TONY HARRISON

Long distance 1
In his 1978 poem ‘Long Distance’ Tony Harrison describes his father’s difficulties in coming to terms with
his wife’s death and the emotions Harrison himself experiences upon the death his father. To arrive at
this interpretation after reading the poem is, by all means, a valid insight. It would, however, be a pity to
be contented with this alone. For such a reading does probably not allow for the rhetoric means to be
fully appreciated to which Harrison reverted to communicate his poem successfully. Furthermore, the
way in which the reader experiences the poem, as well as how it affects the reader would not find
consideration. In short – the poem’s texture would not be accounted for. The following analysis, based
on my own natural reading, attempts to describe and explain the texture of Harrison’s poem.
As is to be expected, the first stanza of the poem has a distinct effect on the reader. For one, this is
because the level of concentration is still high. More importantly, however, the first stanza of the poem
presents the reader with an appealing text world. Foremost, the agent of the sentence is human, namely
the narrator’s father. A human agent, in a way, provides the reader with the possibility to interact
mentally with or develop sentiments towards him. Stockwell (2009: 25) illustrates this with
his empathetic recognisability scale on which human agents rank highest. Besides this, the line initial
positioning and, somewhat obvious, capitalization of the word ‘Dad’ (l. 2) attract the reader’s attention.
Furthermore, the actions described are all in the active voice and literally convey motion, which will
appear more intense to a reader which Stockwell (2009: 25) terms activeness. Lastly, the objects
described in the first stanza, ‘slippers’, ‘bottles’, and ‘transport pass’ (ll. 2, 3, 4 respectively), all form
good attractors as they are concrete, very ordinary objects to which every reader ought to be able to
relate easily. Together, these three factors ensure that the first stanza remains fairly prominent in the
reader’s mind throughout the reading of the poem.
In the course of the second stanza, the reader’s focus remains on the father. The proper noun ‘Dad’
from the first stanza is pronominalised in ‘He’(l. 6) and ‘his’(l. 7), thereby finding itself positively
revivified (Stockwell 2009: 20). Thus, the two pronouns in line 5 are more or less disregarded since their
generic use renders them too unspecific to the reader to be in any way meaningful. Thereafter, the
reader’s awareness is drawn towards the word ‘love’ in line 8, despite it being fairly
abstract. It is elaborately pre-modified by a three-word noun phrase, namely ‘his still raw’(l. 8), which, as
Stockwell (2009: 25) notes, functions as an effective textual attractor. Additionally it might be argued
that ‘love’ is simply an appealing concept to humans, as is it universal.
In contrast to the first two stanzas, the third stanza as a whole appears somewhat less literarily intense.
Conceivably, some of the denoted nouns such as ‘disbelief’, ‘grief’ and indirectly ‘knowledge (ll. 9, 10,
12, respectively) are too abstract to form strong attractors. The description of the key scraping in the
lock, however, might be found to have a more enduring effect. Stockwell (2009: 25) explains this with
the principle of noisiness, which ‘denote[s] phenomena which are audibly voluminous’. Accordingly, the
description of the key turning in the lock may be mentally processed into sound, thereby creating
greater intensity and perseverance.
So far, the poem has probably had a calming or soothing effect on the reader. Firstly, this might be
explained structurally with the poem’s symmetry. The stanzas consist of four lines each, which, in turn,
are made up of either ten or eleven syllables, arranged to form an alternate rhyme scheme. As the
assonant words are, thus, only separated by a few syllables, the reader’s anticipation of the subsequent
rhyme is rewarded quickly. Though the clauses mostly continue over more than one line, they are
syntactically end-stopped. Owing to this structure, the reader is provided with a fairly steady reading
rhythm, to which he soon becomes accustomed. Secondly, the vantage point adopted by the reader is
somewhat removed from the characters since the descriptions by the narrator are in the third person.
