Letters From Yorkshire (AQA GCSE English Literature)

Each poetry anthology at GCSE contains 15 poems, and in your exam question you will be given one poem - printed in full - and asked to compare this printed poem to another. As this is a closed-book exam, you will not have access to the second poem, so you will have to know it from memory. Fifteen poems is a lot to revise. However, understanding four things will enable you to produce a top-grade response:

• The meaning of the poem
• The ideas and messages of the poet 
• How the poet conveys these ideas through their methods
• How these ideas compare and contrast with the ideas of other poets in the anthology

Below is a guide to Maura Dooley’s 'Letters From Yorkshire', from the Love and Relationships anthology. It includes:

• Overview: a breakdown of the poem, including its possible meanings and interpretations
• Writer’s Methods: an exploration of the poet’s techniques and methods
• Context: an exploration of the context of the poem, relevant to its themes
• What to compare it to: ideas about which poems to compare it to in the exam

In order to answer an essay question on any poem it is vital that you understand what it is about. This section includes:

• The poem in a nutshell
• A ‘translation’ of the poem, section-by-section
• A commentary of each of these sections, outlining Maura Dooley’s intention and message

'Letters From Yorkshire' in a nutshell

'Letters From Yorkshire', written by the poet Maura Dooley, discusses the importance of maintaining a bond within family relationships despite distance. Dooley’s poem refers to the emotional connection between parent and child which traverses the obstacles of individuals’ separate lives. 

'Letters From Yorkshire' overview

Lines 1-2

“In February, digging his garden, planting potatoes,

he saw the first lapwings return and came” 

Translation

• The poem begins by providing information about the parent
• He appears to work closely with nature all year round, suggesting his hardy character

Dooley’s intention

• Dooley begins the poem with a description of the father, suggesting he is the focus of the poem
• The father appears to be strong and prepared, working the land in winter

Lines 3-4

“indoors to write to me, his knuckles singing

as they reddened in the warmth.”

Translation

• The narrator now describes the father coming inside to write a letter about the lapwings
• The narrator describes how cold the father’s hands are as he writes 

Dooley’s intention

• The poet presents the father as in touch with nature, like the narrator, suggesting a common bond
• The sensory language  of the description of his actions, creates a sense of intimacy 

Line 5

“It's not romance, simply how things are.”

Translation

• The poem’s narrator interrupts the descriptions of the father with a clear statement
• The narrator clarifies the platonic nature of the relationship

Dooley’s’ intention

• The poet disrupts the narration to explain how natural and simple the connection is
• Dooley’s emphatic statement emphasises the pragmatic attitude of both the father and the narrator, their child

Lines 6-8

“You out there, in the cold, seeing the seasons

turning, me with my heartful of headlines

feeding words onto a blank screen.”

Translation

• The speaker returns to the reflections on their father
• It is made clear the father and the child live different lives, despite their bond
• The narrator explains that the father lives a more rural life, while they live a more modern life indoors

Dooley’s intention

• The poet’s return to sensory  description indicates a return to their pensive reflections on their relationship
• The poet emphasises the differences in their lives, showing that despite this separation they are still in each other’s thoughts

  

Lines 9-11

“Is your life more real because you dig and sow?

You wouldn't say so, breaking ice on a waterbutt,

clearing a path through snow. Still, it's you”

Translation

• The speaker addresses their father, asking if their rural life is better than the urban life of the narrator
• The speaker replies on the father’s behalf, as, in her imagination, he is still outside working 

Dooley’s intention

• Dooley confirms the connection between the father and child by presenting an inner dialogue between them:
• The child asks a rhetorical question , which they answer themselves
• The humorous exchange shows the father as too busy working to reply

Lines 12-13

“who sends me word of that other world

pouring air and light into an envelope. So that”

Translation

• The speaker, still addressing the father, explains that, despite the father’s hard work, he maintains communication through letters

Dooley’s intention

• Dooley presents the relationship as very close, despite the differences in their lives
• The father sends “air and light” to her from his rural life to her urban life in the form of letters
• Dooley conveys the simplicity of keeping in touch with each other using positive natural imagery

Lines 14-15

“at night, watching the same news in different houses,

our souls tap out messages across the icy miles.”

