Mildred's Post

Long Distance II

By Tony Harrison

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

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 were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name 
and the disconnected number I still call.

Short Analysis, Rationale for Choice and Target Group

This poem is about the persona grappling with the death of his mother. In short, it he describes as though his father is not taking the death well, and choosing to live in a world of his own past when the mother is around, when the ironic thing is that he is just the same or maybe more deluded as he calls his mother’s already non-existent phone number once in a while. This poem involves missing a loved one and being a child of someone, which is something most children should be able to relate to and the main thing I am teaching them is voice, tone and emotion, which is why I chose this poem.

My target audience is Secondary 1 Normal Academic.

Questions:

Who is do you think is the speaker/persona/voice in this poem?

This basic question would help student be aware that there is a voice in every poem telling a story. Getting an idea of the voice (a voice of a son) is the key to understanding this poem and helps them to realise that this poem revolves around a son (or child for that matter) of somebody, which is something most can relate to.

What has happening in the poem and what is the tone and atmosphere?

For the students to realise the tone and atmosphere in this poem, they need to know that this poem is about the grappling of death of a loved one and slowly work from there making connections to the choice of words and the helping them to imagine what this poem is trying to convey to the readers.

What do you think the Long Distance refers to?

Understanding the title would help them in understanding the concept of love and death, and hence enhance their global understanding of what love and death means and that despite the Distance of life and death, there really still is a bond with the parted and it will never part. This will in turn help them to analyse the following question and bring it to a deeper understanding.

Does the author misses his mother a lot? What are the words/phrases point that out?

If it was an upper sec class, I would phrase the question as “How does the author convey his emotions?” But since, I am dealing with secondary one students, I decided to break the question down further and lead them to the technique of using diction to induce a scene in their head and invoke there emotions. Also, since they are only secondary ones, they might not understand the big concept of emotions and so by narrowing it down to “missing”, I aim to help them focus their energy in analysing that.