There are fifteen poems in the GCSE Love and Relationships anthology.

For your exam, you will be given one poem in full, printed on the page, and you will be asked to compare this poem to another from the anthology.

All of the GCSE English Literature course is closed-book, meaning that you will need to learn at least three lines from each poem.

It is possible to get top marks for this question by making sure that you know the following:

• What the poem is about

• What the poem means

• The methods the poet uses to convey their message

• The links between the ideas of other poems in the anthology

Synopsis

This section includes:

• A general overview of the poem

• A detailed look at the poem line-by-line

• Analysis of the poem, giving Simon Armitage’s intention and message

A General Overview of the Poem

Mother, Any Distance explores an evolving relationship between a mother and her child as the child grows and gains independence. The speaker, who we presume is a son, describes his mother helping him to measure rooms in his new house. The poem explores the child’s excitement for freedom and the mother’s lingering connection.

Line-by-Line

Mother, any distance greater than a single span

requires a second pair of hands.

The poem opens by directly addressing the speaker’s mother, remarking that there is a wide distance that needs to be measured, requiring help from his mother.

The use of ‘Mother’ implies a sense of formality between the parent and her child.

Armitage uses a comma between ‘Mother’ and ‘any’ to emphasise this distance.

The words ‘span’ and ‘hands’ half-rhyme, creating an awkward sound, reflecting the awkward relationship between parent and child.

The first example of enjambment, implying a lack of control over the emotions of the speaker – they are feeling overwhelmed by the approaching separation.

You come to help me measure windows, pelmets, doors,

the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.

The speaker tells us that their mother has arrived to help measure different parts of the house. We have ‘windows’: openings in walls, typically fitted with glass, that allow light and air into a building and provide a view outside. We have ‘pelmets’: decorative framework or fabric covers placed above windows to conceal curtain fittings. We have ‘doors’: movable barriers, usually made of wood, metal, or glass, that open and close to allow or prevent entry into a space. ‘Acres’: units of land measurement, commonly used in agriculture and ‘prairies’: large, open areas of grassland, often found in North America, with few trees and used for farming.

Armitage lists these various features of the home, and with each feature, the distance starts to grow – for example, a ‘window’ is far smaller than a ‘prairie’.

The mothers offer of help suggests that the speaker feels overwhelmed at the task.

You at the zero-end, me with the spool of tape, recording

length, reporting metres, centimetres back to base, then leaving

up the stairs, the line still feeding out, unreeling

years between us. Anchor. Kite.

In keen detail, the speaker describes the action of measuring – however, the mother is in charge of the process, implying that she still has an element of control over the speaker.

In the final line, we are poignantly focused on the distance in age between mother and child. 

We are presented with an ambiguous phrase: ‘Anchor. Kite’. – An anchor holds something down, an kite flies in the sky on a string – is the speaker feeling held down, unable to escape, or are they on the verge of freedom? Armitage uses this metaphorical language to suggest that there is a growing distance between parent and child.

There is a clear juxtaposition between independence and freedom.

I space-walk through the empty bedrooms, climb

the ladder to the loft, to breaking point, where something

has to give;

The speaker begins to climb to the loft, an upper portion of the house.

The phrase ‘space-walk’ implies a remaining childishness in the speaker, perhaps remembering the way things used to be.

The phrase ‘breaking point’ suggests that the speaker realises eventually he must step away from the influence of his mother.

two floors below your fingertips still pinch

the last one-hundredth of an inch...I reach

The speaker focuses on the final connection between himself and his mother – ‘the last one-hundredth of an inch’. This use of visual imagery implies that the mother is possessive and reluctant to let her child go off into independent adulthood.

towards a hatch that opens on an endless sky

to fall or fly.

At the end of the poem, the speaker looks up into the sky, and must make a decision – does he return to the warm comfort of his mother or does he step out into the world alone.

The speaker understands that he is taking a risk – but that this is an important part of growing up.

Writer's Methods

This section aims to support your revision by providing you with concrete and clear examples of methods that Simon Armitage uses. 

Remember: methods support meaning, not the other way round. You will gain more marks focusing your essays on the big ideas of the poems and then supporting these ideas with the methods that the writer uses.

Form

The poem uses a first-person perspective, where the speaker is addressing their mother, discussing their feelings as they move into their new home.

