Walking Away

• ‘It is eighteen years ago’


  specific memory, distinct and affects him strongly
• ‘I watched you play/ Your first game of football’


  enjambement, represents how memories flood the mind with no order to it
• ‘Like a satellite / wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away’


  simile, the child orbits around the parent metaphorically, never being too far away.

  ‘drifting’ confusion, uncertainty, not ready.

  contrast between ‘wrenched‘ ‘drifted‘ suggests his father is not ready to let go whilst the son is.
• ‘half-fledged thing set free’


  transition from child to adult

  bird imagery, birds shed their wings when transitioning from adolescence to adult, ‘half-fledged suggests not ready.
• ‘winged seed loosened from its parent’


  natural imagery, parting happens in other species too. normal process
• what do the normal, regular stanzas represent?


  how letting go of your child is a normal process that even other species go through
• ‘______ seed ________ from ___ ______ stem’

  winged loosened its parent
• ‘____-_______ thing ___ ____’

  half-fledged set free
• ‘like a _________ / ________ from its _____, go ________ away’

  satellite wrenched orbit drifting
• ‘I _______ you play / ____ _____ game of ________’

  watched your first football
• ‘It __ ________ years ___’

  is eighteen ago