Lastly, the discourse situation has been advanced plainly enough by the narrator, so that every reader is
aware of the death of the mother, the father’s reluctance to cope with his loss, and the narrator’s
sympathetic view on this. Understanding the consequences of these two contrasting belief worlds has
demanded some emotional investment of the reader, thereby certainly arousing sympathy for the
father. Yet, reasons to invest more emotional and intellectual depth of effort to appreciate the poem
have so far not arisen.
The incentive effectuating this, however, is given at the beginning of the fourth stanza. The
confrontation with the first-person narrator ‘I’ (l. 13), located prominently at the beginning of the line,
forces itself into the reader’s attention to two effects. On the one hand, the reader is drawn into feeling
much closer to the action, supported by the change to the present tense. On the other hand, the lyrical-I
constitutes the foremost agent for the reader to interact with, so that developing sentiments towards
him is possible from now on. As a consequence, the first three stanzas, in which the agent was a third-
person and the action was not only purely descriptive, but also in the past tense, fade into the literary
background, giving way to the fourth stanza. The first line sustains its intensity further as the reader is
briefly attracted by the word ‘death’. (l. 13). As Stockwell (2009: 25) notes, aesthetic distance from the
norm will make a good attractor, which may serve as an explanation for this. Thereafter, the reader
approaches the section of the poem which will reward him for his emotional investment – the ‘moment
of payoff’, as Stockwell (2009: 98) writes. He observes, ‘the final three lines release […] the grief in one
single onward flow’ (Stockwell 2009: 98), which may explain a reader’s possible initial confusion. The use
of ‘You haven’t both’ at the beginning of line 14 forces the reader to consider who the addressees of the
plural pronoun are since they are obviously not applied generically as in line 5. The reader is,
nevertheless, given hardly any time to spend much thought on this as his rhythm of reading is
interrupted slightly for the first time in the poem in the middle of line 14. As a consequence, his
attention and concentration are re-focused on the following line. Here again, Stockwell’s principle
of largeness can be applied to give an explanation as the noun ‘phone book’ (l. 15) is preceded by five
modifiers. Thus, attention is drawn away from the deictic pronouns ‘you’ and ‘both’ from the previous
line and focused on understanding the new noun phrase. Upon reading the last line, the reader may be
confused by the seemingly incongruous connection of the out-of-date ‘disconnected number’ (l. 16)
which the narrator ‘still call[s]’ (l. 16) and the obviously new ‘phone book’ (l. 15). In virtually the same
instant, the reader’s memory rushes back two lines to ‘You haven’t both gone shopping’ (l. 14), connects
it to the scene of the third stanza, and arrives at the revelation that the narrator’s father has also died.
Long Distance II by Tony Harrison
‘Long Distance II’ by Tony Harrison is a four-stanza poem that deals with the irrational manifestations
that grief can take.
‘Long Distance II’ by Tony Harrison is a four-stanza poem that deals with the irrational manifestations
that grief can take. In this work, Harrison relays the nonsensical approaches of a father and his child as
they grieve the passing of at least one person, and in both scenarios, their mourning surfaces through
actions that are connected to the deceased in ways that simply do not make sense. Both the father and
the child realize that these methods of coping could be seen as abnormal, yet they continue with those
same patterns of behaviors to manage their heartbreaks.
All in all, this is a work that represents the idiosyncrasies of grief and showcases them in such a relatable
manner that the reader can arrive at what could be a shocking conclusion: There is nothing abnormal
about treating grief in a nonsensible, or abnormal, way. Rather, grief is a reaction to something barely
understandable, and dealing with it in ways that are not logical is somehow fitting and common. You can
read the full poem here.

