Long Distance II Analysis

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.
He'd put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he'd hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there's your name
and the disconnected number I still call.


Submitted by Scott Dagostino

.: :.

this is a particularly moving account of
the way in which his father cannot come to terms with his mother’s death, and how,
in turn, he cannot come to terms with his father’s death. Although most of the poem
talks of the way his widowed father continued to behave as if his wife was still alive,
even two years after she had died, and although the poet clearly but very lovingly
criticises him for this, the poem ends with an admission that now that both his
parents have gone he still keeps their telephone number, and even still tries to call
them.
There are several aspects of his father’s inability to take in his wife’s death – he still
warms her slippers by the fire, he puts hot water bottles in the bed for her, he renews
her transport pass, he even “knew she’d just popped out to get the tea”. He seems
embarrassed, even ashamed, by his own feelings (“as though his still raw love were
such a crime”), and tries to hide this from the poet.
“I believe life ends with death, and that is all” appears to be the poet’s own belief, and
he tries by saying this to exclude all emotion and sorrow, although on the evidence of
this poem he seems to share some of his father’s views.
Notice how very exact the poem’s rhyme scheme is, and even its rhythm, while
slightly uneven, is basically very steady. It is worth examining the effects of such
strongly controlled writing in a poem that is so full of deep sadness, as is the tone of
a man explaining himself to the reader, and to himself.

| Posted on 2008-07-15 | by a guest