AQA GCSE English Literature Paper 2 Love and Relationships Poetry Anthology

Parental love

25/30

Compare how poets present parental love in 'Eden Rock' and in one other poem from 'Love and relationships'.

'Eden Rock' by Charles Causley, a poem wherein the narrator relives a memory of a picnic with his parents, and 'Follower' by Seamus Heaney, where the narrator describes [his relationship with] his father, are both examples of parental love. Whilst Eden Rock focuses on a speaker mulling over a specific childhood memory, Follower explores the speaker's relationship during his childhood in general. However, the general love that the parents feel for their children is present, although this may not entirely be reciprocated.

In both poems, the narrators are reliving their past memories with their parents. Despite the fact that these memories are quite distant, they are recollected with immense detail, showing that these memories must be cherished dearly. In 'Eden Rock', for example, the fact that the narrator remembers small details about his parents, such as the "suit of Genuine Irish Tweed" of his father and the "sprigged dress" of his mother. This is also similar in 'Follower' – the fact that the narrator remembers the exact actions of his father, of him fitting the "bright steel-pointed sock" and how his eyes "narrowed and angled at the ground", not only shows how much he loved his father, but also how much he looked up to him.

One poem shows undying love, while the other poem doesn't quite do this, but the love is still there.

In addition to this, both poems consist of orderly stanzas, with strict half-rhyme schemes – 'Eden Rock' consists of five [six?] four-line stanzas, each with an ABAB rhyme scheme, while 'Follower' consists of six four-line stanzas, each with a rhyme scheme of ABAB as well. This is meant to represent the undying and constant love that the parents have for their child. However, the break from this order during the one-line stanza in 'Eden Rock' might suggest that the parents' feelings might not be fully returned.

Both poems also have ambiguous endings, suggesting that the love that the parents feel for their children might not be reciprocated. As mentioned before, in 'Eden Rock', the last one-line stanza ("I had not thought that it would be like this.") suggests this – the fact that this one monosyllabic ["leisurely"?] sentence is split from the previous stanza, not only represents the distance between him and his parents, but also that he might feel pressured by his parents into crossing the "drifted stream", showing the likes of a negative relationship. This is also similar in 'Follower', where it is unclear whether or not the narrator dislikes the fact that his father "will not go away", but the difference is that the father and son seemed to have a good relationship when the narrator was younger – "he rode me on his back" and "all I ever did was follow". Comparative sentence

The memories that the narrators relive in these poems are vivid, even including the smallest of details like the "old H.P. sauce-bottle" and the "polished sod", showing how much the children must cherish these memories. This also shown in the strict half-rhymes in each poem, representing the parents' undying love for their children. However, this does not seem to be the case when it comes to the children loving their parents back fully, despite their vivid memories of them.