The OCR anthology Towards a World Unknown has the poem in full at this link:
Click to access 171147-poetry-anthology-towards-a-world-unknown.pdf
A rough analysis: (the last line is analysed in the last paragraph)
Against a dramatic setting in the nature in Wales, the speaker explores his love for his father, his sorrow at the distance that has grown between them and his hope that they could become closer.
The Welsh setting plays an integral part in the poem. Apart from having its own character, it sets the tone for the poem and reflects aspects of the changing relationship between father and son.
Lines 3-9 first sets the scene:
(a) ‘choosing the long way round’– both father and son treasure this time that they are spending together, and want to prolong it, so they choose the long way round. Sets a loving and sad tone. They want to spend time together but clearly do not do so often.
(b) ‘simplified by snow’ and ‘its puzzle solved by moss‘- a form of pathetic fallacy? sets the expectation for readers that this poem is a journey to untangle something, some unsolved sentiment. It also portrays nature as an intelligent being – it ‘simplifies’ the forest by laying snow over its complicated forestry, and it ‘solves’ the puzzle laid out by the deteriorated stone wall through growing moss strategically over it.
(c) ‘and out of the trees into that cleft of earth/split they say by a father’s grief/at the loss of his son to man.’ – these are powerfully emotionally lines. the first line builds suspense – what is there outside of the trees? What is so special about that ‘cleft of earth’? The next two lines have almost identical rhythms (do some simple scansion and you’ll see). This (and the enjambement) adds to the gravity of the tone, makes the emotion behind the lines especially intense. There is also obviously a similarity here to God’s sending of Jesus Christ to die for humanity. So, the speaker could be acknowledging that he knows that his father’s love for him is on epic proportions. In what way has his father lost him to ‘man’? Maybe the son (Owen Sheers) has left Wales after he has grown up and that could be interpreted as a betrayal and a ‘loss’.
The religious connotation is continued in Line 9 – an ‘altar’ of rock. What are they worshipping at this ‘altar’? Makes their journey seem like a pilgramage.
(d) ‘A blade of wind from the east/and the broken stone giving under our feet/with the sound of a crowd sighing.’– ‘Blade’ of wind – metaphor of wind as a knife blade, clearly sets a hostile tone. ‘broken stone’ – dysfunctional environment? Or just one steeped in ancient history? ‘the sound of a crowd sighing’- irony – there is no crowd in this rural place. Highlights the father and son’s isolation. Concentrates the spotlight of the poem on them.
(e)‘and shared the shock of a country unrolled before us,/the hedged fields breaking on the edge of Wales.’ – again the environment is animate and dynamic (don’t say it’s personification – humans don’t “unroll” or literally “break”). ‘Unrolled’ is a great verb to describe the vastness of the landscape before them and ‘breaking’ is a effective way of conveying the sudden ending of the fields against the coastline. The speaker and the father are sharing a memorable, dramatic, emotional moment. This is further reflected in the line ‘the sky rubbed raw over the mountains’. The sky’s colour may be ‘raw’, but the adjective also reflects on the emotional vulnerability of the speaker in the last lines of the poem.
In addition, the speaker’s relationship with his father oscillates between being distant and being close throughout the poem.
(a) The underlying tone of loss and sadness is set by the description of the ‘cleft of earth’ as described above.
(b) Then the son and father set out on a journey where they encounter a shared problem: the slope is ‘steeper than expected‘. In a way, this sets the reader up to expect that this is a journey where father and son bond (because as is commonly known, people bond together over shared problems). One of the most significant passages in the poem is:
(c) ‘Half way up and I turned to look at you,
your bent head the colour of the rocks,
your breath reaching me, short and sharp and solitary,
and again I felt the tipping in the scales of us,
the intersection of our ages.’
Here, the speaker comes to a realisation of the vast age gap between him and his father. ‘your bent head the colour of rocks’ – this line is ominous and brings up the shadow of death. Human bodies return to nature in death, but already, the father’s ‘bent head’ reminds the speaker of ‘rocks’ on the ground. The father’s breathlessness (evoked by the caesura and the consecutive conjunctions) is also a reminder of the ailing health (due to age). And so the speaker feels the ‘tipping in the scales of us’ – whereas once upon a time, the speaker was the one who would have been young and fragile and his father was strong and able, the speaker is now the able one and the father is ageing and fragile. The long/short length of the last two sentences evokes the imbalance of the tipped ‘scales’.
(d) ‘Pulling a camera from my pocket I placed it on the trig point
and leant my cheek against the stone to find you in its frame,
before joining you and waiting for the shutter’s blink
that would tell me I had caught this:’
The speaker and the father are out of touch with each other’s thoughts and intentions. Whilst the speaker intends to take a photo of the scenery by perching his camera on his camera stand, his father stands squarely in the frame. However, instead of asking his father to move away, the speaker sets the camera up to take a picture, walks to join his father, and waits for the camera to take a picture of the scene with the two of them in it automatically.
(e)’the sky rubbed raw over the mountains,
us standing on the edge of the world, together against the view
and me reaching for some kind of purchase
or at least a shallow handhold in the thought
that with every step apart, I’m another closer to you.’
As said – ‘raw’ reflects the colour of the sky but also the speaker’s emotional vulnerability in this moment. The next line emphasises the bond between the father and the son – they are a collective unit – ‘us’ and ‘together against’. But even in this powerful moment, the speaker acknowledges that there is still distance between them. This distance is, to some extent, irreparable – there is a hint of hopelessness when the speaker says ‘or at least…’. As if he is grasping at straws at a last resort to close the distance between them.
The last line is enigmatic – on the literal level, it makes no sense – it is an example of the speaker’s refusal to admit that the gap between him and his father is irreparable- he has convinced himself that growing apart from his father also means growing closer to him. On another level, it could be that the speaker is saying that although him and his father are growing apart as his father grows older and the speaker moves further away from Welsh culture, yet by growing apart, the speaker also gains the distance necessary to have a more complete understanding of his father. This is supported by the moments that they have shared on the way to the top of the hill – when the speaker was ahead of his father (and thus further apart), he was able to look back and have the perspective to observe that his father is growing old (bent head the colour of rocks). Also, by putting his camera on his camera stand, the speaker is out of touch with his father’s intentions to just enjoy the scenery – but by leaving the camera in place on the stand, the speaker is able to capture the moment (ie. take a photo of) him and his father sharing this moment of scenery.
To note:
There are alternating patterns in the poem – of:
(1) human interaction VS setting
Human interaction: 1-2, 9-11, 15-21, 24-27, 29-32
Everything between these lines describes the setting.
In other words, the speaker, his father and the Welsh setting are interwoven tightly. The relationship between the son and father and the Welsh setting are inseparable.
(2) The relationship between son and father oscillates between distance and closeness. (Use a highlighter and you can see they alternate:)
Closeness:
‘but it was then we climbed the Skirrid again,’
‘We stopped there at an altar of rock and rested’
‘and you are with me again, so together we climbed to the top’
‘before joining you and waiting for the shutter’s blink’
‘us standing on the edge of the world, together against the view’
‘that with every step apart, I’m another closer to you’
Distance:
‘split they say by a father’s grief…’
‘and again I felt the tipping in the scales of us…’
‘and leant my cheek against the stone to find you in its frame’
‘or at least a shallow handhold in the thought…’
'dive for dreams if the seas catch fire' 