Tony Harrison

A look at how the poet, Tony Harrison, presents his parents in his work and whether there a bias towards his father and against his mother.

1,321 words () | 0 sources | 2004 United Kingdom

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how Tony Harrison extensively features his parents and their death throughout his poetry. It analyzes four of his poems: "Cremation", "Book Ends I & II", "A Good Read", and "Bringing Up". It looks at how he stems from a working class background, and though he moved up the social ladder, his parents remain of the lower class. It discusses how Harrison conveys this social gap superbly with his use of language, dialect, and anecdotal snapshots of his past. Likewise, it discusses how he shows respect for his father's legacy, despite the fact his parents were of working class status.

From the Paper:

"For example, in "Cremation" he demonstrates respect for his parents in how he shows them both to be hard working. He describes his fathers, "one huge nightshift". It is almost as though in Harrison's eyes, his father worked all hours to enable them to survive. However, Harrison's presentation here can seem negative as it is almost as though his father's huge workload takes over his life and takes up the time when family bonding traditionally occurs. Similarly he also describes how his mother's hard work led to her demise, "the mangle brought it on". Using plosives, Harrison here shows the sheer physicality that his mother had to cope with."