WIDER VIEW

• ‘A Wider View'


  -‘wider’ view (echoing the last line of stanza two) suggests existing within a place that's restrictive – either literally or metaphorically, while also hinting at a desire to broaden horizons / change a physical place in world.

  -could be evocative of the speaker's contemporary perspective where they're able to have the wider view of hindsight and peer into the past
• 'eyes dry with dust

  […]

  he craved the comfort of a wider view'


  -sensory imagery immerses reader in industrial city of past + coupled with use of alliteration, symbolises how industrialisation of city had literally + metaphorically restricted speaker’s great-great grandfather’s vision + view of world.

  -verb 'craved’ reinforces the speaker's ancestor had powerful desire to ‘search’ beyond the confines of his daily life (the claustrophobic + oppressive environment of industrial Leeds). Despite factory being a symbol of labour, the view inspires his imagination.
• ‘the tall octagonal crown of Harding’s chimney

  drew his sights beyond the limits of his working

  life

  drowned the din of engines, looms and shuttles

  with imagined peals of ringing bells.'


  -regal description of 'tall octagonal crown' shows factory's power + importance within city. buildings act as symbols of industrial power + simultaneously connote oppressive patriarchal power, whilst catalysing the great-great-grandfather’s dreams of escaping his working life. The power of imagination + importance of art in inspiring + elevating thought is demonstrated here.

  -list of three, 'engines, looms and shuttles', builds up cumulative 'din' but this is overpowered by ‘ringing bells’ in his imagination, which transport him beyond harsh reality of his life to the‘wider view’ of his imagination
• “from the backyard of his back-to-back, my great great grandad searched for space in the smoke-filled sky to stack his dreams”

  repetitions “back”= conditions of working class in victorian leeds. Pronoun “his” flanked by repetition of “back” + echoes the way the subject felt surrounded by oppressive, terraced houses

  Sibilance has magical quality.

  Sky lacking space highlights feeling of trapped + when coupled with verb “searched”, suggests speakers ancestor has a desire to change their place innworld

  Metaphor “stack his dreams”- used imagination to find meaning + comfort in his surroundings

  Stack- not safe
• “we stand now, timeless in the flux of time, anchored only by the axis of of our gaze… while the curve of past and future generations arcs between us.”

  Shift to present =walking same streets as ancestors. Image of anchor = connection to places join us to our past + identity
• themes

  memory- thirteen

  opression- thirteen

  time- thirteen

  damage to nature-lines written

  family + heritage-portable paradise

  belong + connection-lines weitten

  cult/lang-name journeys

  class-jewellery maker