Walking Away - Cecil Day Lewis

• themes of the poem

  • independence
  • aging
  • reflection
  • childhood
  • reminiscing
  • longing
  • family
• rhyme scheme of the poem

  ABACA

  • shows stable nature of the fathers love
  • represents individual change as continual experience for father and son
• structure of poem

  • 4x 5 line stanzas -> continual nature of the fathers love for son
• context for AO3

  • Day Lewis had a single dad after mothers death
  • sent his oldest son ,Sean, to boarding school aged 7
  • original subtitle for the poem was 'for Sean' showing intimacy of narrative through direct address
• stanza 1


  'it is eighteen years ago'

  • specific temporal deixis emphasises the poignancy of the memory

  'leaves just turning'

  • pathetic fallacy shows change + development of relationship

  'like a satellite'

  • semantic field of space represents exploration + development

  'wrenched ... go drifting away'

  • contrasts shows reluctancy to let his son go whilst the son embraces independence
  • repetition of away emphasises distance
• stanza 2


  'you ... me ... school'

  • separation of pronoun embeds separation as school acts as a surrogate for parents

  'pathos of a half fledged thing set free'

  • son is vulnerable
  • dehumanises son as he is reluctant to let him go

  'who finds no path'

  • son is lost + has to find his own direction through fricative consonants + onomatopoeia of flight
• stanza 3


  'hesitant figure, eddying away'

  • the son is losing his childhood vulnerability

  'winged seed loosened from its parent stem'

  • simile of natural imagery showing the sons growth as an uncontrollable entity

  'irresolute clay'

  • humans are malleable + changed by their environments in socialisation
• stanza 4


  'i have had worse partings'

  • separation is painful but ambiguous in regret

  'gnaws at my mind still'

  • animalistic connotations of the uncontrollable nature of sadness

  'God alone'

  • religious connotations show the conclusion as inevitable

  'love is proved in letting go'

  • acceptance for the situation shows love to only change and not dissapear