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READ THIS
The poet remembers an incident which took place some 18 years earlier when his son, Sean, left him to
join a group of friends at school.
The incident was perfectly natural -- it happens to every parent -- but it reverberated down the years so
that, almost two decades later, the poet still remembered the event as clearly as the day on which it
happened.
NOTE ON THE POET
Cecil Day-Lewis was of Irish descent, having been born in Ballintubbert in County Laois, the son of a
clergyman and his wife.
He was just two years old, however, when his mother died, at which point his father moved to London
where the young child did all his schooling. He eventually graduated from Oxford University in 1927.
Despite this prolonged English education, he always regarded himself as Anglo-Irish although, when
Ireland eventually gained independence from Britain, he chose British citizenship rather than Irish.
He began work as a school teacher, then later became involved in the publishing industry before
eventually taking up a lecturing post at Cambridge University. Later he accepted a Professorship in Poetry
at Oxford before transferring to Harvard University in the United States.
For a while -- just before the outbreak of World War II -- he joined the communist party, during which
time his poetry took on a distinctly socialist flavour. Disillusion soon set in, however, and he parted
company with the socialists.
Day-Lewis had a troubled marital life, being married first to Mary King and then to Jill Balcon. These two
marriages resulted in five children. He also had several extra-marital affairs during which he probably
fathered a further two children.
He was appointed Poet Laureate of Britain in 1968 but died from pancreatic cancer just four years later.
He was then 68 years of age.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"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."
- Comment on the near precision of the poet's memory in his words, "It is eighteen years ago, almost
to the day." (2)
[Need help?]
The fact that the father can remember almost to the day when this event took place is an indication of how
very meaningful it was for him.
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- Is there any significance to the poet's naming the season during which this event took
place? (4)
[Need help?]
Naming the season allows the poet to define for the reader almost precisely when the incident took place:
a sunny day with the leaves just beginning to turn -- which would presumably make it very early autumn
when the schools had just resumed after their summer vac. The poet's son had, therefore, just started
school for the first time.
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- What is the significance of the touch-lines having been "new ruled"? (4)
[Need help?]
Literally, the touch-lines had only recently been painted for the game. It is probably the first game of the
season which meant that it would have been necessary to paint the lines.
There is an alternative, metaphorical meaning to this as well. In a metaphorical way, there were new lines
drawn as well between the father and his son. These lines represented the game of independence,
where the son would slowly and surely move away from his father.
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"Then, like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away
Behind a scatter of boys."
- What is a "satellite" and an "orbit"? (4)
[Need help?]
A "satellite" is a body which naturally moves round another body, the two being held together by
gravity. The moon is a satellite of the earth. Communication satellites move round the earth in regular
orbits.
The "orbit" is the circular or near elliptical path followed by the satellite.
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- Why does the poet refer to his son as being a "satellite"? (4)
[Need help?]
A young child is firmly attached to its parent. Like the satellite, the child's world revolves around the
parent, held to the parent by attachments of love, security, affection, etc.
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- Comment on the choice of the word "wrenched" rather than, say, "pulled away" or
"attracted away". (4)
[Need help?]
The son's break from his father was not a gradual easing of relations. It was sudden, abrupt and it was
painful. The implication is that it was also a startling experience for the son but this is perhaps the father's
projection of his own feelings onto the boy.
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- What is the implication of the words "go drifting away" to describe his son's
action? (4)
[Need help?]
Having been wrenched out of orbit around his father, the boy now drifts away almost aimlessly with new
friends whom he presumably made during the football match.
The term "drifting away" indicates this aimlessness. He had not entered into a new orbit
but was merely wandering around with no new goal in mind. Later he would lock into a new orbit which
would include his father but also his friends.
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- Why are the boys referred to merely as "a scatter of boys"? (4)
[Need help?]
They have no name. Indeed, the father knows none of them except that they had all played football
together and possibly were now about to attend the same school.
There is no unified membership, no cohesion to hold them together. The game over, they remain together
as "a scatter of boys" who in time might or might not become firm friends.
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GENERAL QUESTIONS:
What is the purpose of the poet's using the second person -- you / your -- throughout this
poem? (4)
[Need help?]
The poet is speaking directly to his son, Sean. It is possible he has written this poem for him to read and
not just dedicated to him.
The use of you / your also makes the poem more personal. The poet is not merely collecting his own
private thoughts about a certain event but is rather explaining to his son personally what he felt about the
event.
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The poet appears to accept the fact that his son's moving away from him is natural and is something that
must indeed happen. Yet he accepts this situation with a degree of reluctance.
- What words and images in this poem reveal both these attitudes? (6)
[Need help?]
The poet uses nature imagery to explain what has happened: "half-fledged thing set free
Into a wilderness" and "a winged seed loosened from its parent stem".
By doing so, the poet admits that the "walking away" is perfectly natural. The young of all animals
do it. The seeds do it.
Finally, the poet says "selfhood begins with a walking away, And love is proved in the letting go".
The act of "walking away" is therefore a God-directed action and only by doing so does the young
become a mature adult.
Nevertheless, he is reluctant. Words like "wrenched from its orbit" and "the gait of one who finds
no path where the path should be" and "I have had worse partings, but none that so gnaws at my
mind still".
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