climbing my grandfather

• Poet/Context:


  Poet and musician.Born on Nov 27th 1958.Died on October 20 2001.Suffered from depression and took his own life.Themes-a world full of solid objects and hard edges- stones, wood, frozen ground- which offer little purchase to its habitants.
• Compared with:


  Follower and Mother, any distance.
• Form and Structure:


  The poet chooses to end with the monosyllabic phrase "the slow pulse of his good heart", as he reaches the top of the mountain, he watches the nature and he feels the heat and the beat of his grandfather's good heart, in order to put emphasis on the significance of this phrase. The fact that it ends with a positive image suggest that it is a positive message.1 long stanza with relatively short lines symbolise a mountain, the unbrokenness of the structure reflects the stability of their relationship, and reinforces the extended metaphor of his grandfather as a mountain. The poet finds his grandfather reliable. The poem is 1 continue stanzas, with enjambment, reflects the continuous action of the climb."By the overhanging shirt I change/direction) Compared with the enjambment in follower. The enjambment of ploughing and climbing reflects the change in direction. Significance of his grandfather: the speaker learns something from his grandfather The change from the verb "trying" to the definitive language of "knowing" which put emphasis that the poet has gain knowledge from his grandfather.
• "I decide to do it free, without rope or net."


  the narrator feels confident and comfortable with his grandfather, but there's an element of risk. . An extended metaphor of a mountain. Mountain has positive (steady, reliable, and admirable) shows the size of respect and admiration the poet has towards his grandfather and negative attributes. (Overwhelming, powerful, intimidating) 1st person exploration with an older family member.
• "rope,net, grip, overhanging, traverse, ridge, screed, altitude, summit"


  Lexical field of climbing and sophisticated language "rope, net, grip, overhanging, traverse, ridge, screed, altitude, summit" suggests that the poet is now an intelligent adult reflecting on their memories with their grandfather.
• "On his arm I discover / the glassy ridge of a scar place my feet/ gently in the old stitches and move on."


  "scar" and "stitches" refer to the grandfather's history, they have connotation to pain, thus is used to represent the grandfather 'sacrifice and influence on him. "moving on" shows that he has learnt from his grandfather's history.
• "dusty and cracked" shoes, "earth-stained hand" ,"nails are splintered and give good purchase"


  means that the broken-ness of the nail makes them good to grip them, this metaphorically represents that his grandfather's age and hard experience helped the speaker make decisions. "scar" on arm suggests that he is a hard-working manual worker. Alternatively, a scar can symbolise a past of his grandfather he did not know. The metaphor expresses the meaning of discovering truth by building on previous discoveries. Climbing of the grandfather literally has the speaker standing on his shoulder at one point; the speaker is looking at his grandfather to discover truth from the previous discovered his grandfather. The speaker is looking on an aspect of his grandfather and does want to do the hard manual work which his grandfather did; there is a suggestion that his grandfather is not particularly in great shape (dusty and cracked) similar to Follower.Reminiscent of the way a speaker doing something, but chooses to do it in a different way.
• "smooth and thick like warm ice "

  simile and oxymoron- difference in how something looks and how it actually feels, reflects how the poet had an initial idea about his grandfather, however after climbing which metaphorically represents getting to know his grandfather, his perception of his grandfather has changed. He looks like ice, but he is actually warm, perhaps that was his pre-conceived idea about his grandfather and it has changed.
• "watching the clouds and birds circle"

  illustrate an image of heaven ;it can be a symbolism that his grandfather is on the verge of death.
• The slow pulse of his good heart"


  The monosyllabic phrase "the slow pulse of his good heart" slows the pace at which we are reading, which contrast with the fast pace built up by the use of enjambment; this reflects the slow heat beat of his grandfather, suggest that the process of climbing is finished. Whatever the poet wanted to discover has been discovered. Alternatively, it can be a symbolism that his grandfather is on the verge of death.
• Tone


  Admiration