Coming Home
Owen Sheers
“Coming Home”
is not a warm welcome but a cold start to a regular relationship. Owen Sheers
writes about a man who left home a “child” and has returned a “man”. His mother
let go of a “child” and wants this baby to comeback. At the arrival of a “man”
her “hug” is “awkward”. The discomfort of the mom and the son is equally felt.
The son can empathize with his mom wanting the child back. Owen tricks the
reader from “open arms” almost waiting to hug the son yet there is a twist to
realize that son is all grown up now and is a “man”. The words “this body of a
man” create the image of a son who is a stranger in front of the mother. “Open
arms” being reserved for a “child” and not “this” person uses enjambment beautifully
to show that the return of this adult instead of a child is not what the mother
expected.
The first
stanza continues creating the image of a mother who is “flipping” and “patting”
to show that her regular routine life continues. It brings alive the image of a
woman for whom her make up is the “flour” that “makes her over”. It brings to
the reader’s mind the drudgery of routine life of a woman and that her place
remains in the kitchen. She has “wrinkles” and thus is old herself. The word “dusting”
once again leads the reader on yet only to the “cheeks” being covered by them.
Clearly, the mother has not lead a comfortable life either. The word "pat" has perhaps been used to "pat" the dough directly and the man indirectly.
The father’s
life is no bed of roses. Various words and phrases in the second stanza
dedicated to the “Dad” show that. The words “still”, “reappear” and “again”
focus on the acts he has no other choice, but to pursue again and again.
Alliteration in the words “Winter”, “works” and “with wet wool” bring out the
hardships that he continues to face come hail or snow. His relentless pursuit is depicted in the
words “he works on a hole” and nature takes him to task as the hole “reappears
every Winter”. That is hair is “wild” creates the image of a man who is used to
rough life of a farm and hence his pockets too are “filled with fillings of hay”.
The alliterative use of the “f” sound in these words emphasize on the routine
and mundane in the father’s life.
While the
mother and father are engaged in action, the grandfather is “all seated”. His
retired image is painted by the use of these words. The mother in the kitchen,
the father in the wild and the grandfather in the seat. The transition of
relationships is very clear. That the grandfather is growing old and at an
increasing pace every year is brought out in the last stanza. That is life is
short is brought home by the use of only four lines here against seven lines in
the previous two stanzas. The grandfather’s old age and its shakes are brought
out clearly in “unsteady” and “shiver”.
The common
thread in the three stanzas is the theme of aging and life of routine. The
mother made of by “flour” look, the father breath being “snagged” and the
grandfather’s shiver’s becoming faster each year are silent witness to that
process.
The tone of
the poem is harsh. It makes the reader face the reality of life when a man
returns home after many years. Things remain the same, the perspective of the
one who comes “home” changes and becomes more mature.
“Coming home”
is to many harsh discomforting realities of debilitating life.
Rohini Rode
August 11, 2015
