Walking Away for Seem

It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day—
A sunny day with the leaves just turning,
The touch-lines new-ruled—since I watched you play
Your first game of football, then, like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away .5
Behind a scatter of boys. I can see
You walking away from me towards the school
With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free
Into a wilderness, the gait of one
Who finds no path where the path should be.10
That hesitant figure, eddying away
Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem,
Has something I never quite grasp to convey
About nature's give-and-take—the small, the scorching
Ordeals which fire one's irresolute clay.15
I have had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show—
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.20

Stanza 1

Line 1 & 2 Memory is very _____. Remembers 18 years ago as if it is _____. ______the weather and the ______of the leaves.

Season was changing: ______for the relationship between him and his ___ that is ______. Turning point in poet's and his son's ____.

Simile line 4 & 5: His son is ______away from him like a ______is wrenched out of orbit. The poet is no more the ______of his son's life.

wrenched: reflects that it is a ______event

touch-lines: boundary _____ of the football field

wrenched: torn

orbit: usual ____

Stanza 2

Scatter of boys: way ______move, shows confusion

go drifting away: ideal of ____

metaphor: half-fledged thing=______of the boy. The boy is like a young bird being forced to leave its ____ before it is ready.

wilderness: metaphor, the world the boy is ______is strange and like a ______to him. Father also feels ______and alone

Pathos: picture of the little boy ______the world that is like a wilderness is sad and ______could happen.

Line 9 & 10: The path is ______to the boy but familiar to the ______, he is longing to lead his son.

half-fledged: not fully grown or ______

pathos: tragedy

gait: walk, ____

Stanza 3

simile: Like a winged-seed. The little boy is like a winged-seed ______from its parent stem and drifting away into the ______. It shows the little boy is ______in his new situation.

eddying away: emphasises ______of the father that he is losing his boy.

nature's give and take: Experiences that _____ us pain actually ______us and makes us ______. Nature gave the little boy a father but by ______the protection of his ______, although dangerous, the little boy will ______stronger.

ordeals, fire, irresolute clay: We are the ____, the experiences we have the ______, these experiences ______us like fire hardens clay. When we _____ our final form ______can change us ______.

scorching: Our experiences may be ______but what the father is experiencing is also painful.

hesitant: ______

eddying: ______

scorching: burning

ordeals: difficult times

irresolute: unsure, ______

Stanza 4

Line 16 & 17: Poet ______this is not the worst parting he has ever experienced. But it is the one that gnaws at his mind the most.

God is the only one who would ______this lesson, because God gave up His only Son to become human and to be ______. The way to show parental love is to let your child go no ______how painful it is.

gnaws: nags at, persistently ______

selfhood: ______and understanding one's self.

Walking Away by Cecil Day Lewis

The compiler of this anthology has indicated that this poem would be dedicated to one of Cecil Day Lewis’s four children, Sean. Clearly the emotions that the speaker expresses especially in the last 10 lines of the poem were particularly intense on that day 18 years before he wrote the poem. The scene is set in a matter of fact way in the first three lines, we are given several details of the setting which helps us to visualize the situation and which also emphasises just how the events and emotions of that day have been etched on the poet’s memory.

The action is simple, the poet is recalling his young son walking off the football field and instead of joining him, his father, he seeks the company of the other boys. You might note that he went behind the scatter of boys, he still had to make friends and be part of the group hence the young child’s hesitation and lack of assurance.

Consider and discuss the implications of the three comparisons that the poet uses in describing that action. Each one captures in a different way something of the child’s attitude as well as the father’s emotion. Two of the comparisons are similes “like a satellite wrenched from its orbit” and “Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem”. One is a metaphor “The pathos of a half fledged thing set free into the wilderness”. All three of these comparisons imply that the child is hardly ready to leave the protective care of his father but that what is happening is a natural and inevitable moment. Consider the connotations of words such as “wrenched” and “half-fledged” as well as the participle that precedes the image of the seed “eddying”. The uncertainty of the young boy as he instinctively moves towards his friends would have made his father even more emotional and anxious although he knew this moment had to happen. In many ways neither the boy not his father was fully prepared or ready for this moment. This made the father more concerned as he watched his son knowing he had to let him find his own way despite the fact that he seemed so vulnerable. He describes this experience in the context of a piece of pottery that has to be fired in a kiln to make it strong. Such incidents are painful but necessary to our growth and development as human being. Such acceptance of a way of life is not without its pain and the choice of the verb “naws” in describing his memory of that day shows how he has battled to forget the pain or realization that he would not could not always be in control of his son or the centre of his son’s life. He had to let him go and establish himself as an individual making his own choices and decisions. It was a learning experience for both father and son. The paradoxical element of this situation is conveyed by the notion of nature’s give and take and is expressed in the last line. The realization and proof of love is shown by letting the object of love go. In allowing this both the father and the son achieve a new selfhood. L ewis, writing as a Christian, uses what he believes is a perfect example: God showing His love through letting His Son Jesus Christ live as a man and die to save mankind.

QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the significance of the word "turning" in line 2.

2. What would the "new-ruled touch-lines" (line 3) seem to symbolise in this particular situation ?

3. Explain the meaning and effectiveness of die simile in lines 4 and 5.

4. List the words and phrases the poet uses to describe the young boy's uncertainty and comment on the cumulative effect of these.

5. Pick out three words which reflect the speaker's pain as he recalls this parting.

6. Explain "nature's give-and-take" in your own words.

7. Why do you think the poet feels that "God alone" could perfectly understand this particular situation ?

8. What is the tone of the last two lines of the poem ?