The Side Way Back - Unseen Poetry

Below, you’ll find a poem by Phillip Gross. Read it carefully and then spend 10 minutes making some notes in response to the following question:

How does the poet present the theme of parenthood in this poem? Make reference to both language and structure in your answer.

Use the ‘UNTWIST’ process to populate your notes - if you need a reminder of the various elements of that acronym, you can find a post dedicated to it here.

When you have finished, you can then listen to the podcast to hear some of my thoughts about how I might go about planning an answer for this task. Compare my ideas with those you found; did we touch on a number of the same ideas? If this task had appeared in your terminal exam, how do you think you would haver fared? Remember, practice makes perfect!

The Side Way Back

 You're late. Take a chance up the cul-de-sac,

 a short cut home. It's the side way back--

 the way they tell you not to go,

 the way the kids and stray cats know

 as Lovebite Alley, Dead Dog Lane ...

 The Council says it's got no name.

 All the same...

 There's sharks-tooth glass on a breezeblock wall.

 There's nobody near to hear if you call.

 There are tetanus tips on the rusty wire.

 There's a house they bricked up after the fire

 Spray-canned with blunt names and a thinks-balloon

 full of four-letter words and a grinning moon

 cartoon.

 It's a narrow and narrowing one way street

 down to the end where the night kids meet.

 You've seen the scuffed-out tips of their fags.

 You've smelt something wrong in their polythene bags.

 There's a snuffle and a scratching at a planked-up gate.

 There's a footstep you don't hear till almost too late.

 Don't wait.

 Now you're off and you're running for years and years

 with the hissing of panic like rain in your ears.

 You could run till you're old, you could run till you're gone

 and never get home. To slow down and walk on

 is hard. Harder still is to turn

 and look back. Though it's slow as a Chinese burn,

 you'll learn.

Philip Gross (from Scratch City)