Skirrid Hill

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Father to Son by Elizabeth Jennings– In this poem, the poet portrays the generation gap between a father and his son. The poem presents a father’s illusions regarding his son.

The grandmother in this poem stands out against other figures in the collection, as she is rejecting the support of the various medical instruments which could help prolong her life. All the other characters we encounter seem all too happy to let manmade artifices improve their quality of life, yet Jean Sheers chooses the ‘natural� The image of the loose flaps of skin being like ‘two tattered flags flying from your spine’s mast’ may also continue the running themes of national pride. It may also connote the phrase ‘tie your colours to the mast’, giving the impression that this was a moment of his permanent attachment to this partner. The ‘mast’ creates an image of sailing that is followed up later in ‘Valentine’. Food & water – filtering water bottles are very handy for safely refilling in streams and rivers. You can read more about filtering water bottles in this guide.This is clearly a link with Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘digging’ in which the poet likens his pen to a spade. The title of this piece serves a variety of functions. Firstly, it makes an allusion to the Welsh novel of the same name by Raymond Williams. The novel is about a Welsh academic in London returning home when his father suffers a stroke. This ties in with the poet’s dealing with family loss. It is significant that Mametz Wood is where the Welsh Division fought during the Battle of the Somme – with regards to the struggle for modern identity, this is a key fact for establishing the importance of the Welsh role in British history. One of the many themes of this collection is the rise and fall of Welsh importance in the identity of Great Britain, and the poet works hard to remind us of key historical moments where the Welsh have helped build the nation as we now know it. It is also interesting to consider that Sheers was taken under the tutelage of Andrew Motion early on in his career. Motion also writes frequently of the war and it is interesting to see how the two poets have influenced each other’s writing.

Owen Sheers was born in 1974 in Fiji but was raised in South Wales. He was included in the top 30 young British writers after the publication of his first book of poetry, The Blue Book. While working as a poet, he also writes prose and drama, as well as presenting on television. He has won the Welsh Book of the Year Award, a Gregory Award, and the 1999 Vogue Young Writer’s Award. The poem ends with ‘you rose from me / and walked into the lit hallway, / trailing the dress of your shadow behind you’. Neither partner has been sexually satisfied by the encounter – he was distracted and she feels the need to leave immediately afterwards. The crudeness of the ‘red wings’ image also shows us that much of the poem is being told through the anecdotal wording of the Jones character himself. We imagine that the image of the ‘umbrella blown inside out’ is Sheers’ poetic interjection, rather than a quote from Jones – the contrast between the two types of description shows us how different Sheers feels from this small-town man.The extended metaphor of the caged magpie dominates the poem. It begins simply in the first line of stanza one, then increasingly elaborate ideas are woven in; for example, the poet feeding her insects and protecting her from the elements with his wings.

You Are Old, Father William by Lewis Carroll– This poem presents a conversation between a father and a son. It similarly involves the themes of the father-son relationship and the generation gap. So here we have the first proper poem in the chronology of the collection. Similarly to ‘Last Act’, we begin with an aftermath. In this case it is the aftermath of the First World War, a subject that has been the subject of many of the world’s finest poets of the past hundred years. Farther’ by Owen Sheers describes a trek up Skirrid Hill which Sheers and his father take on the 27th of December.It is on this day that the speaker and his father decide to climb “the Skirrid again.” They have done this walk in the past, and are recreating it as an attempt to reconnect. The 38th Division comprised soldiers of several Welsh regiments, young men who had been urged to enlist by the rhetoric of David Lloyd George and seduced by the promise of adventure and ‘glory’. They were amateur soldiers, full of enthusiasm but poorly trained, ill-equipped and badly hampered by the tactics of their commanders.