Translation

• The poem ends implying the communication between the father and child is regular and intimate
• The narrator concludes that their relationship is still close as they message each other at night when they watch the news 

Dooley’s intention

• The poet concludes the poem with sensory imagery suggesting an intimate bond:
• The father and child, although separated, find ways to maintain their relationship and the ‘warmth’ of their love 

Although this section is organised into three separate sections - form, structure and language - it is always best to move from what the poet is presenting (the techniques they use; the overall form of the poem; what comes at the beginning, middle and end of a poem) to how and why they have made the choices they have. 

Focusing on the poet’s overarching ideas, rather than individual poetic techniques, will gain you far more marks. Crucially, in the below sections, all analysis is arranged by theme, and includes Maura Dooley’s intentions behind her choices in terms of:

• Form
• Structure
• Language

Form

Dooley’s poem, 'Letters From Yorkshire', takes the form of an intimate reflection which develops into a silent conversation between father and child, showing the strength of the family bond despite the distance created by the natural process of growing up.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Distance within family relationships	'Letters From Yorkshire' presents the first-person  perspective of an adult as they reflect on their relationship with their father: The free verse form of the poem contributes to the contemplative tone	Maura Dooley uses the form of an intimate monologue to convey the narrator’s feelings as they reflect on family love and the inevitable distance in family relationships
	The speaker begins with a third-person description of the father: “digging his garden, planting potatoes,/he saw the first lapwings return”	The speaker begins their reflections with an element of distance, presenting the physical separation of the father and the child
	The poem shifts to direct address as the speaker becomes emotionally closer to their father, asking a rhetorical questions : “Is your life more real because you dig and sow?” The speaker replies for her absent father: “You would say so”	Dooley conveys the intimate bond in family relationships with an inner dialogue which suggests physical closeness is not necessary to maintain a connection
	Dooley’s poem is presented as a personal conversation to show the emotional bond between parent and child continues even after the child has grown up and begun their own life

Structure

The poem is divided into five tercets , which deal with different aspects of the speaker’s distanced relationship with their father. The narrator’s free-flowing thoughts progress from an initial description of what they imagine their father doing in his home in Yorkshire, to the contemplations of the narrator about their different lives and their communication despite this. The poem ends with a heart-warming conclusion about their continued emotional connection.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Longing	Although the poet does not employ a rhyme scheme, the rhythm of the continuous verbs creates a sense of  the father’s busyness and presents him as an individual: “digging” and “planting”	The poet immediately introduces the father working hard on the land to indicate their separate lives, and perhaps imply the difference in generation
	The poet uses enjambment to reflect the free-flowing and vivid imaginings of the narrator about their father: “his knuckles singing/as they reddened in the warmth	Dooley presents the warmth and excitement of the communication between them, again highlighting the physical distance between them and the comfort communication brings
	Nevertheless, caesurae break the narrator’s flow: “You out there, in the cold, seeing the seasons/turning, me with my heartful of headlines”	Alliteration of the ‘h’ sound in the emotive “heartful of headlines”, emphasised by the broken rhythm, conveys the speaker’s longing and the pain their distance brings
	'Letters From Yorkshire' offers a contemplative  reflection on the relationship between a separated parent and grown-up child, conveying the longing the child feels, as well as the continued easy communication between them

Language

Maura Dooley’s poem explores the simple, everyday connection in family relationships separated by distance. Her poem presents a bond nurtured by constant communication, despite their different lives in separate parts of the country.

