Homecoming by Simon Armitage

1. Homecomingby Simon Armitage Think, two things on their own and both at once. The first, that exercise in trust, where those in front stand with their arms spread wide and free-fall backwards, blind, and those behind take all the weight.

2. How many cliches are there in this section? What do they suggest about the mother? The second, one canary-yellow cotton jacket on a cloakroom floor, uncoupled from its hook, becoming scuffed and blackened underfoot. Back home the very model of a model of a mother, yours, puts two and two together, makes a proper fist of it and points the finger. Temper, temper. Questions in the house. You seeing red Blue murder. Bed.

3. Then midnight when you slip the latch and sneak no further than the calJ-box at the corner of the street; I'm waiting by the phone, although it doesn't ring because it's sixteen years or so before we'll meet. Retrace that walk towards the garden gate; in silhouette a father figure waits there, wants to set things straight. • What do you notice about the rhyme scheme in this section of the poem? • Why does Armitage break the rhythm in places? What is this technique called?

4. Is this a real jacket? Or is it a metaphor?What relationship does the speaker have with the listener? These ribs are pleats or seams. These arms are sleeves. These fingertips are buttons, or these hands can fold into a clasp, or else these fingers make a zip or buckle, you say which. Step backwards into it and try the same canary-yellow cotton jacket, there, like this, for size again. It still fits.

5. The Story The poem is about relationships and trust. It opens with the description of a 'trust exercise', often used in school drama lessons. Next, a child (almost certainly a teenager) is told off by their mother for having allowed their yellow jacket to get dirty; a row develops. The child is sent to their room, but sneaks out at the dead of night to a phone box: interestingly, the narrator of the poem is "waiting by the phone", but it doesn't ring. The child then returns home and meets a father figure who wants to make up.

6. Youshould give your own viewabout the content – but offer alternative approaches. Stanza 4 deals with the reconciliation - a 'father figure' is asking a child to try on the yellow coat again, by stepping backwards into it, like in the trust exercise of stanza 1. It's not clear who this father figure is: perhaps it's the narrator's father, still in memory; perhaps it is the narrator himself addressing his childhood self ("it's sixteen years or so before we'll meet"); perhaps he is talking now to a friend or lover to whom the yellow coat incident happened when they were a child; perhaps it is the narrator, now a father, addressing his own child.

7. Key Points • Armitage uses some iambic pentameter • He breaks this rhythm in places to emphasise certain points or to create a more natural voice • There is some use of rhyme but this is also irregular, for the same reasons • The structure seems irregular, but the stanzas are organised by changes in time and perspective • Armitage uses imagery to help us imagine the scene • He uses cliches to indicate a particular type of character • The tone is loving and affectionate • The poem is in second person, which helps the reader to feel that they are being personally addressed, and can therefore identify with the story

8. The Poet Context Simon Armitage was born in 1963 in Yorkshire. After studying at Portsmouth and Manchester universities, he initially became a probation officer - some of the poems in his first published collection, Zoom (1989), draw upon his experiences. He then had various other jobs, including shelf stacking and being a DJ. He has written several poetry collections. He often uses the Yorkshire dialect and is interested in dialects and slang. Many of his poems contain puns and other word-play. He also writes about everyday events in a thought-provoking way. He still lives in Yorkshire, dividing his time between writing and broadcasting

9. Themes Answer on ‘Homecoming’ if you are asked about family relationships, emotion, strong feelings, home, childhood or poetry which covers more than one place or time.