The Full Text of “Mother, any distance”
The Full Text of “Mother, any distance”
-
“Mother, any distance” Introduction
-
"Mother, any distance" is a poem by the popular British poet Simon Armitage, published in the collection Book of Matches (2001). The premise of the poem is relatively simple: the speaker calls on their mother for help setting up a new home. Specifically, the speaker needs more hands on deck to help measure the dimensions of different rooms, doors, windows, and so on, presumably in order to decorate and furnish the place. Of course, the poem is about a lot more than home improvement. As the speaker and mother extend the tape measure between them, it becomes a metaphor for the enduring strength of the relationship between mothers and children.
-
-
“Mother, any distance” Summary
-
Mother, anything that's longer than a single wingspan needs two people to measure it. You come over to help me take measurements of my new house's windows, frames, and doors; to help me measure the walls that feel like they take up acres, and the floors that feel as big as prairies.
You hold the tape measure at the starting end while I unfurl it, taking note of various measurements and relaying all these meters and centimeters back to you at home base. I walk up the stairs, the tape measure extending further, stretching out between us like the years of our relationship. This makes me think of an anchor and a kite.
I walk like an astronaut through the empty rooms of my house, before climbing up the ladder up to the attic. The tape measure is stretched out as far as it can go by now, to the point that it'll snap if pulled any further. You're two floors below me, gripping the other end of the tape measure tightly with your fingers as close to the tape's base as possible. I reach towards the attic window, which looks out on a seemingly limitless sky. Out there, I will either fail or succeed.
-
-
“Mother, any distance” Themes
-
Mothers and Children
In Armitage's poem, an unnamed speaker is taking measurements of the windows, doors, walls, and so on of a new home. The speaker’s mother has come to help, holding one end of the tape measure as the speaker goes around the house. Throughout the poem, the mother and speaker are presented as both literally and metaphorically connected—and the poem implies that this connection always has been and always will be there. The poem, then, is a kind of tribute the power and importance of a relationship as old as humanity itself: that between mothers and children.
The poem demonstrates this bond through the use of metaphor. The “spool of tape” (i.e., the tape measure) that unfurls between the speaker and mother as they measure the house is perhaps a reference to the umbilical cord, the original connection between the two. Though the umbilical cord is cut at birth, what it represents remains true: that mother and child will always be linked together (even after the speaker moves out and gets a new house!).
As the speaker moves around measuring various aspects of the house, the poem also likens the tape measure to the string that connects a kite to its anchor. The speaker is like the kite, emboldened to explore knowing that their mother is back on the ground, holding the other end of the figurative string. The speaker's mother is thus akin to the anchor in this scenario, a constant presence offering comfort and security even as the speaker wanders far from home.
There comes a time, though, when the speaker reaches a "breaking point, where something has to give." In literal terms, the tape measure connecting mother and child has stretched as far as it can go; on a more symbolic level, the speaker is saying that it's time to leave the comfort of the nest, and to either “fall or fly”—to succeed or fail—independently. The speaker understands that people must eventually grow up and that their mother won't always be around, but the poem suggests that the mark she has left on her child will endure. Her love and support have granted the speaker the confidence to try to stand on their own two feet—to create a home of their own.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-15
-
-
Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Mother, any distance”
-
Lines 1-4
Mother, any distance ...
... of the floors.The opening two lines state the poem's premise. Put most literally, the poem is about the speaker needing help setting up a new house. Specifically, the speaker needs another person there to hold onto the other end of a tape measure while the speaker goes around and measures various parts of the house—likely in order to get furniture and decor that'll make the empty rooms feel more homey. Notice how the opening line itself is stretched by enjambment ("single span / requires a second ..."); it's as if it, too, is "greater than a single span" and as such requires a "second pair of hands"—or, rather, a second line in the poem—to be completed.
There is, of course, a whole world of meaning beyond this literal set-up, as the poem will go on to explore the enduring power of the relationships between mothers and their children. Even in this first stanza, though, it's clear that the speaker is still leaning on their mother for help despite being old enough to have a house of their own (note that we're using "they" for the speaker throughout this guide because no gender is mentioned in the poem).
The speaker's mother, for her part, appears in the poem almost as soon as the speaker makes it clear that her help is needed (the first line of the poem is in fact a moment of apostrophe). Given their apparent closeness, it's fair to assume that the speaker grew up with their mother in the family household. Perhaps this is the speaker's first time living away from home, and perhaps that's part of why the mother can be so helpful in this situation—she has experience of setting up a new house, and of turning a house into a home.
