight’ – emphasises auspicious due date
missed. ‘Due date’ repeated later in poem referring to when he
will return from travels
• Irony – had to be pulled out with forceps / unwilling to leave; now
unwilling to return home from travels
• Sunday  Monday – idea of new week symbolising a new
chapter beginning.
• Also conveyed through the use of a circular structure – the empty
basket at the start of the section is now full symbolising she now
feels whole/complete, and thus, with him now away, she feels
empty once again.
II
Now, I peek in your room and stare at your bed
hardly able to imagine you back in there sleeping,
Your handsome face – soft, open. Now you are eighteen,
six foot two, away, away in Costa Rica, Peru, Bolivia.
Highlights this is a
new chapter in their
relationship and in
both their lives too.
• Word choice – ‘peek’ – actions of a parent checking on a
sleeping child. ‘stare’ – intensity of longing. Echoes earlier
reference looking at empty basket
• ‘hardly able’ - links back to stanza 1. However, then she couldn’t
imagine his presence. Now she can’t imagine anything but his
absence. Repetition of ‘away’ emphasises the distance too.
• List of South American countries – exotic, distant, connotations of
exploration/adventure. Also suggests distance between them.
• Affectionate descriptions of face as ‘soft, open’ will be contrasted
by appearance on webcam later.
I follow your trails on my Times Atlas:
from the Caribbean side of Costa Rica to the Pacific,
the baby turtles to the massive leatherbacks.
Then on to Lima, to Cuzco. Your grandfather
• Role reversal – mother following child’s lead.
• ‘Times Atlas’ – British institution, roots her in the UK. Contrast in
the smallness of her actions (armchair travelling) compared with
his adventure.
• Repeated structure of “from…to” Traversing from one side of
South America to the other.
• Contrast between ‘baby turtles’ and ‘massive leatherbacks’
All serve to emphasise range and scale of Matthew’s travels and how
he is no longer her little baby but is fully grown and she has to let him
go (‘baby turtles  massive leatherbacks’ – he’s ‘six foot two.’)
rings: ‘Have you considered altitude sickness,
Christ, he’s sixteen thousand feet above sea level.’
Then to the lost city of the Incas, Macchu Picchu,
Where you take a photograph of yourself with the statue
Intrusion of Grandather’s warning is humorous – this Enjambment
across stanzas reflects interruptions to Kay’s romanticised imagining
of Matthews travels. Shows how fixated/concerned they are about
Matthew.
‘Christ’ shows her frustration of the Grandfather’s
irrationality.
‘lost city of the Incas, Macchu Picchu’ – connotations of discovering
new worlds, like a conquistador.
Contrast – he is out experiencing life/new place/experiences – she is
stuck at home/static/passive/experiencing life vicariously through him
and not out experiencing it first hand.
of the original Tupac. You are wearing a Peruvian hat.
Yesterday in Puno before catching the bus for Copacabana
you suddenly appear on a webcam and blow me a kiss,
you have a new haircut; your face is grainy, blurry.
• ‘Peruvian hat’ a symbol of changing/ experiencing new things
confirmed by him being constantly on the move: (‘Yesterday in
Puno… catching the bus for Copacabana.’)
• Word choice – ‘suddenly’ – fleeting communication again links to
title – the gap between them.
• Likewise, the haircut is a marker of change/the new/unfamiliar to
Kay.
• ‘grainy, blurry’ face contrasts with her imagining of his face in l.19.
now, almost emphasises how long it has been since she saw him
– his features are no longer as clearly defined.
Seeing you, shy, smiling, on the webcam reminds me
of the second scan at twenty weeks, how at that fuzzy
moment back then, you were lying cross-legged with
an index finger resting sophisticatedly on one cheek.
Comparison between present and past / webcam and prenatal scan and
how much changes. Sadness for what has gone/passed. She is thinking
about who this Matthew is, just like she wondered about who he would be
pre-birth.
You started the Inca trail in Arctic conditions
and ended up in subtropical. Now you plan the Amazon
in Bolivia. Your grandfather rings again to say
‘There’s three warring factions in Bolivia, warn him
‘started….Arctic […] end up in subtropical’ – emphasises
range/diversity of his travels ‘plan the Amazon’ – ambitious, broad,
sweeping
plans
–
continues
image
of
Matthew
as
explorer/conquistador
against it. He canny see everything. Tell him to come home.’
