Key Quotes & Comparisons
English Lit: AQA GCSE Poetry - Love & Relationships, topic 8.1.3
Key Quotes in Walking Away
Here are some examples of key quotes from Walking Away by Cecil Day Lewis.
‘Like a winged seed...’
- ‘That hesitant figure, eddying away/Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem’.
- This is a powerful simile that embodies the sense of loss Lewis feels but also the inevitability of the process of growing up.
- The natural imagery also shows the naturalness of the process
‘With a walking away...’
- ‘How selfhood begins with a walking away/And Love is proved in the letting go’
- The word 'away' is repeated throughout the poem to show the process of separation
- The final line of the poem shows that the narrator has realised that the 'letting go' of his son is a part of his parental love.
Key Comparisons: Walking Away
Here are some suggestions for poems you could compare Walking Away to. Remember, there are endless options!
Mother, Any Distance
- Also explores parent–child relationships.
- Mother, Any Distance is from the perspective of a son, whose mother is helping him set up his new house, while Walking Away is from the perspective of a father.
Follower
- Changing parent-child relationship.
- Follower is from the perspective of a child, while Walking Away is from the perspective of a father.
- Similar uses of time and memory.
Test yourself on Key Quotes & Comparisons
Which of these key quotes from Walking Away contains a simile?
Whose perspective is Mother, Any Distance from?
Whose perspective is Follower from?
Whose perspective is Walking Away from?