Jon Stallworthy's Relatable Journeys

Through one of the most relatable journeys one will take in life Jon Stallworthy takes us on both the literal and metaphorical path. A father rushing to the hospital for the birth of his own son. We are taken on a deeper path of significance through Stallworthy’s use of imagery, word choice and mood in this poem so as we can directly relate to the events thus unfolding. A man rushing to the hospital only to find that his son once born has Down syndrome, the reader can feel a real sense of connection with his emotions. On the way to the hospital the reader can feel the sense of glee in the father’s emotions. The excitement about the journey continues as he gets closer, the simile in section one “the lights were green as peppermints” (Stallworthy

This is full of great image, of the river of life; blood running under bone, teaming with life running from father to son across ages. In this literal sense of relation from the speaker to his son the reader can sense the physical bond between father and son and his sense of elation as he thinks about passing his life down generation to generation. By the end of section four metaphorically one can feel the father’s sense of accomplishment through him welcoming his new son into the world, “Welcome/ to your white sheet,/ my best poem!” (46-48). The word choice there “my best poem” suggests that he thinks of his son as his best piece of work, by welcoming him into the new

He is told that his son has Down syndrome. This ultimately brings his world crashing down, the imagery in section five has such cutting words, that bring a real negativity to the piece. “scissored the calm” (51), this slicing can be thought of as an element of pain, also foreshadowing the bad news that has yet to come where he is actually told that his son has Down syndrome; like the dead silence that takes ahold of your surroundings when big news is about to be shared. His relation to his son has been shattered in section six, the evidence to support this is the figurative use of “This was my first death” (65). These words can be taken that this is the first time he has ever felt this much pain or been this upset. In the time of great crisis though we ourselves can feel distanced from our bodies, sometimes described as being outside looking in, “Looking down from a thousand feet” (74). Thus his relation with his son seeming distanced and furthered away as time passes, “my son sailed from me; never to come/ ashore into my kingdom/ speaking my language” (94-96). This evidence uses great imagery to show that he sees his son as sailing away from his because of his