GAP YEAR – Answers to Questions

1. Summarise the main points in lines 1-16. (4 marks)

The first section of the poem charts Kay’s pregnancy and the birth of Matthew. It is only four stanzas in length. This suggests the brevity of babyhood and how it is quickly over.

The section begins with Kay staring at the empty Moses basket awaiting her baby’s arrival and ends with Kay laying her new son in the basket. This suggests completion and contentment.

• Kay is staring at the Moses basket, waiting, impatiently, for her son to be born.

• She cannot imagine that she will actually have a baby soon

• She can feel the baby moving continuously, showing the closeness of their bond. He is a source of joy and pain.

• She plays music to him in the womb and talks to him affectionately.

• Although the baby is physically close, he is still unfamiliar. She loves her unborn child but recognises that he is separate from her with different experiences.

• The baby is born late, during a very hot summer. He is delivered by forceps, suggesting his reluctance.

2. How is a sense of longing established in lines 17-20? (4 marks)

‘peek’ – suggests the actions of an anxious parent checking on a sleeping child, showing that she is anxious to have her son home.

‘stare’ – this echoes the earlier reference to looking at the empty baby basket and shows the intensity of her longing. We empathise once again with her sense of longing.

‘hardly able to imagine you back in there sleeping’ – he has been away so long that it is hard for her to imagine his presence there again, showing how much she is longing for him.

‘Your handsome face – soft, open’ – she is picturing his face, showing her longing to see him for real.

The repetition of ‘away, away’ emphasises the distance between them and how strongly she feels the separation.

3. By referring to ONE example, show how the writer uses language to emphasise her feelings of loss during her son’s gap year. (2 marks)

‘I feel like a home-alone mother’ – this is usually applied to a child, but here we see a role reversal - she has switched places with her son and has become like a child

‘now I am / wearing your large black slippers’– she is wearing his large black slippers, just like children play grown ups by trying on their parents’ shoes and clothes.

‘all the lights / have gone out in the hall’ - the darkness is symbolic of Matthew’s absence.

‘flip-flopping’ - onomatopoeia suggests a pathetic, sad sound, lacking energy. This suggests the idea of going back and forth to Matthew’s room.

‘into your empty bedroom, trying to imagine you / in your bed’ - She returns to his bedroom and contemplates its emptiness, symbolising her disappointment that her son is coming home later than planned.

‘empty bedroom’ recalls the empty cot at the start and we get a sense of empty nest syndrome.

‘trying to imagine you / in your bed’ recalls ‘willing you to arrive’ at the start of the poem.

‘I stare at the photos you send by messenger’ - the word choice of ‘stare’ suggests her longing for him and feelings of loss in his absence.

The photo of him ‘by Lake Tararhua, beaming’ suggests Matthew is the light of her life. His absence brings darkness to the house (lines 50/51) and his happiness brings light to his face.

4. The last two stanzas signal a further mood change. Comment on the effectiveness of the language the poet uses to convey her feelings. (2 marks)

‘My heart soars like the birds in your bright blue skies.’ - this simile compares her sudden elation to ‘birds’ ascending into the sky. The image of joy and pride suggests that, like her son, she is being liberated from the restrictive, encompassing need to be together that she has been absorbed in.

‘My love glows like the sunrise over the lost city.’ - this simile reinforces the idea of Matthew as light. Kay is imagining herself present with Matthew in the form of her love. She has become bound up with the landscape he is travelling through. Her love reaches across continents just like the sunlight.

‘My heart soars like the birds in your bright blue skies. / My love glows like the sunrise over the lost city.’ – the long vowel sounds of these two lines reflect the wide, open all-encompassing love that spans continents between Kay and Matthew.

‘I sing along to Ella Fitzgerald’ - despite the distance, the ‘gap’ between them, he still brings her happiness. It could be that her unstinting love has given him the courage to travel so far from her. This thought comforts the poet as she sings jazz music that recalls some of her early feelings of sadness: Ella Fitzgerald is associated with the blues possibly reflecting a tinge of sadness/longing.

‘I have a son out in the big wide world.’ – this is a proud, declarative statement - her little boy is now out in the ‘big wide world’. The phrase suggests space and the potential for new experiences, both good and bad. Kay now seems happy to accept the situation. She is proud of him and possibly proud of herself. Is there a tone of wistfulness too in ‘big, wide’?

‘A flip and a skip ago, you were dreaming in your basket.’ – Matthew’s dreaming has turned into living, leaving his mother behind to imagine his adventures. Now it is Kay who dreams of his return. ‘basket’ rhymes with ‘tasket’ (line 59) and recalls the Moses basket of line one. This emphasises the importance of the word and Kay’s longing for that time when he could be contained / protected. The rhyme adds a sense of finality and inevitability to the circumstance: this is something all mothers must go through at some point.