The poem is fifteen lines long, one more line than a traditional sonnet; the extra-line ‘adds distance’ to the sonnet form, reflecting the growing distance between mother and child.

Structure

The poem is written in free verse with uneven lines full of rhyme, half-rhyme and no rhyme at all. This complex structure reflects the complexity of the relationship between the mother and their child. 

There is regular use of enjambment throughout the poem, which breaks the flow of the poem. It implies a sense of breathlessness in the speaker, who is struggling to contain his emotions.

Language

The poem contains an extended metaphor of measurement, to reflect the growing distance between mother and son. 

The poem uses a metaphor: ‘an endless sky’ ‘Anchor. Kite’ to convey the speakers excitement about the possibility of independence, and yet there is always a feeling that he will be held back by his possessive mother.

Context

At MyEdSpace, we use this analogy to discuss context – ketchup, salt and chips.

If you ordered a portion of chips, and asked for salt, you wouldn’t then dump the salt into the corner of your chips and start dipping each individual chip into the salt. 

When you put salt on your chips, you sprinkle it over, sparingly, so as to give a good coverage of salt across the chips as a whole. Context is just like salt on chips. 

Context is not ketchup – because it would be appropriate to squeeze ketchup into the corner of your plate and dip each chip in (and in fact, that is advised).

So when you’re including contextual information in your essays, sprinkle it across the essay, just like you sprinkle salt on your chips.

Let’s link the context to the key ideas and themes of the poem.

Family connections

‘Mother, Any Distance’ is part of a collection called ‘Book of Matches’. Each of the poems in the collection was designed to be read in the time it takes for a match to be lit and to burn out. This is meant to convey an intensity of emotion – and one of the most emotionally intense period of a persons life is when they leave home. The poem explores the love between a mother and a child, and the connection they feel, but also the way their relationship changes. 

Distance

‘Mother, Any Distance’ was written in 1993 and explores a stereotypical example of a moving day, something that is very common and applicable to many people. Before becoming a poet, Simon Armitage worked a variety of occupations which has given his poetry a sense of relatability. Through his poetry, he engages with the struggles of the common man. This is why ‘Mother, Any Distance’ focuses on such a regular experience.

Comparison

You are required to write an essay in your exam that is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two poems from the Love and Relationships anthology. Therefore, it is very important to revise the poems in pairs and to enter the exam with an idea of what poem you will choose to compare once you know what the named poem is.

'Mother, Any Distance' and 'Before You Were Mine'

Both of these poems are written from the perspectives of children who are reflecting on the distance, either physical or metaphorical, between themselves and their parents. Both poems acknowledge that family relationship change with time. However, Mother, Any Distance looks at the role of a mother in the life of a speaker, where as Before You Were Mine explores the life of the mother before the speaker was alive.

Similarities:

Both poems directly address a mother from the perspective of a child.

Evidence and Analysis 

Armitage’s poem is a direct address to his mother. He uses a formal address, “Mother”, to present his respect for her, as well as the changing, more distant, relationship as he becomes an adult.

Armitage’s poem uses direct address, through the use of ‘Mother’, to present his respect for her, whilst also reflecting the distance that has grown between them. In Duffy’s poem, the speaker also addresses her mother, but the tone is softer, and more caring, as she refers to her as ‘sweetheart’.

Both poems feature speakers who explore their dependence on family.

Evidence and Analysis

Armitage’s poem explores the way that people can be possessive, as shown through the words ‘still pinch’ – his mother is holding onto him tightly, down to the last ‘one-hundredth of an inch’. Similarly, Duffy’s speaker shows how possessive people can be, referring to the ‘…loud, possessive yell.’ The frequent refrain, ‘Before you were mine’, also emphasizes this sense of possession.

Differences:

Simon Armitage’s speaker reflects on his mother’s role in his life, while Carol Ann Duffy’s poem presents a speaker aware of her mother as an individual, not just in her role as parent

In ‘Mother, Any Distance’, the speaker looks at the role his mother has had in his life, whilst ‘Before You Were Mine’ explores the mother’s life prior to being a parent.

Armitage’s poem uses a semantic field of measurement to convey the idea that the speakers mother still supports him – ‘centimeters’ ‘meters’ ‘span’. On the other hand, Duffy’s speaker explores her mothers past, imagining her to be younger, free of responsibility – ‘the thought of me doesn’t occur’. This shows the separation between the two is not in the present, but in the past, and that this can be difficult for children to understand.