Long Distance II Analysis

First Stanza
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.
Harrison dives into the heart of the matter in the first line of this first stanza, and that is death.
Specifically, the narrator’s mother passed away, and after “two years,” the narrator’s father still
behaved, in part, as if she were alive and well. For instance, he made sure “her slippers” were heated, as
well as “her side of the bed,” and he even went so far as to “renew her transport pass.” These details
hint at a level of denial from the father as if he would not accept that his wife was gone, and the tactics
he employed to keep with the delusion are fairly large. He was not just keeping her picture. He was
treating her home and the life she left behind as though she would simply step back into them.
As it happens, the methods the father took to keep his wife near were directly tied to concepts that can
be linked to losing someone. The tendency to work heat into his grieving through “hot water bottles”
and “gas” can represent a person’s feeling of cold emptiness upon losing someone close to them, and
the continued effort to insert heat into the midst of that grief can speak volumes in regard to the
father’s desperateness to thaw out the coldness of his mourning. The void his wife left was deep and
frigid, and he needed relief by any means.
In addition, keeping her “transport pass” active shows a connection to traveling, a concept that relates
to a journey that occurs afterlife. Particularly if the father hoped the wife was able to return to him in
some form, this “transport” detail reflects not only the general traveling idea, but also his effort to make
sure she was capable of making the trip. Sure, she wouldn’t need the “transport” to do these things, but
it can be viewed as a metaphor.
 
Second Stanza
You couldn’t just drop in. You had to phone.
(…)
as though his still raw love were such a crime.
What was described as the father’s tactics to maintain his delusion begin being treated with a bit more
ridicule in this stanza. Whereas in the first stanza, Harrison treats the details as simply given facts, here
the narration shifts into explaining why the actions were actually inconvenient. People were not
permitted to “just drop in” because the father needed time to “clear away [the mother’s] things and
look alone.” This speaks of a level of embarrassment that could be tied to his grief, but it is just as likely
that the father knows his grieving mechanisms were not logical. There was no reason why his wife’s
shoes would need to be “warm[ed],” but he continued with the process anyway.
This idea validates the sanity of the father, even if the reader by this point had started to doubt it.
Granted, he dealt with his grief in a nontraditional way, but he was mentally stable enough to know that
he must hide his idiosyncrasies from the public eye. Others would never have understood—they would
have probably ridiculed—so his grieving habits had to remain hidden.
The narrator, however, shows evidence in this stanza that they side with their father on the stance since
the father’s “clear[ing] away her things” is spoken of in a way that makes it seem unnecessary. To the
narrator, hiding evidence of the father’s grief was treating the scenario “as though his still raw love were
such a crime.” The delivery of the wording indicates that such a belief was wrong since the line begins
with “as if,” which hints at an imagined, presumed state. Had Harrison chosen to say “because,” this
word choice would have been evidence that the narrator carried the belief that the father’s grieving
tactics were wrong.
It seems, then, that the son or daughter of this father was watching the grief and could see sense in the
nonsensical approach. Perhaps, deeper, this understanding showed a shared comprehension of the
grief, meaning that only the father and child truly grasped the pain of the mother’s passing.
 
Third Stanza
He couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief
(…)
He knew she’d just popped out to get the tea.
The third stanza of ‘Long Distance II’ nearly takes everything that has been expressed about the father
and his grief and tosses it aside. Even though the narrator knew about the father’s methods of dealing
with his grief and even hinted that they did not believe those tactics “were such a crime,” the beginning
line of this section could be an indication that the father was actively trying to hide his mourning
techniques from the narrator. The father, per this stanza, “couldn’t risk… [the] disbelief” of the narrator
treading on his delusions. On closer inspection, though, something very different can be uncovered at
the beginning of this stanza. Particularly, the notion can be inferred that the narrator told the father that
he did not hold the same belief that she’d return, but the father refused to accept that “disbelief”
because “[h]e couldn’t risk” it.
The other detail that is almost contradicted within this stanza is the father’s sanity. Already, it was
established that his cleaning up before the company arrived showed that he was mentally present, but
in this third stanza, he seemed devoured by his delusions that his wife hadn’t died. Rather, “she’d just
popped out to get the tea” and “very soon he’d hear her key scrape in the rusted lock” from her return.
Again, though, reconciliation between the stanzas’ ideas can be found in being told that the father
“couldn’t risk” the “disbelief.” He knew these things were not true, and that is why he had to veer away
from the “disbelief.” Knowing that the “disbelief” was valid would lead to ending his mourning practices
because there would be no sense in them.
He knew his fantasies were not true. He just was not ready to let them go, and though the delusions
were as “rusted” as the “lock” with age and mistreatment, he simply had to hang on to them longer. In
essence, this is not a tale of a man who was crazy from grief. It is a tale of a man who was aware, deep
down, that his wife was not coming home, but embracing that notion would have felt worse than living
like the opposite was true.
 
