Tony Harrison
Long Distance
Tony Harrison: Long Distance I
Listen to the first part of the poem.
Long Distance I
Tony Harrison: Long Distance II
Listen to the second part of the poem.
Long Distance II
Comment on the title of the
poem
• Long distance phone call (the final line
connects with the title – ‘disconnected
number I still call’)
• Separation
• Quality of their relationship
Form and Structure
The poem consists of two parts.
Part I
• 16 lines - irregular
division into stanzas
• Rhyming scheme
ABAB CDCD EFEF
GGHH
• Two different types of
print = two voices
(poet and his father)
Part II
• 16 lines – regular
division into stanzas;
each stanza has 4 lines
• Rhyming scheme
ABAB CDCD EFEF
GHHG
• 1 word italicised - knew
Voice
Part I
• Inner dialogue
between the poet and
his father
• They speak to each
other
• Present tense
• Direct speech
Part II
• Monologue
• The poet speaks to the
reader (you couldn’t just
drop in) + in the final
stanza he speaks to his
parents
• Past tense + Present
tense (last stanza)
• 3rd + 1st person narrative
Theme relationship to his parents
Part I
• Relationship between
his parents + his
father after mother’s
death
• The poet’s
relationship to his
father (carelessness,
regrets – last 2 lines)
Part II
• The strange game they
play together after
mother’s death – father
pretends she’s still alive.
• The son plays it after his
father’s death.
Imagery
Part I
Part II
• Images of loneliness
Your bed’s got two wrong
sides; I can’t stand it no more
this empty house
• Images of illness
Diabetes; coronaries; cataracts
• Images of food and drink
Carrots, sauce, sweets, beer,
food
• Alliteration
Big brown bag, coronaries and
cataracts
• Images of home
Warming slipper, hot water
bottle, key, get the tea
• Images of loss
Still raw love; end his grief; you
haven’t both gone shopping;
the disconnected number I still
call; in my new leather phone
book there’s your name
Language
Part I
• Father – dialect
• Words:
ah = I; mi = me
• Contracted forms:
‘em = them; wi’out =
without; t’ only = the
only
• Double negatives
I can’t stand it no more
Part II
• No dialect
Mood
Part I
• Last two lines convey
self-criticism, remorse
(he neglected his
father)
• Regret, complaint
Part II
• regret
• mellow
• thoughtful
• nostalgic
Tony Harrison
Them & [uz]
Tony Harrison: Them & [uz]
Listen to the poem.
Them & [uz]
Demosthenes
A Greek politician, who
was said to have
conquered a speech
impediment by practising
speeches against the
noise of the sea, with a
mouth full of pebbles. He
went on to be acclaimed
as the greatest of Greek
orators.
mi ‘art aches
John Keats's poem
‘Ode to a Nightingale’
begins ‘My heart aches,
and a drowsy
numbness pains/ My
sense, as though of
hemlock I had drunk’.
Keats was born in
London and was, in this
sense, a cockney.
William Wordsworth
An English romantic
poet, who was born
in Cockermouth in
Cumbria and spent
much of his life in
the Lake District.
Comment on the title of the poem
Them = Receivers (RP – received
pronunciation, language of establishment)
People whose language is widely accepted
as correct; if you do not speak such
language, you are culturally excluded.
[uz] = Barbarians; People who speak dialect
and thus appear less educated.
Form and Structure
The poem consists of two parts; dedicated to his teachers
Part I
• 16 lines
• Rhyming scheme AA
BB CC DD EE FF –
rhyming couplets
• Words written in
italics, phonetic
symbols, numerals
abbreviations in both
parts
Part II
• 16 lines
• First two lines do not
rhyme
• Then rhyming couplets
• Last four lines –
alternate couplets
Voice
Part I
• Tony Harrison
recollects being
criticized for his
reading Keats out in
his native Yorkshire/
northern accent
• A dialogue between
Harrison and his
teacher
Part II
• Tony Harrison speaks to
his teachers.
• He decided to use his
own language, though
the Times made him
Anthony (used their
language)
Theme eloquence, accent, cultural exclusion
In the eyes of the establishment – well educated
BUT speaks dialect!
Conflicts
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Standard English (RP)
Teachers
Upper Class
Demosthenes
Poetry
us
Shakespeare, Macbeth
The Times, Anthony
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Dialect
Harrison
Working Class
Stutter
Prose
[uz]
Drunken Porter
Tony
Imagery
• Onomatopoeia
Littererchewer
• Metaphor
My mouth all stuffed with glottals, great lumps to hawk up
and spit out
I chewed up Littererchewer and spat the bones into the lap of
dozing Daniel Jones
• Alliteration
Lousy, leasehold Poetry; RIP RP
• Enjambment
You’re one of those/ Shakespeare gives comic bits to
We’ll occupy/ your lousy leasehold Poetry
Spat the bones/ into the lap of dozing Daniel Jones
Mood
•
•
•
•
•
Combative
Ironic
Humorous
Expressive
Proud