Letters from Yorkshire - Maura Dooley

• Letters From Yorkshire', written by the poet Maura Dooley, discusses the importance of maintaining a bond within family relationships despite distance. Dooley’s poem refers to the emotional connection between parent and child which traverses the obstacles of individuals’ separate lives. v
• In February, digging his garden, planting potatoes,

  he saw the first lapwings return and came” 
• • Dooley begins the poem with a description of the father, suggesting he is the focus of the poem
  • The father appears to be strong and prepared, working the land in winter
• “indoors to write to me, his knuckles singing

  as they reddened in the warmth.”
• • The poet presents the father as in touch with nature, like the narrator, suggesting a common bond
  • The sensory language  of the description of his actions, creates a sense of intimacy 
• “It's not romance, simply how things are.”
• • The poem’s narrator interrupts the descriptions of the father with a clear statement
  • The narrator clarifies the platonic nature of the relationship
• “You out there, in the cold, seeing the seasons

  turning, me with my heartful of headlines

  feeding words onto a blank screen.”
• • The narrator explains that the father lives a more rural life, while they live a more modern life indoors
• “Is your life more real because you dig and sow?

  You wouldn't say so, breaking ice on a waterbutt,

  clearing a path through snow. Still, it's you”
• • The speaker addresses their father, asking if their rural life is better than the urban life of the narrator
  • The speaker replies on the father’s behalf, as, in her imagination, he is still outside working 
• • Dooley confirms the connection between the father and child by presenting an inner dialogue between them:
  • The child asks a rhetorical question , which they answer themselves
  • The humorous exchange shows the father as too busy working to reply
• “who sends me word of that other world

  pouring air and light into an envelope. So that”
• • Dooley conveys the simplicity of keeping in touch with each other using positive natural imagery
• “at night, watching the same news in different houses,

  our souls tap out messages across the icy miles.”
• • The poet concludes the poem with sensory imagery suggesting an intimate bond:
  • The father and child, although separated, find ways to maintain their relationship and the ‘warmth’ of their love 
• 'Letters From Yorkshire' presents the first-person  perspective of an adult as they reflect on their relationship with their father:

  • The free verse form of the poem contributes to the contemplative tone
• The poem shifts to direct address as the speaker becomes emotionally closer to their father, asking a rhetorical questions : “Is your life more real because you dig and sow?
• Although the poet does not employ a rhyme scheme, the rhythm of the continuous verbs creates a sense of  the father’s busyness and presents him as an individual: “digging” and “planting”
• The poet uses enjambment to reflect the free-flowing and vivid imaginings of the narrator about their father: “his knuckles singing/as they reddened in the warmth
• Dooley uses pathetic fallacy to represent the distance between them and how their emotional bond brings relief:

  • The father’s cold knuckles are “ singing/as they reddened in the warmth” when he writes a letter
  • The poem’s ending shows their continued communication:  “Our souls tap out messages across the icy miles”