Fourth Stanza
I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
(…)
and the disconnected number I still call.
In this stanza, the perspective shifts (mimicked in the rhyme scheme shifting from ABAB to ABBA and the
change to present tense) so that the narrator is now referencing his own beliefs and grief rather than
relaying the story of his father’s. Still, though, the idea behind holding to details of a person who has
been taken by death is treated in the same way. There is no sense, to the narrator, in carrying on like the
person is still alive or capable of returning. To the narrator, “life ends with death, and that is all.”
This person now being grieved, as it happens, seems to be the father that was grieving earlier in that the
narrator says that they “both haven’t gone shopping.” Considering the only two people referenced by
the narrator in ‘Long Distance II’ specifically are his mother and father, it is a safe assumption that these
two are the ones that create the “both” element being grieved. Seemingly, the father has died, and the
narrator is now grieving that loss as well.
Even knowing that there is no use in holding to nonsensical grieving habits, “just the same,” the narrator
has taken the time to write their “name” “in [his] new black leather phone book,” and he “still call[s]”
them. One could argue that this is a tendency that could occur out of habit, but given with the precursor
that the narrator knows that his parents “haven’t… gone shopping,” it almost has to be a deliberate
practice. Otherwise, there would be no need to quality his “belie[fs]” before addressing the tendency
since it would have been an honest mistake.
As it stands, the narrator is saying that he realizes there is no sense to this action, but he keeps
“call[ing]” anyway. Like his father, his grief is not manifesting in ways that make sense. Also like his
father, he knows that his actions are illogical. Most of all though, like his father, he keeps grieving the
same way, holding on to these little details of what remains of those passed on even though no rational
argument can validate the practice.
Overall, ‘Long Distance II’ addresses the lack of logic that lies behind grief through these two accounts.
Mourning, seemingly to Harrison, does not have to be rational. It just needs to be.
 
About Tony Harrison
Tony Harrison is the English author of a number of poems and plays that he penned in the 20th and
21st centuries. He has won multiple awards and recognition for his writing, including a UNESCO
fellowship, and he is also linked to periodical writing and translation work. He has additionally written
lyrics, hinting at his varied abilities at manipulating words and measures.
Introduction
Marked with D is an adaptation of the nursery rhyme, “Pat-a-Cake, Baker Man” which deals with life
since it has to do with baking a cake for a baby. Marked with D, on the other hand, is a parody of the
nursery rhyme in which D stands for Death and not for the baby’s initial.
Baking and cremation
In the poem, the poet Harrison deals with harsh reality since it touches on the process of cremation. The
first two lines of the poem reveal the picture of an actual corpse being burned in the process and
providing the readers with ideas regarding the subject of the poem; namely, Harrison’s father – the
Baker. Taken in the abstract sense, the lines suggest the negative traits of the baker. The poet, however,
leaves us to make our interpretation and gives us just enough information to understand what the poem
is all about.
Baking and cremation (the latter only alluded to in the poem) as registered in the lexicon would be
synonymous, considering that both processes are concerned with the sourcing and application of heat.
In the case of the oven, baking essentially deals with life since it is centered on cooking food for
sustaining the body.
Cremation, however, has to do with death because it is centered on burning – the reduction of a dead
body to ashes or dust.
As regards collocation, the oven is located in the home – an environment associated with activity and
family life, the crematorium is generally situated in a place near a funeral parlor or cemetery – a place of
peace. This fact would strengthen the difference between baking and cremation; between oven (life)
and crematorium (death).
The third and fourth lines give evidence of the love of Harrison’s father for his mother whining the eyes
of their son. This is illustrated in “radiant with the sight of his dead wife, light streaming from his mouth
to shape her name.” For Harrison’s father, her name was never Florence or Flo, but always Florrie.
Florence would be too formal, and Flo – too familiar. Florrie must have been his pet name for her since
their courtship days.
Harrison and his father
Whether or not Harrison and his father got along, the son believed that his father filled a positive role
within the bounds of marriage and family. For the son, despite his father’s being a cold and unpleasant
individual, set in his ways and weighed down by his religion, his wife and family were top priority. This
may have been the reason why Harrison loved and respected his parents as shown in the poem. He
must have experienced close family ties.

