Walking away- Cecil day Lewis

• "It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day – / A sunny day with leaves just turning"


  This quote reveals that the speaker is thinking back upon the past eighteen years of his life. These past eighteen years have been centered around his child, the one he watched grow up as the seasons turned.
• "Your first game of football, then, like a satellite / Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away"


  The speaker remembers his son’s first football game, but now he has taken off “like a satellite wrenched from its orbit”. His son was once within his father’s “orbit” but now he is “drifting away”.
• "I can see you walking away from me towards the school / With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free"


  This is, perhaps, the son’s first day of school. The father felt the sting of the child growing up even back then when the child was only “a half-fledged thing set free”.
• "That hesitant figure, eddying away / Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem"


  The speaker uses the metaphor of a “winged seed” to describe his child, emphasizing the natural process of growing up and leaving home.
• "How selfhood begins with a walking away and love is proved in letting go"


  This powerful line expresses the speaker’s realization that personal growth often involves separation, and that true love sometimes requires letting go.
• These lines reflect the themes of love, growth, and letting go that are central to the poem. The poem is a poignant exploration of a father’s mixed feelings as he watches his child grow and become independent.