Theme	Evidence	Poet’s intention
Family love	Dooley represents the simple nature of the relationship with language related to everyday life:  The father is “digging in his garden” and the speaker is “feeding words onto a blank screen”	Dooley presents the regular communication between the father and child as natural and easy with simple imagery and continuous verbs
	The speaker represents their communication with metaphorical language  which alludes to its natural and comforting nature: When they communicate, the father is “'pouring air and light into an envelope”	Dooley conveys the emotional bond between the father and child with sensory imagery related to nature and freedom, suggesting that, although they are apart, their communication is a positive part of their lives
	Dooley uses pathetic fallacy to represent the distance between them and how their emotional bond brings relief: The father’s cold knuckles are “ singing/as they reddened in the warmth” when he writes a letter The poem’s ending shows their continued communication:  “Our souls tap out messages across the icy miles”	Dooley’s poem also conveys the sense of warmth the relationship brings both the father and the child
	Maura Dooley conveys the intimate and comforting relationship with imagery connoting to the emotive nature of their family bond

Context

Examiners repeatedly state that context should not be considered as additional factual information: in this case, it is not random biographical information about Maura Dooley which is unrelated to the ideas in 'Letters From Yorkshire'. The best way to understand context is as the ideas and perspectives explored by Dooley in 'Letters From Yorkshire' which relate to love and relationships. This section has therefore been divided into two relevant themes that Dooley explores:

• Distance and separation
• Family love

Distance and separation

• Dooley's poem, 'Letters From Yorkshire', uses setting to consider the different lives the speaker and their father are living in order to emphasise the distance between them
• The speaker describes the father “digging” and “planting” throughout the year, while they have a modern, urban life “feeding words into a blank screen”
• The speaker asks the father if his rural life is more real because he can “dig and sow”
• In this way, the poem has been considered an example of a modern tradition of poetry called ecopoetry
• Ecopoetry often uses natural settings and natural imagery to highlight aspects of environmental importance:
• The speaker reflects on the freedom and excitement of the rural life:
• The narrator tells us about the excitement of when the father “saw the first lapwings return” and “the seasons turning”
• The poem, published in 2000, explores the modern family relationship and distances created by a globalised society: 
• However, despite the title of the poem, the poem shows the way the father and child communicate in the modern world, through letters as well as typed messages as they watch the news 
• Here, Dooley presents a modern family relationship which, despite the separation of the “icy miles”, is able to continue regular communication in a new technological age
• The poem bridges the gap between the generations as the poet shows the way different forms of communication bring comfort to both father and child

Family Love 

• Maura Dooley, born in Cornwall in 1957, writes poetry which explores the theme of communication:
• A poem, written in 1997, called 'The Message' was shortlisted for the Forward Poetry Prize
• In Letters From Yorkshire, the poet focuses on the way communication between the child and their father brings comfort to them both:
• The father’s letters are described as “pouring air and light into an envelope”
• Their emotional connection is strengthened with regular communication: “our souls tap out messages”
• The poem focuses on the importance of communication in order to keep the family bond alive:
• In the poem, the speaker refers to the way their family connection is kept alive with letters:  “Still, it's you/who sends me word of that other world”

The essay you are required to write in your exam is a comparison of the ideas and themes explored in two of your anthology poems. It is therefore essential that you revise the poems together, in pairs, to understand how each poet presents ideas about love or relationships, in comparison to other poets in the anthology. Given that Letters From Yorkshire explores the ideas of family love and distance in relationships, the following comparisons are the most appropriate:

• Letters from Yorkshire and Walking Away  
• Letters From Yorkshire and Mother, Any Distance 
• Letters From Yorkshire and Winter Swans 

For each pair of poems, you will find:

• The comparison in a nutshell
• Similarities between the ideas presented in each poem
• Differences between the ideas presented in each poem
• Evidence and analysis of these similarities and differences

Letters From Yorkshire and Walking Away 

Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Maura Dooley’s Letters From Yorkshire and Cecil Day Lewis’ Walking Away use natural settings for their personal poems about distance within families to reflect on separation as a natural part of relationships.  However, while Maura Dooley resolves the problem and finds a way to maintain the connection, Cecil Day Lewis concludes his poem with an acceptance of separation. 