In the last two lines of the first stanza, Harrison believed that what burdened their father was religion.
“But he hungered for release from mortal speech/ that kept him down, the tongue that weighed like
lead,” – Mortal speech was that of religion, which can do nothing for the individual in the long run. For
Harrison, his father’s faith was a burden that blinded him to reality. The blindness may refer to actual
cataracts which plagued the father in later life and which in turn symbolize the cloudiness caused by fire
during cremation.
The juxtaposition of ideas expressed by “mortal speech that kept him down” and “the tongue that
weighed like lead” indicates sameness. Both have an identical meaning; e.g., the spirituality of the father
that weighed him down and which never left him.
Features of the poem
The entire poem is written in iambic pentameter and rhyme from beginning to end. The rhyme scheme
follows the A B A B pattern. There are twelve lines in the first stanza and four in the concluding stanza.
This short last stanza serves as a sad afterthought, bewailing the fact that the baker who was once his
father, after the cremation, has been reduced to smoke.
Towards the end of the poem, the poet explains his own beliefs which contradict those of his father. He
presents his readers with concrete realities (his father, for example) to provide a rational alternative to
the idea of religion.
Harrison’s father, once again, was a very religious person who sought security within the realms of
spirituality. He depended on religion to release him from a hostile world.
The son refused to acknowledge a God or subscribe to the ridiculous idea of a place one can flee to after
death – “no Heaven to reach.” He is firm in his views that everything he is or will be – can only be
attained here on earth.
The tongue of Harrison’s father remains cold because of all the false ideas and intentions brought about
by his intense spirituality.

When the tongue burst into flames, it was unfortunate, according to the son that the spirituality
survived, since the father never let go of it.
Harrison laments the fact that his father died a common middle-class person, who never had the chance
to rise like the bread he baked in his lifetime. Yeast mixed with flour are important ingredients in making
bread. Flour and yeast mixed with ashes (the ultimate reduction of the human body) will never produce
anything that resembles bread.
Lastly, Harrison refers to England.
Once again, this may touch on the subject of religion. Some Englishmen of his time depended on
spirituality as the solution for life’s problems and depended on it as an escape from reality – they
depended on it as being there for them through Life and Death.
In Harrison's poem "Turns", the cap is an important motive. It has a changing meaning what will be
explained in the following paragraph. The title is very interpretable and will also be reviewed. ....

The cap could be a symbol for the speaker's admiration and proud for his dad and the working class. This
is perceptible in the first stanza, where the speaker wears the cap with a sense of admiration. He wants
to be like his father, to be working class. The meaning changes when the poem changes; when the
father dies. The cap lies upside-down, what is a visual image of the change. It looks like he is a beggar,
what changes the speaker's attitude. He feels as if his father is humiliated by this fact and by the staring
crowd. His attitude towards the middle class gets even more negative in the last stanza. The meaning of
the cap seems ironic: the speaker collects money with the cap from the crowd, as if his dead father is a
street artist. The harsh words like 'trap' and 'busk' show that he is angry because of his father's death.
The cap seems to show their growing connection the son feels, because of the father's death.

One meaning of the title could be related from the sentence: "(...) made me look more "working
class"(...) bridge that gap!)" This shows that his father is working class and he is not. T Harrison used to
be working class until he went to grammar school and became middle class. When assuming that this is
an autobiographical poem we could assume that the speaker undergoes the same change and this could
be the meaning of the title.