In lines 3 and 4, the speaker goes on to enumerates all the different things that need to be measured:
... windows, pelmets, doors,
the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors.It's a daunting task for the speaker, with the length of the list of items to be measure showing how much there is to be done. Furthermore, the lack of conjunctions like "and" in this sentence—a device technically called asyndeton—demonstrates the way in which the process feels almost endless. Indeed, the speaker exaggerates the size of the task by using metaphor too: "acres" and "prairies" relate to measurements of land, not walls. Accordingly, they relate to much larger distance than the ones actually being measured in this poem—but it helps relay the way that the speaker feels relatively out of their depth, metaphorically not yet ready to relinquish their mother's comforting support.
-
Lines 5-8
You at the ...
... us. Anchor. Kite. -
Lines 9-11
I space-walk through ...
... has to give; -
Lines 12-15
two floors below ...
... fall or fly.
-
-
“Mother, any distance” Symbols
-
The Measuring Tape
The poem's set-up is based on a rather simple and mundane fact: the speaker can't stretch a tape measure long enough to measure all the various elements of their new house. That, of course, provides a reason for the speaker to call on their mother for help; she holds one end of the tape measure for the speaker. At first, the tape measure maintains this sense of just being a practical tool. The speaker and mother unfurl the tape, making notes of various dimensions as they move around the house. But the speaker themselves starts to see the symbolic significance of the tape as the poem progresses, noticing the way that it seems to represent the mother-child bond.
Accordingly, the tape measure becomes more symbolic the further it stretches out (perhaps, the further that it stretches away from its literal meaning). By line 8, the measure no longer merely "unreels" its physical length, but the "years between" the mother and the speaker. This connection is gently suggestive of the very first connection shared between the two: the umbilical cord. In turn, this reminds the reader that the mother has cared for the speaker even before the latter was born—and thus strengthens the poem's message about the enduring, ancient, and perhaps even mystical connection between mothers and their children.
Finally, the way that the tape measure stretches to "breaking point" is significant too. It suggests that, on some level, the speaker needs to let go of their dependency on their mother in order to gain their independence (a process which they seem to be already undergoing).
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 5-8
- Lines 9-13
-
The Anchor
The anchor in the poem represents the speaker's mother. Anchors are associated with safety and security, two things which the speaker's mother appears to have provided—and perhaps continues to provide—for the speaker. Anchors steady ships, just as mothers steady their children. In keeping with this idea, the mother in the poem stays two floors below as the speaker climbs up into the loft; she is secure and planted as the speaker (who is represented by the kite) climbs toward the sky.
Of course, at a certain point, anchors also are meant to hold things back; they prevent ships from floating away or being carried off by the winds and tides. As comforting as the speaker's mother may be, then, comparing her to an anchor suggests that the speaker can never be truly independent while tethered to a parent.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 8: “Anchor”
-
The Kite
Whereas an anchor is planted on the ground, a kite is airborne in the sky; it's an object that can fly above the earth while still being connected to the ground by a string. As such, it represents the speaker as they are throughout much of the poem: a person starting to go off on their own, but who is still tethered to an anchor—in this case, to their mother, relying on her help and support. The mention of a kite here also anticipates the poem's final moment, in which the speaker confronts the choice before them: flying or falling. It's also worth noting that the kite is an object focused on fun and play. Perhaps this speaks to childhood itself, and to the way in which mothers try to raise their children in happy and nurturing environments.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 8: “Kite”
-
-
“Mother, any distance” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
-
Alliteration
"Mother, any distance" uses alliteration sparingly, meaning it feels all the more powerful when it does appear. The first example is in lines 1 and 2:
... distance greater than a single span
requires a second pair of hands.This /s/ sound works subtly here, but gives the lines a sort of stretchy feeling; the /s/ sound "spans" across both lines (an effect bolstered by the consonance of "distance"), anticipating the poem's central image of the tape measure.
Another important moment of alliteration appears in line 6, when the speaker relates how the mother is noting down the measurements as the speaker unfurls the "spool of tape." The speaker characterizes this as "reporting metres, centimetres back to base." The precision of the two /b/ sounds gently evokes the process that the mother and speaker are undertaking—they're trying to take precise measurements of the house. The alliteration here also focuses readers' attention on this phrase, which positions the mother as a steady, anchoring home "base" for the speaker.
Lines 9 to 10 use alliteration too with the phrase "climb / the ladder to the loft." The three /l/ sounds function like rungs on the ladder, distinct stages in the lines as they unfolds (in the same way that rungs are spaced out regularly on a ladder). Perhaps the most evocative use of alliteration, though, occurs in line 15, the poem's closing line. Here, the speaker feels that they have two options going forward: they can either "fall" or "fly." The alliteration demonstrates how, though these two options bring entirely different results, the actual process in both is very similar (in that both involve leaving the "nest," as it were, and stepping out on one's own). This effect is supported by the /l/ sound consonance of these words as well.