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems suggest nature mirrors patterns within relationships
Evidence and analysis	Letters from Yorkshire	Walking Away
	Dooley uses natural imagery  to compare the distance in the relationship to changing weather : “You out there, in the cold, seeing the seasons/turning” Dooley uses pathetic fallacy  to emphasise the ‘coldness’ of the “icy miles” between them	Day Lewis uses natural imagery to represent the changes and natural patterns: He starts his poem describing a day in Autumn which connotes to change, as well as natural endings: “A sunny day with leaves just turning”
	Dooley’s speaker describes the father with soft and natural imagery to indicate her constant thoughts of him: The present tense continuous verbs as the father is “digging his garden, planting potatoes” with “his knuckles singing/as they reddened in the warmth” show her concern	The speaker here also uses gentle comparisons to show the parent’s concern about the child’s new independence: The child leaves his side “Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem” and is a “half-fledged thing”
	Both poems present separation and changes in family relationships as natural as the seasons, while also acknowledging the painful separation involved

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems convey intimate family relationships which continue despite distance or separation
Evidence and analysis	Letters from Yorkshire	Walking Away
	Dooley conveys, via a First-person  perspective, the intimate feelings of a child who addresses their distant father: “Still, it's you/who sends me word of that other world”	Similarly, Day Lewis presents the first- person perspective of the parent as they address their child, who due to the separation, cannot answer: The intimate relationship is conveyed in the sentimental tone as the parent speaks to the child: “I can see/You walking away from me”
	Dooley presents a reflection of an adult child as they imagine their father’s actions: “he saw the first lapwings return and came indoors to write to me”	Similarly, Day Lewis uses the form of a memory to convey the intimacy of the parental bond: The speaker describes the significant moment with vivid description of the child’s movements: “the gait of one/Who finds no path where the path should be”
	Dooley and Day Lewis both convey the sentimental nature of family relationships separated by distance with detailed descriptions which allude to their strong, unbreakable bond

Differences:

Topic sentence	While Dooley resolves the problems of distance with communication, Day Lewis concludes that separation is a natural part of life which must be accepted
Evidence and analysis	Letters from Yorkshire	Walking Away
	Dooley uses sensory language to present the emotional connection in the family relationship despite physical distance: “watching the same news in different houses,/our souls tap out messages across the icy miles”	However, Day Lewis ends the poem concluding that separation not only proves love, but builds character: The speaker repeats the title of the poem to emphasise the message: “How selfhood begins with a walking away,/And love is proved in the letting go”
	Dooley’s poem presents the way emotional closeness brings relief within family relationships separated by distance with gentle metaphorical language relating to communication: “pouring air and light into an envelope”	In contrast, Day Lewis uses Metaphorical language to present the process of parenthood as fierce and painful: “the small, scorching/Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay”
	While Dooley finds comfort in the separation by finding connections which bridge the distance, Day Lewis shows no resolution for the relentless painful memories

Letters From Yorkshire and Mother, Any Distance

Comparison in a nutshell:

This is an effective comparative choice to explore family relationships, specifically about distances between parent and child surrounding the theme of growing up. Both Letters From Yorkshire and Mother, Any Distance are written from the perspective of grown-up children addressing their parents. 

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems explore the idea of growing up, which creates distance within family relationships
Evidence and analysis	Letters from Yorkshire	Mother, Any Distance
	Dooley uses first-person narration to convey the personal thoughts and feelings of the child as they reflect on the distance in the relationship, bringing a sentimental tone to the poem: “You out there, in the cold, seeing the seasons/turning, me with my heartful of headlines”	Similarly, Armitage uses first-person to present the intimate feelings of a child who is leaving home and feeling a sense of strangeness: “I space-walk through the empty bedrooms,”
	Dooley employs Alliteration to highlight the child’s need for the parental connection across the distance between them: “Still, it's you who sends me word of that other world”	Armitage, too, symbolically represents the fragility of the child as they become independent using the metaphor of an anchor to represent the stability and safety of home against a kite which, fragile and small, flies at the whim of nature
	Dooley refers to the process with a pragmatic attitude, suggesting an acceptance of the distance: “It's not romance, simply how things are”	Armitage alludes to separation as a natural process too: The speaker looks to “an endless sky” like a bird about to take its first flight
	The poets comment on a child’s need for the stability of the parental connection, despite their independence