When the father is found dead is the change in the poem. When that happens the appearance of the
father and the speaker himself change. The father seemed an invulnerable and proud person to the
speaker. "Death's reticence crowns his life's". This could mean that he lived longer than it was common
for working class. When he dies he becomes a vulnerable and mortal person, and the speaker finds this
out too. Because of his father's death, the speaker becomes angry and averted to the middle class.

His father's cap is turned inside up because of his falling down, it looks as if he is begging for money. This
fact reveals this turn in the speaker's attitude towards the middle class. He was in the first stanza already
more appealed by the working class. His father's death is probably caused by hard work for a middle
class-boss. In the line "I'm opening my trap to busk the class that broke him ( ...)" this anger is exposed.

The cap can have different meanings. It can stand for the admiration and proud the speaker has for his
father. The meaning changes into humiliation of the father, through the upside-down cap. This image is
used ironically by the speaker, he is collecting money in the cap as if his father is an attraction. The title
can also have various explanations. It could mean the speaker's turning into middle class, if taking the
poem autobiographical. Another possibilities are the turn in the father's appearance in the eyes of his
son and the change in the speaker's attitude.
Book Ends by Tony Harrison – Critical Commentary

Book Ends by Tony Harrison is a poem about the death of the writer’s mother, and the effect this has on
the complicated relationship between father and son, who are unable to relate to each other or
communicate emotionally. The tone of the poem is melancholic, reflecting on the theme of death and
the breakup of family, with a bitter edge in the description of the unbridgeable rift between father and
son which widens following the mother’s death.
The poem is separated into two parts, each with sixteen lines, and is loosely based on an iambic
pentameter metre. The rhyme scheme is ABAB throughout the poem, with the noticeable exception of
the last four lines of part II, in which it changes to…show more content…
He describes the blue gas flame as being ‘too regular each bud, each yellow spike’, and this criticism is
perhaps evidence of his inner turmoil and a need for a chaotic emotional outlet.
The next couple of lines portray the idea that it is only through the mother that the father and son are
united. In life, her presence and assurances that they are alike linked them, and once she is gone, there
is little to bring them together except their shared grief, which as they are so emotionally divided they
find impossible to communicate. Up until this point, the narrator of the poem has clearly been the son,
but it is unclear who is speaking in the line ‘Your life’s all shattered to smithereens’, or indeed whose life
is being referred to in this highly effective image of broken glass, smashed into tiny shards. It could be
the son talking to the father or vice versa, or the mother talking to either one of them, but equally the
shattered life in question could be the mother’s, in that her life, which once combined her husband, her
son and herself in one family, is now fragmented into separate pieces following her death as the father
and son drift apart.
Critical Commentary of “Book Ends” by Tony Harrison
Book Ends by Tony Harrison is a poem about the death of the writer’s mother, and the effect this has on
the complicated relationship between father and son, who are unable to relate to each other or
communicate emotionally. The tone of the poem is melancholic, reflecting on the theme of death and
the breakup of family, with a bitter edge in the description of the unbridgeable rift between father and
son which widens following the mother’s death. The poem is separated into two parts, each with sixteen
lines, and is loosely based on an iambic pentameter metre. The rhyme scheme is ABAB throughout the
poem, with the noticeable exception of the last four lines of part II, in which it changes to ABBA,
reflecting a time shift in the poem’s narration. The first ten lines are made up of couplets, but the
general structure is flexible and there is no strict format or line grouping to the poem – this is perhaps
representative of the emotions and disjointed thought processes felt by the writer following his
mother’s death.
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The two parts of the poem take place at different points in time. Narrated by the son from a first person
perspective, part I describes his and his father’s reactions immediately after the death of the mother and
introduces their problematic relationship. The first line is a sudden and mildly unsettling beginning to
the poem, and juxtaposes the homely, familiar image of a homemade apple with the stark reality of
death in a reminder that devastation can strike at even the most ordinary of moments. The father and
son slowly chew over both the pie and the actuality of the mother’s death as they begin to come to
