Simon Armitage Hyperbole

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The poem “Mother, any distance greater than a single span” written by Simon Armitage discusses the distance of a mother and son relationship as the child enters adulthood. Armitage uses techniques of metaphors, symbolism and hyperbole to help convey that the distance between a parent and child will become distant and adulthood is a chance to thrive or fail, but adulthood can give you endless opportunities and independence. Armitage uses metaphors to help illustrate this mother and son relationship. The metaphors describe the relationship becoming distant and that the mother is not ready to let her son go. We see this in the poem when the mother and son measure the interior of the house with a measuring tape: “unreeling years between us.” …show more content…

The hyperbole helps describe Armitage’s messages to the readers of the child’s fears of failing in adulthood, but adulthood can give you freedom and opportunities. We see the child's fears of failing in adulthood, which is conveyed by the hyperbole of “to fall or to fly.” The fall represents the failing and the fly represents the success. This hyperbole shows the child's fears of whether or not he is going to succeed in adulthood. The conclusion of the poem is ambiguous, but reflects a real life experience most of us undergo, not knowing whether independence is a chance for us to thrive or fail. This message made me consider if I am going to thrive or fail in adulthood but I know that it is part of life and that mostly everyone have or will undergo this life experience. An additional hyperbole Armitage uses to display that adulthood can give you freedom and opportunities is ”endless sky.” This shows the freedom, independence and opportunities the child gets in his adulthood and it may not be scary as it looks, as you can choose and decide for yourself. I believe that I get small doses of independence because I can decide my own career path as I am becoming a year thirteen next year and then entering the big wide world. Armitage uses hyperbole to convey the message to the reader that the child is scared, but he knows that he will have freedom and endless opportunities ahead of

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