Overview
This lecture explores Tony Harrison's poem "Long Distance II," focusing on its themes of grief, love, class, structure, and language, as well as Harrison's background and stylistic choices.
Themes and Content
- The poem examines ongoing grief, love, and longing after the death of the poet’s mother and later his father.
- Harrison describes his father's irrational acts—keeping up routines for his deceased wife—to show the difficulty of accepting loss.
- The final stanza reveals the poet himself behaving just as irrationally, unable to emotionally accept his father’s absence.
- Grieving is shown as highly individual and often clashes with societal expectations about how to mourn.
Social and Class Context
- Harrison was born into a working-class family in Leeds; this background deeply influences his poetry.
- His dialect and vocabulary choices (e.g., "gas," "transport pass," "tea") reflect his roots.
- The poem highlights class conflict, both in social behavior and personal identity.
- The working-class setting is evoked through modest home details and informal language.
Structure and Language
- The poem has 16 lines in four quatrains; first three stanzas use ABAB rhyme, the fourth switches to ABBA as the focus shifts.
- The poem uses mostly iambic pentameter, with rhythmic variations adding a conversational tone.
- Harrison uses everyday, informal language and avoids figurative language, enhancing the poem's realism.
- Techniques like enjambment, end-stopping, and caesura create a rhythm that mirrors waves of grief and conflict.
Symbolism and Title
- "Long Distance" refers both to literal telephone calls and emotional/metaphorical distance after loss.
- "Two" indicates the poem is a sequel to "Long Distance I," which portrayed grief from the father’s perspective.
- The phone motif suggests attempts to connect with the deceased and highlights emotional separation.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Quatrain — a stanza of four lines.
- Iambic Pentameter — a poetic meter with five pairs of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables per line.
- Enjambment — continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line.
- End-stopped — a line ending with a pause or full stop.
- Caesura — a pause within a line of poetry.
- Hyper-catalectic — a line with an extra unstressed syllable.
- Idiolect — an individual's unique use of language.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review "Long Distance II" and "Long Distance I" for comparison.
- Analyze the poem’s structure, language, and use of rhythm.
- Prepare notes on how the poem reflects themes of grief and class conflict.