terms with their loss. The father, ‘shocked into sleeplessness’, seems to feel the absence of his wife
most profoundly, and his son accuses him of being ‘scared of bed’ and unable to face his loneliness. He
reflects that the two of them have always had difficulty communicating, but now in the time when they
need each other’s support most they don’t even try and share their grief. This is the first hint of the
awkward relationship existing between the father and son, which becomes a central theme later on in
the poem.
The next two lines are spoken by the mother, who compares her husband and son to book ends. This
concept, which the reader first encounters in the title, is an extended simile within the first part of the
poem, and characterises the similarities and differences between the father and son. Just like book
ends, which look identical but face opposite directions, they are much the same in terms of appearance
and habitudes, but as we find out in the next couplet these resemblances only go so far and do not
translate into a close relationship. Here we are told that while the father is ‘worn out on poor pay’ and
comes from a working class background, the son is a ‘scholar’, who has had a university education.
The use of inverted commas here suggests the writer is being sarcastic and somewhat tongue-in-cheek
about his educational prowess, which adds a sense of irony to their dissimilarity. This contrast of
circumstances means that despite their physical resemblances and close blood relations, they have very
little in common – indeed, as the writer says, they are linked solely by their uncommunicativeness: ‘only
our silence made us a pair’. In the next couplet, the writer tells us that blue gas fires are ‘not as good for
staring in’, perhaps in comparison to a wood fire in the grate the mother described the father and son as
hogging earlier on in the poem. This is evidence that time has passed and things, including technology,
have moved on from the days which the mother is referring to. It is also a link to Tony Harrison’s poem
Long Distance II, in which he tells us that his father kept his mother’s slippers warming by the gas even
after her death, a habit so ingrained into his everyday life that he can’t help himself from continuing it
even when the wearer of the slippers is long gone.
The writer makes a point of comparing the two types of flame: this could indicate that he has a lot of
time on his hands, and, without any idea of how to fill it, spends long hours staring into the fire, perhaps
in his father’s silent company. He describes the blue gas flame as being ‘too regular each bud, each
yellow spike’, and this criticism is perhaps evidence of his inner turmoil and a need for a chaotic
emotional outlet. The next couple of lines portray the idea that it is only through the mother that the
father and son are united. In life, her presence and assurances that they are alike linked them, and once
she is gone, there is little to bring them together except their shared grief, which as they are so
emotionally divided they find impossible to communicate.
Up until this point, the narrator of the poem has clearly been the son, but it is unclear who is speaking in
the line ‘Your life’s all shattered to smithereens’, or indeed whose life is being referred to in this highly
effective image of broken glass, smashed into tiny shards. It could be the son talking to the father or vice
versa, or the mother talking to either one of them, but equally the shattered life in question could be the
mother’s, in that her life, which once combined her husband, her son and herself in one family, is now
fragmented into separate pieces following her death as the father and son drift apart. Earlier on in the
poem we are told that the son and father come from very different cultural backgrounds, but it is only in
the last three lines of the part I that we realise that the son’s education is not merely a dividing factor
but a considerable bone of contention between him and his father. In an attempt to bond with each
other, they turn to drink to forget their grief, but it is to no avail as they revert to their perpetual silence
and inability to relate to one another, communicating solely by ‘sullen looks’. Separated by the son’s
academia and learning, it is not age which poses the problem, but a university degree and ‘books, books,
books’.
This repetition is effective in emphasising the gap between them, and concludes the extended metaphor
of part I: the books, representing knowledge and education, do not only alienate the father and son, but
also separate the book ends to which the two men are compared earlier in the poem, in a highly
effective double metaphor. The second part jumps forward in time, to a point a while after the mother’s
death when the father and son, divided in all other fields but united once more by the mother, are
deciding what to have cut on her gravestone. As they come from a modest financial background, the
stone is far from grand and there is little room for flowery words or description, so the wording must be
