Eden Rock, Charles Causley

• Context

  ● Father died when he was 7 from after fighting in WW1, had to nurse mother for 6 years before he death in 1971

  ● Written in 1988, after death of both parents - could be reflecting on this by using memories

  ● Biblical imagery - from a collection called ‘a field of vision’
• ‘twenty-five/three’

  parents described in their youth - idolised in their prime. Descriptions of parents mirror each other showing the close bond.
• ‘Old H.P. sauce bottle’, ‘paper for a cork’, ‘tin cups painted blue’

  colloquialisms - detailed descriptions of ordinary things, nostalgia - emphasise how much speaker cares
• Hair ‘Takes on the light’

  angelic image, heavenly connotations
• ‘Sky whitens as if lit by three suns’

  complete family triangle, white=purity, holy trinity
• ‘Stream path’

  reference to river styx in greek mythology, separates dead and living
• ‘Beckon’

  positive reunion
• ‘Crossing is not as hard’

  into afterlife, reference to movement - between locations? Time period? Could be him questioning process of death. Parents reassuring him.
• ‘I had not thought it would be like this’

  separate from the rest of the poem - shows separation. Monosyllabic - childlike simplicity. ‘It’ is ambiguous - afterlife/dying
• 'Grass’ ‘colour of wheat’

  natural imager - death is inevitable, natural progress
• HALF RHYMES ‘dress stress’ ‘hat light’

  incomplete nature of relationship
• Almost regular structure - IAMBIC PENTAMETER

  steady, stable relationship
• Themes and Comparison

  Family relationships: FOLLOWER - perspective of male child exploring memories (specific vs non specific), admiration for parents, supportive parents, 4 line stanzas - stability, ambiguous ending

  ● Memories: BEFORE YOU WERE MINE - fond memories recalled by child (love transcends death), semi-autobiographical poems, afterlife connotations (ghost), colloquialisms to recall memories (you vs they), present tense vs different memory frames, glamorous vs down to earth depiction of parents, tones different - ‘leisurely’, caesura vs bitter regret