But you say all the travellers you meet rave about Bolivia. You want
To see the Salar de Uyuni,
the world’s largest salt-flats, the Amazonian rainforest.
Grandfather represents the voice of age: limitation, fear, worry,
caution. Contrasts with Matthew’s carefree, free-wheeling plans to see
the biggest and best (‘largest salt-flats’ ‘Amazonian rainforest’)
And now you’re not coming home till four weeks after
your due date. After Bolivia, you plan to stay
with a friend’s Auntie in Argentina.
Then – to Chile where you’ll stay with friends of Diane’s.
Mirrors being four-weeks overdue at birth.
‘a friend’s Auntie’ and ‘friends of Diane’s’ –plans are ad-hoc. Kay
struggling to keep up with who and where. Likewise, she is struggling
to come to terms with how much he has changed/developed/his
independence/failure to need her now etc.
And maybe work for the Victor Jara Foundation.
I feel like a home-alone mother; all the lights
have gone out in the hall, and now I am
wearing your large black slippers, flip-flopping
• ‘maybe’ – plans are fluid, uncertain. She no longer is the one
leading his choices; he is in charge of his own destiny separate
from her.
• Pun on ‘home-alone’ – usually applied to a child. Role reversal –
feels abandoned?
• Darkness symbolic of Matthew’s absence (‘lights have gone out’
and ‘black’) ‘Large’ suggests his life is too big now for her to step
in to.
• Kay wearing Matthew’s slippers – to connect with him/feel close to
him.
• Onomatopoeia – ‘flip-flopping’: a pathetic, sad sound, lacking
energy. Idea of going back and forth to his room? Lack of direction
without him whereas he is constantly on a journey without her.
into your empty bedroom, trying to imagine you
in your bed. I stare at the photos you send by messenger:
you on the top of the world, arms outstretched, eager.
Blue sky, white snow; you by Lake Tarahua, beaming.
• ‘empty bedroom’ recalls empty cot at start. Sense of empty nest
syndrome symbolising her loneliness/lack of completion/emptiness
without him.
• ‘trying to imagine you / in your bed’ recalls ‘willing you to arrive’ at start
of poem. Again reflects circular structure of the poem.
• ‘stare’ – sense of longing again – trying to absorb every second of his
adventure/journey.
• Metaphor – ‘you on top of the world’ – delights to see him so happy.
• Blue and white of sky and snow recalls the blue of Matthew when
born, and while of the fleecy blankets. Everything is about making
connections – what she is desperate to try and do despite the miles
between them. She tries to re-establish ties all the way through the
My heart soars like the birds in your bright blue skies.
My love glows like the sunrise over the lost city.
I sing along to Ella Fitzgerald, A tisket A tasket.
I have a son out in the big wide world.
A flip and a skip ago, you were dreaming in your basket.
• Marked change in mood here from sadness/nostalgia  pride,
joy and acceptance. Cf. with other poems which lead to
acceptance at end e.g. ‘Lucozade’, ‘My Grandmother’s Houses’
and ‘Keeping Orchids.’
• Simile – ‘heart soars like the birds’ – image of joy and pride.
• Simile – ‘love glows like the sunrise over a lost city’ – her love is
so powerful that it can reach him over the lost city of the Incas
etc. regardless of distance between them.
• Kay is imagining herself with Matthew in the form of her love. Her
love crosses all distance etc. Makes her feel more content as
they will always be connected – link to last line. She created him;
Summary
There are many resonances, parallels and
contrasts throughout the poem.
The first section details the peace and tranquillity
of the perfect union of mother and baby. It is much
shorter than the second section, suggesting that
the experience felt brief/short.
The second stanza starts with a flash forward of
18 years. The way this long period is dispatched
by a simple section break, perhaps imitates the
idea that, to Kay, Matthew’s birth just seemed like
yesterday, and the intervening years have flashed
past almost instantly.
The second stanza is far longer in length than the first,
suggesting that the experience of tracking Matthew’s travels and
awaiting his return is a painfully long and drawn-out one.
As with most of the poems in the selection, there is a wider range
of tones present in the poem than might appear at first glance.
Longing, pride, sadness, humour and nostalgia are all present in
varying degrees.
Regular stanza lengths (4 lines) mirrors the regularity/inevitability
of growing up/life children move away/have own lives.
Last line – short/brief symbolises how quickly this change occurs
and the sadness/poignancy of her life with him, in some ways,
now be over.