concise and to the point. In the next couplet, the father expresses his anger and exasperation: he was
certain that with his son’s learning and knowledge of words he would effortlessly produce something
touching and eloquent for the headstone, but the son, devastated by his mother’s death, is unable to
find the words needed to commemorate her in his grief.
The father is incredulous, and tells him dismissively that ‘it’s not as if we’re wanting verse’, implying that
it must be easier to find the words to write on his one’s mother’s gravestone than to write a poem. The
next few lines of the poem are further evidence of the father and son’s lack of common relations, as
they are united once more by alcohol in their attempt to deal with their suffering. Under the influence of
whisky, perhaps the only way he can express himself without inhibitions, the father says he had always
been ‘clumsy talker’, and admits that he can’t come up with anything better for the headstone that
‘beloved wife’, which he seems to consider inelegant and unworthy of the emotion he would express if
he had the words to do so. There is a certain bitterness in the writer’s tone when he reflects that while
his father is open about his own lack of eloquence, which itself reveals his working class origins, his
words are not so unpolished to be incapable of making a caustic remark.
The phrase ‘still can’t cut’ has a double meaning, as it refers to both this and the action of cutting the
words into the gravestone. The father’s anger is manifest at his son’s inability to produce an inscription
for the grave, and he tells his son that he is ‘supposed to be the bright boy at description’, in an obvious
jibe about his university education. The use of an exclamation mark and the word ‘fuck’ in his comment
are evidence of his considerable anger and frustration, and are also evidence of a dysfunctional family
situation. The line ‘I’ve got to find the right words on my own’ is another ambiguous line, as it is not
clear who is speaking. The reader gets the idea that the father could be saying the words after he
realises his son is incapable of producing anything better, in a kind of exasperation. However the line
could also be spoken by the writer, either as a response to the father’s insistence that he come up with
something beautiful and touching for the inscription, or some time afterwards, when his father has
passed away and he is left truly alone to choose the words for their shared headstone.
This double narrative emphasises the solitude of the two men in the face of death, and their isolation
from one another. In the last three lines, the writer tells us he has found the envelope on which his
father had been scribbling ideas for his wife’s headstone. He describes the words as ‘mis-spelt, mawkish’
and ‘stylistically appalling’, but admits that he cannot find a way to better express the loss he has
experienced, or in other words is unable to ‘squeeze more love into their stone’. The use of the word
‘their’ in this metaphor subtly explains that the gravestone is shared, and that the father has passed
away and is now buried alongside the writer’s mother. It is in this final concluding line that the writer
freely admits that despite his education and writing ability, he cannot seem to manage to write anything
more honest or pure than his father’s unsophisticated words.
The poem has a personal register, with intimate emotional description. The majority of the lines use
informal language and syntax, such as the father’s exclamation ‘Come on, it’s not as if we’re wanting
verse’, which is very much an expression of the vernacular. By avoiding overly flamboyant phrases, the
poem does not lose its authenticity, and the raw emotion comes across effortlessly. Simple and
unaffected, the writer’s voice relates with painfully truthful accuracy the consequences the death of a
loved one can have on an already strained family situation. Tony Harrison is open and honest, and his
poem uses a remarkable lack of the melodramatic imagery and ideas expressed in many poems which
deal with death. In this way Book Ends shares certain likenesses with his poem Long Distance II, which is
similarly written in a conversational tone and contains few grandiloquent metaphors. A major theme in
Book Ends is one of pairs.
Aside from the book ends of the title, the father and son are made to ‘seem a pair’ in their habits and
appearances, and it is this comparison which is at an uncomfortable odds with the rest of the themes
discussed, primarily the conflict between the two of them. Furthermore, the poem is structured into two
parts, again reflecting the idea of pairs. The poem Book Ends is a reflection on the inadequacy of words,
and that the feeling behind them is often more important than the way the idea is expressed. Tony
Harrison considers what it is to be a poet, and what purpose it serves to be able to manipulate words
into shapes and images if, even as a learned man with a greater degree of education than his working
class father can ever hope to have, he is unable to produce a fitting tribute to his departed parents.