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    Tony Harrison

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    sabeenmasaud1
    The poem depicts a father coping with the profound grief of losing his wife. He maintains rituals like keeping her slippers warm and renewing her transport pass to preserve her memory in his daily life. These gestures reveal his struggle to accept her absence and his enduring connection to her. The anticipation that she may return reflects his ongoing difficulty accepting the reality of her absence.

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    Tony Harrison

    Uploaded by

    sabeenmasaud1
    45 views1 page
    The poem depicts a father coping with the profound grief of losing his wife. He maintains rituals like keeping her slippers warm and renewing her transport pass to preserve her memory in his daily life. These gestures reveal his struggle to accept her absence and his enduring connection to her. The anticipation that she may return reflects his ongoing difficulty accepting the reality of her absence.

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    O levels English literature

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    The poem depicts a father coping with the profound grief of losing his wife. He maintains rituals like keeping her slippers warm and renewing her transport pass to preserve her memory in his daily life. These gestures reveal his struggle to accept her absence and his enduring connection to her. The anticipation that she may return reflects his ongoing difficulty accepting the reality of her absence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    45 views1 page

    Tony Harrison

    Uploaded by

    sabeenmasaud1
    The poem depicts a father coping with the profound grief of losing his wife. He maintains rituals like keeping her slippers warm and renewing her transport pass to preserve her memory in his daily life. These gestures reveal his struggle to accept her absence and his enduring connection to her. The anticipation that she may return reflects his ongoing difficulty accepting the reality of her absence.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 1

    In Tony Harrison's poem "Long Distance," the speaker conveys the profound emotions and permanent

    impact of grief, through the lens of a father coping with the death of his wife .The meticulous details
    presented provide poignant evidence of the father's coping mechanisms and the profound sense of loss
    he experiences.

    The image of the father keeping his late wife's slippers “warming by the gas” and “renewing” her
    transport pass serves as a poignant symbol of his attempt to maintain a connection with her. These
    gestures reveal the father's struggle to let go and the enduring presence of his wife in his daily life. The
    mention of hot water bottles on her side of the bed emphasizes the tangible ways in which he tries to
    preserve her memory.

    The lines also show the father's sense of isolation and the “rituals” he adopts to cope with grief. The
    necessity to phone before visiting suggests a deliberate effort to create a controlled environment for the
    father. The act of putting off visitors for an hour to clear away her things underscores the private nature
    of his mourning, as if expressing his love openly is perceived as a "crime."

    The father's reluctance to risk the speaker's "blight of disbelief" speaks to the universality of grief and
    the fear of facing skepticism from others. The anticipation of hearing her key in the lock and the hope
    that she has "just popped out to get the tea" reflect the father's ongoing struggle to accept the reality of
    her absence, clinging to the possibility that she might return.

    The concluding lines describe a sense of understanding in between the father and son. The speaker says
    “both” the parents hadn’t gone shopping the same. Hinting towards the death of the father. This part of
    the poem shows contradiction in the speaker’s point of view as he found his father’s method of coping
    with his mother’s death irrational but, after the father’s death he calls the “disconnected” number, even
    saving it his new phone book. This shows the speaker finding comfort in the same ways that he found
    unusual.

    In essence, these lines from "Long Distance" poignantly convey the father's profound grief, his coping
    mechanisms, and the enduring impact of loss. The details presented create a vivid portrayal of a man
    attempting to navigate the complexities of mourning while facing the harsh reality of death.

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