 Differences:

Topic sentence	While the speaker in Letters From Yorkshire finds comfort in the regular communication and continued bond of the family relationship, the speaker in Mother, Any Distance does not find clear resolution
Evidence and analysis	Letters from Yorkshire	Mother, Any Distance
	Dooley describes the positive effect of constant communication throughout the poem, using Enjambment to reflect the natural, easy flow of their connection	However, Armitage’s speaker conveys tension about the continued bond now they are independent with a Caesurae : “unreeling/years between us. Anchor. Kite”
	Dooley ends the poem with confirmation of the poem’s theme that communication is easy to maintain and brings comfort to the child and parent: The metaphorical language  of “air and light in the envelope” and “our souls tap messages across the icy miles” alludes to warmth and relief	Whereas, Armitage’s poem ends with less of a clear Resolution :  The child still unsure about the process of letting go: “to fall or fly.” The parent’s fingers “still pinch”
	While Dooley considers distance in the family relationship to be easily overcome, Armitage explores a parent and child both unsure about the process

Letters From Yorkshire and Winter Swans Comparison in a nutshell:

Both Maura Dooley’s Letters From Yorkshire and Owen Sheers’ Winter Swans explore separation and distance in relationships. While Dooley depicts the continued distance as easily solved with constant communication, Sheers describes physical closeness as the solution to the pain of separation.  

Similarities:

Topic sentence	Both poems highlight the challenging emotions of distance and separation in relationships
Evidence and analysis	Letters from Yorkshire	Winter Swans
	Dooley uses natural imagery to convey the sentimental reflection of the child about their father, living in another part of the country: “In February, digging his garden, planting potatoes,/he saw the first lapwings return”	Correspondingly, Sheers uses natural imagery to convey the emotions caused by the couple’s emotional distance: “the waterlogged earth/gulping for breath at our feet”
	Dooley uses a present-tense continuous verb, “seeing”,  which illustrates the recurring pain caused by the distance between them: Alliteration highlights the speaker’s emotions: “You out there, in the cold, seeing the seasons/turning, me with my heartful of headlines”	Similarly, Sheers uses alliteration to draw attention to the verb which connotes the awkward emotional distance between the couple: “we skirted the lake, silent and apart”
	The poet uses a rhetorical question and Direct address to indicate the imagined conversation, however the father cannot reply: “Is your life more real because you dig and sow?/You wouldn't say so”	Here, too, the poet illustrates the disrupted communication between the pair with dialogue which is one-sided: “I didn’t reply”
	The poets both comment on the challenging emotions of separation with personal reflections from speakers who deal with the everyday emotional distance in their relationships

Differences:

Topic sentence	Maura Dooley describes the process of separation as easily overcome with communication, while Owen Sheers presents the way physical closeness brings harmony to the distant couple
Evidence and analysis	Letters from Yorkshire	Winter Swans
	Dooley’s speaker is not as concerned about the physical distance between them as communication brings comfort:  The Metaphorical imagery suggests the excitement that letters bring: “word of that other world/pouring air and light into an envelope”	Whereas, Sheers’ speaker suggests the act of watching the swans brings the couple together: “silent and apart,/until the swans came and stopped us”
	Dooley, however, depicts nature as harsh with imagery alluding to challenge and pain: The father’s rural life is different to the narrator’s and so can only imagine it: “his knuckles singing/as they reddened in the warmth” They have to communicate across “the icy miles”	Sheers describes nature as peaceful and gentle, using imagery which shows the swans working in harmony and impacting the mood of the silent couple:  The swans are “in unison” as they “halved themselves” “like icebergs of white feather”
	Letters from Yorkshire focuses on emotional connections without the need for physical closeness: “our souls tap out messages”	However, Winter Swans presents the idea of physical intimacy as more significant than verbal communication: “I noticed our hands, that had, somehow, swum the distance between us”
	Maura Dooley ends the poem with an emotive conclusion that communication can defy physical separation in relationships, while Owen Sheers ends his poem, Winter Swans, with a resolution brought about by physical intimacy