This poem is taken from a collection entitled A Book of Matches, the title being based on a party game in which someone has to tell a story in the length of time it takes for a match to burn. The image of the burning match indicates how quickly key moments in life pass, and therefore how precious our memories become. Published in 1993 (when Armitage was 30 years old), the collection explores themes of growing up and becoming an adult – including breaking free from parental control.
At the start of “Mother, Any Distance”, the speaker’s mother is helping him to move house – a symbol for his increasing independence and discovery of his own identity. Armitage initially uses spatial imagery to hyperbolise the house’s daunting size: “the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors”. The image of the “prairies” evokes the idea of the American frontier during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries – a time when settlers in America were pushing westwards, exploring new spaces and claiming new land. The image therefore conveys the excitement and adventure of moving into a new house, as well as the anxiety and apprehension which accompanies this.
As the speaker measures the new house for carpets and curtains, he holds one end of a tape measure and his mother “pinches” the other end. Armitage uses the tape measure to symbolise the umbilical cord which connects mother and son – an image which is echoed in the pairing of “Anchor. Kite” later in the poem. Each of these symbols communicates connection between parent and child. This connection could be a positive one as the mother provides security for her son (being the anchor as he sails at sea, the string as he flies in the air). However, it could also imply a sense of restriction as the mother holds her son back, preventing him from reaching full freedom and independence. One of the poem’s central themes is the need to renegotiate parent-child relationships as time passes.
Leaving his mother downstairs, the speaker goes upstairs, where he “space-walk[s] through the empty bedrooms”. Like the image of the “prairies” earlier in the poem, this space metaphor suggests a heady mixture of adventure and fear, whilst the adjective “empty” implies that the son might feel isolated and somewhat lost in his new home. This is similar to Lewis’ description of the “hesitant” child walking to his new school in “Walking Away” – the child needs to leave the parent, but in doing so he finds himself lost and alone in the “wilderness”.
This complex mix of emotions is encapsulated in the final line of “Mother, Any Distance”, as Armitage writes that he reaches towards “an endless sky / to fall or fly”. Through using the image of the “endless sky”, Armitage suggests the limitless range of possibilities which are becoming accessible for the son as he becomes an adult. Yet whilst he may “fly” (succeed) in this new world, he may also “fall” (fail). We should note the order of the alliterative words – “fall” comes first, and the poem ends with “fly”, implying that success is the more likely option.
The poem is written in a loose sonnet form, which becomes increasingly free as it progresses. A sonnet usually contains 14 lines, is written in iambic pentameter (10 syllables and 5 beats per line), and has a tight rhyme scheme (often ABAB). Armitage approximates many of these features, but adds an extra line and abandons iambic pentameter. This shows the son’s increasing freedom from the restrictions placed upon him by his mother. As this happens, the poem also shifts from direct address (the “you” focussing on his mother’s reaction to him moving house), and shifts to “I” (the son’s independent experience).
Amy Smith Literature 