Discuss Harrisons Explorations of Family relationships Essay Example

Discuss Harrisons Explorations of Family relationships Essay Example Discuss Harrisons Explorations of Family relationships Essay Discuss Harrisons Explorations of Family relationships Essay A lot of Tony Harrisons poems have a connection with family life and particularly in some of his poems he talks about his family in an under covered way. There are a few poems in particular that touch upon the subject of family relationships and especially Harrisons view on family. The poems are Book Ends I and II, A Good Read and Bringing up. In all the poems the writer is expressing how he felt about his family, his relationship with his father and mother and how his mother has affected the family when she was alive and after she has died. The poems Book Ends I and II both are about how the relationship between Harrison and his father changed after his mother died. From the title of the poems the reader can gather the metaphor of the father and the son being the book ends You are like book ends, the pair of you. Although from the poem we find out that the two of them are quite different, they are also quite similar because the book ends also come in a pair. The metaphor can be developed by saying that the pages of the book are the mother because that is the only thing that holds the book ends together. The poem also illustrates the sadness of both the son and the father because of the mothers death we chew it slowly. Apart form saddens this line shows the reader that they are savouring the memory of their beloved mother and wife. In the next line the writer is saying how scared of bed he is because they are afraid of the thought that their mother has died. Harrison emphases on their difference by saying We never could talk much, and now dont try because talking establishes the real difference between them although they are a son and father. The more and more the reader and realises the main theme of the poem that Harrison has established, the more the poem starts to develop as a sort of a piece of writing expressing how bad his relationship with his father is A night you need my company to pass. At this moment the father needs his son because he is sad and even though the writer is quite sceptical towards his relationship with his father, Harrison needs his father because his grief is not less. Harrison says that his fathers life is all shattered into smithereens, but here is hiding what his actual feelings are and in a way attacks his father. The final lines of the poem suggest and show the reader that the difference between them is so quite major because of education whats still betweens not the thirty years or so years, but books, books, books. Harrison wants to be close to his father but he must give up his education and social level so that he can keep a close relationship. The second Book Ends poem continues to give the reader more and more information about the relationship between Harrison and his father. The poem starts of with Harrison deciding what to write on his mothers stone The stones too fullTheres scarcely room to carve. Form here the reader finds out that there has been to much written on the gravestone and there isnt even enough space to write her name. Harrison ahs a lot to write to his on his mothers gravestone, but the father doesnt seem to care too much Come on its not as if were wanting verse. Its not as if we are wanting a whole sonnet!. Here the father is also mocking the sons education, by saying that he doesnt know to actually write. The next line of the poem shows the reader that they are still depressed because of the mothers death After tumblers of neat Johnny Walker. This also shows that they still cant cope without the mother. The fathers appalling education results as a barrier between them as Harrison is this time mocking his father you said youd always been a clumsy talker and couldnt find another, shorter word for beloved or for wife. Although his father is not as intelligent as Harrison is he Is still able to be cutting his son when the writer is looking for words to put on his mothers gravestone not too clumsy that you cant still cut. Again in the next two lines where the father is speaking, he is mocking his sons education by saying that it only exists on paper bright boy at description and the swear words that the father uses what the fuck to put shows again his lack of vocabulary due to poor education and also his frustration with his son. The fathers lower social class status is shown once more in the poem Ive got the envelope that hed been scrawling. The fact that his father has written the words that are supposed to go on to the mothers gravestone on an envelope, shows in a way the respect he has for her and again his poor education is emphasised mawkish, stylistically appalling. The next poem that I am going to discuss is called A Good Read and it is again about the relationship between Harrison and his father. The poem starts of with Harrison describing what he has had to read that particular summer That summer it was Ibsen, Marx and Gide. This is quite symbolic because Ibsen wrote depressing poems about bad family relationships and Marx is the so called father of communism. The fact that the father is saying ah sometimes you read too many books. ah nivver ad much time for a good read at the same time the father wonders how can his son find books so amusing and again this show the difference in their social class, but it also shows that the father was working all the time so that his son can have a good education and thats why he didnt read a lot. In the part of the poem which is written in italics is where Harrison expresses his frustration with his father and he also patronises him Good read! I bet! Your programme at United. Harrison mentions sarcastically that his father even reads the labels on his drinks and that shows that his father has started to drink a lot which leads to the fact that he cant cope with the loss of Harrisons mother. At the end of the part in italics Harrison shows a similarity with his father by swearing fucking football. This shows that even though there is a lot of tension In their relationship they are still a father and son. Also Harrison cant actually say all those things to his father (All this in my mind.) The father of Harrison actually becomes the good read as he becomes the subject of some of his poems which is quite ironic and writing becomes the only thing that makes his father interesting to Harrison. The last poem that I will discuss is called Bringing up and it tells Harrisons readers and audience about his relationship with his mother, but more precisely what his mother used to think of his writing and how did she accept it. As it can be gathered form the title it is the time when his mother was still alive and when Harrison was younger and at the beginning of his poetic years. The poem starts of with his mother being in disgust with what Harrison has produced and the fact that she has borrowed a library copy shows even more that his mother didnt approve of her sons writing at all. Alliteration is used for emphasis on that how much she dislikes his poetry wept for weeks.