Also note how the /f/ alliteration in the final line of the poem echoes that which appears in line 12 with "floors" and "fingertips." This former phrase is associated with the mother pinching the final bit of the tape measure as the speaker climbs up to the house's loft. As such, the alliteration of /f/ sounds once again at the end of the poem subtly suggests the strength of the relationship between mother and child; their connection is evoked via sound even as the speaker prepares to step out on their own.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “s,” “s,” “p”
- Line 2: “s,” “p”
- Line 3: “m,” “m”
- Line 5: “r”
- Line 6: “r,” “b,” “b”
- Line 7: “st,” “st”
- Line 9: “l”
- Line 10: “l,” “l”
- Line 12: “f,” “f”
- Line 15: “f,” “f”
-
Assonance
-
Asyndeton
-
Caesura
-
Consonance
-
Enjambment
-
Metaphor
-
-
"Mother, any distance" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Span
- Pelmets
- Acres
- Prairies
- Zero-end
- Spool
- Unreeling
- Space-walk
- Loft
-
(Location in poem: Line 1: “span”)
The distance between one end of something and the other, here referring to the speaker's hands (arm span).
-
Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Mother, any distance”
-
Form
"Mother, any distance" appears in Simon Armitage's collection, A Book of Matches. This is a sequence of sonnets, which is a good starting-point for a discussion of this poem's form. On first glance, this poem seems to conform fairly well to the sonnet form. The first eight lines are divided into two quatrains—so far, so sonnet.
But usually these two quatrains—collectively known as an octave or octet—would be followed by a six-line stanza (a sestet). Here, the poem diverges from the sonnet form, containing seven lines in its final section. Perhaps the "extra" line is there to represent the connection between the speaker and mother, who are joined by the tape measure and, more importantly, by their enduring bond.
-
Meter
When it comes to meter and rhyme, "Mother, any distance" is an unusual poem. Though written in free verse, the meter it still often quite evocative.
Take the first line of the poem, for instance, which is made up of trochees (stressed-unstressed):
Mother, | any | distance | greater | than a | single | span
The next two have a clear iambic pattern, meaning they're filled with poetic feet that follow an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern:
requires | a sec- | ond pair | of hands.
You come | to help | me mea- | sure win- | dows, pel- | mets, doors,In both cases, though, the rhythm has a sort of bouncy regularity to the way it unfolds, with a pretty much 1:1 correlation between stressed and unstressed syllables (that is, there are never two unstressed or two stressed syllables in a row).
The final line in this stanza then has a strange meter that could be broken down as iamb-spondee-iamb; more important than labeling here is pointing out that the rhythm repeats exactly in each clause on either side of the caesura:
the acres of the walls,
the prairies of the floors.The addition of more unstressed syllables here imbues the line with a sense of space that noticeably contrasts with the prior two lines, reflecting the fact that the distances being described are huge. Indeed, the metaphorical use of "acres" and "prairies" underscores how daunting this measuring task feels to the speaker.
The first line of the next stanza is similar to the last line of the first stanza, in that the phrases immediately to either side of the caesura have the exact same rhythm:
You at the zero-end,
me with the spool of tapeThe first of these phrases refers to the mother ("you"), and the second to the speaker ("me"). As such, their identical rhythm suggests the enduring connection between the two.
Much of the second stanza is then again trochaic. For example:
length, re- | porting | metres, | centi- | metres | back to | base, then | leaving
up the | stairs, the | line still | feeding | out, un- | reelingThis steadiness is again in keeping with the unfurling of the tape measure, section by section, step by step.
Elsewhere, the poem makes important use of variations in line length. Line 11 is very short, conveying the way that something "has to give" (in this case the line length!). And the final line—"to fall or fly"—shows the simple choice that lies ahead in the speaker's future. Like a bird flying the nest, their independence will either work or it won't.
-
Rhyme Scheme
The first quatrain seems to set the poem up as a typical sonnet, rhyming AABB (span/hands and doors/floors). This gives the reader a false expectation of how the poem will unfold, though, since the rhyme scheme doesn't continue to follow this pattern. Stanza two, for instance, doesn't rhyme very strongly. The first three lines do indeed end with the same syllable—"ing"—but the sound is subtle and unstressed. Even so, this shows the repetitive nature of the speaker's and their mother's movements, as they measure up the house and make note of the distances.
