Mother Any Distance - Simon Armitage

• Mother, Any Distance, written by the poet Simon Armitage, describes an impactful moment between parent and child. The speaker describes their mixed emotions as they begin their independence as their mother helps them measure rooms, presumably as they are now moving into their own home.
• “Mother, any distance greater than a single span

  requires a second pair of hands.”
• • The poem begins by directly addressing the speaker’s mother
  • The speaker explains that a wide distance requires two hands to measure it
• The poet begins the extended metaphor of measurement by symbolically referring to the separation of parent and child as the child moves into their own home
• “You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,

  the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.”
• • The speaker says that the mother has come to help measure the many areas of the house
• “You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording

  length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving

  up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling”
• • Armitage describes the mother as in charge of all the tasks to show her expertise and experience
• “years between us. Anchor. Kite.” 
• • Here, the speaker alerts the reader to a changing perspective as the speaker refers to the literal distance of years between them
  • The words “anchor” and “kite” connote to objects which stabilise and hold still or fly freely
• • Armitage uses metaphorical language to present the distance between a parent and child as the child becomes independent
  • The juxtaposed images convey the mixed roles within family relationships regarding dependence and stability, and independence and freedom
• “I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb

  the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something

  has to give;”
• • The narration continues as the speaker describes his actions as he climbs to the loft
  • The poet uses an ambiguous reference to the fragile nature of the loft as well as the son’s dependence on the parent
• • The “breaking point” alludes to the moment the son acknowledges his reliance on the mother should end
• two floors below your fingertips still pinch

  the last one-hundredth of an inch...I reach”
• • Armitage presents the possessive nature of a parent who is holding on to the child’s reliance on them, with the visual imagery of holding tightly to the end of the tape when the distance is great
• “towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky

  to fall or fly.” 
• • However the imagery is positive and suggests this process is exciting
• The poem is a direct address to the mother as she helps him to measure rooms, presumably in his new home
• The poem seems to conform to a sonnet, but the last line breaks this form to indicate the break in the relationship: “to fall or fly” 
• Armitage’s poem is written in free verse with uneven rhyming lines.

  • The last stanza does not rhyme and becomes more uneven in its line lengths
• The first octave represents the mother as a guiding and supportive element in the son’s life using enjambment,  however in line 8 a caesura breaks the rhythmic voice:

  “years between us. Anchor. Kite.”
• Simon Armitage uses an extended metaphor to represent the growing distance between mother and son as he moves into his own home.  Hyperbolic imagery conveys the speaker’s sense of hesitation as he embarks on independent life. 
• The semantic field of measurements conveys the theme of distance referred to in the title: “inch”, “span”, “metres”, “centimetres” 
• The poet uses hyperbolic imagery to represent the speaker’s emotions 

  • He feels the distance growing and it seems intimidating, like “acres” and  “prairies”
• • He juxtaposes  these images with the metaphorical “Anchor” to represent the stability his mother offers
• • Mother, Any Distance comments on the changing relationship between mother and child, narrated by a son moving into a new home
  • The poem explores a son’s feelings as he embarks on independent life