eden rock

• Context


  Poem can be considered as autobiographical as his father died when he was around 7 after returning from WW2 and never recovering from injuries

  - Poem published after his mum died and he was 61

  - "Eden Rock" = fictional place
• What is the structure?


  - 4 quatrains

  - But final quatrain has split between 3rd and 4th line

  - 'episodic' tableaux
• What is the rhyme scheme and what does it represent?


  - Half / oblique rhyme between line 1 and 3 and between 2 and 4 throughout whole poem

  - The mark left by his parents but still not quite complete/ unfulfillment

  - There is a distance in relationship e.g. literally separated by a stream or metaphorically by life and death
• What does the structure represent?


  - Stability provided by parents

  - The split/gap in the final stanza can represent the crossing between like and death and the transition he makes.

  - Can imply he is now in heaven with his parents.

  - Final line = isolated representing how he feels
• Form


  Present Tense

  - instability

  - Isolation and loneliness
• Title: "Eden Rock"


  "Eden" represents the start of life but is used in this poem to present end of life (death)

  - Cyclical and inevitable cycle of life - can be seen as acceptance

  - Biblical imagery - paradise and heavenly place

  - Symbol of perfection in relationship
• "They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden Rock:"


  Physical distance of alive and dead

  "somewhere beyond" = ambiguous and distant

  But the verb "waiting" implies emotional closeness and idea of meeting
• "My mother, twenty-three, in a sprigged dress"


  Parents idealised because they are dead and also Causley is remembering them at the time when parents were at their prime age

  - 'episodic' tableaux structure
• "Her hair, the colour of wheat, takes on the light"

  - Mother idealised

  - Angelic and pure

  Reflect the perfect parent-child relationship
• "From an old H.P. Sauce bottle, a screw/ Of paper for a cork;" " "tin cups painted blue"

  Use of ordinary images

  - Represent how insignificant life seems when death is close

  - Nostalgia

  - Enjambment challenges rigid structure and adds to fluidity and reminiscent tone
• "The sky whitens as if lit by three suns."

  Symbol of heaven

  - Nature and simplicity - harmonious

  reinforce title

  - Also the natural relationship
• "Over the drifted stream" "Stream-path"

  Water has connotations with religion and baptism

  - Pure and perfect parent-child relationship
• " '... Crossing is not as hard as you might think.' / I had not thought that it would be like this."


  "Crossing" = euphemism of death also Christ like imagery as Christians believe Jesus died on the cross

  - Tense change followed by the break between the 3rd and 4th line to pluperfect tense = acceptance and finality

  - "it" ambiguity - description of heaven - desperate?

  - Monosyllabic final line - child-like simplicity so can be seen as desire to be reunited with his parents like he was when he was a child (now 61)

  - Or can be seen as the cyclical nature of life - as you get all you become vulnerable and back to the helpless stage as when you were a child