Stanza three doesn't rhyme at all, until the last two lines. There's a bit of internal rhyme here, of course, with "still pinch / the last one-hundredth of an inch," which draws emphasis to the mother's actions—to the fact that she is clinging onto the final bits of the tape measure as it's stretched to its "breaking point." The final two lines then have clear, full rhymes with sky/fly, making the ending of the poem actually conform to a regular sonnet; putting aside the mismatched line lengths, these final lines make up a couplet. This, in turn, gives the poem's last moments an air of finality.
-
-
“Mother, any distance” Speaker
-
The poem's first-person speaker is relatively undefined in "Mother, any distance." However, it's clear that this person is an adult and is moving into a new home, possibly their first one since living with their mother. The speaker clearly values their relationship with their mother, calling in the first line for her to come and lend a hand (literally and figuratively!). Note that no gender is given in the poem, so the speaker might be male or female (the poem isn't necessarily autobiographical). While no age is given, the speaker is likely someone in relatively early adulthood, given that their mother is still alive and willing to help out.
The speaker is also attuned to the metaphorical implications of the moments shared with their mother during this seemingly banal situation. The tape measure stands in for their enduring bond, and is also reminiscent of the umbilical cord that once joined them together. And as the poem goes on, and the speaker feels the magnitude of the moment more and more, the speaker's language becomes increasingly figurative. At the end, the speaker frames their future in a metaphor that refers to birds having to fly their nest. The speaker knows that they now must either "fall or fly"—that is, that they must try to stand on their own two feet.
-
-
“Mother, any distance” Setting
-
The poem takes place within the speaker's new house, which at the moment is bare—undecorated and unfurnished. In a way, the emptiness of the house represents the potential of the speaker's future; the speaker now has a chance to turn this particular house into a comforting home (perhaps like the one the speaker's mother created for the speaker as a child). The speaker moves throughout the house's various rooms, before heading up a ladder to the loft or attic and looking out a window.
Of course, this setting has metaphorical connotations too, in that it is a representation of the relationship between the mother and speaker. This is particularly noticeable in the way the speaker mentions the "years" "unreeling" between them while measuring various parts of the house. When the speaker later looks out of the house's loft window at a clear and "endless" sky, this is meant to reflect where the speaker is in life—that is, the speaker is at a critical moment in which they must step out on their own, either to "fall or fly."
-
-
Literary and Historical Context of “Mother, any distance”
-
Literary Context
Simon Armitage is one of the U.K.'s most popular contemporary poets. He was born in Yorkshire in 1963 and began writing poetry at a young age. His first collection, Zoom!, was published by Bloodaxe in 1989 and was an immediate success, selling well and being shortlisted for the Whitbread Poetry Award.
Armitage's poems are known for their dark comedy, clarity, and playfulness. Their outward simplicity often conceals a complex emotional world and reflects the influence of other important 20th-century poets like Ted Hughes, W.H. Auden, and Philip Larkin.
The relationship between mothers and children is, of course, a common subject for poets more broadly. Readers may find Carol Ann Duffy's "Before You Were Mine," Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son," Li-Young Lee's "I Ask My Mother to Sing," or Grace Nichols's "Praise Song for My Mother" interesting poems for comparison.
Armitage is the current serving Poet Laureate of England, having taken over from the aforementioned Duffy. This is a ceremonial role, the original responsibility being to compose poems on significant occasions. Nowadays, the Laureate tends to focus on furthering poetry's audience, particularly within an educational context—the kind of work that Armitage has been doing for many years.
Historical Context
"Mother, any distance" was published in 1993, but it doesn't specify a timeframe for its setting. That said, it certainly feels contemporary. The new house occupied by the speaker has a fairly suburban feel to it, particularly with the inclusion of a loft. And, of course, young men and women are more likely nowadays to buy and furnish new houses on their own than they were in, say, Elizabethan England! That said, in a way, this non-specific sense of time is part of the poem's strategy. The poem is about the relationship between the speaker and their own mother, but it's also about the mother-child relationship more generally—and this is a connection as old as humanity itself. In that sense, the non-specific historical setting speaks to the power of the mother-child bond to endure.
-
-
More “Mother, any distance” Resources
-
External Resources
-
Armitage's Life and Work — A valuable resource from the Poetry Foundation, with more poems and biographical information about Armitage.
-
Mother's Day Poems — A fine selection of other poems that also look at the mother-child relationship.
-
Walking Home — An interesting discussion with Armitage about his book Walking Home.
-
The Poem Read by the Man Himself — Simon Armitage reads "Mother, any distance."
-
Poetry as Dissent — Armitage discusses the "obstinate nature of poetry" in this video interview with The Guardian.
-
-
LitCharts on Other Poems by Simon Armitage
-
