The Furthest Distances I’ve Travelled - Leontia Flynn
Stanza/ Quotation Theme Analysis Device
Line
1/1 ‘folk’ Colloquial language makes it a
shared experience with the reader.
1/1 ‘saddled a Connotations of horses and travel.
rucksack’
1/4 ‘like a meridian’ Vision of global travel and crossing Simile
time zones.
2/1 ‘I thought:Yes’ Affirmative and positive statement.
It could be a possible reference to
the last line of Joyce’s Ulysses,
which was based on Odysseus, a
traveller who is trying to return
home (nostos).
2/1-2 ‘This is how to Euphoric tone.
live’
2/2 ‘On the beaten Undermining the cliché by changed
track’ ‘off’ to ‘on’.
2/2 ‘sherpa pass’ A path in the Himalayas, named
after the people living there.
2/3-4 ‘Krakow and Poland and Croatia.
Zagreb’
2/4-5 ‘Siberian white Could represent both physical and
cells’ emotional isolation. ‘Cells’ could be
a pun upon prison cells or a mental
ward. Walter Pater quotation -
‘we are each of us trapped in the
solitary cell of ourselves’. Could
also be positive as white blood
cells defend the body from
infection.
3/1 ‘it came as clear Simile
as over a tannoy’
3/2-3 ‘in anony Pun for the reader. The fixed
mity’ rhyme and full stop assert the fixed
nature of ‘destiny’.
4/1 Larium An anti-malaria drug
4/3 Western Union Pun as the poem does not talk
about ‘union’, but loneliness
instead.
Stanza/ Quotation Theme Analysis Device
Line
1/1 ‘folk’ Colloquial language makes it a
shared experience with the reader.
1/1 ‘saddled a Connotations of horses and travel.
rucksack’
1/4 ‘like a meridian’ Vision of global travel and crossing Simile
time zones.
2/1 ‘I thought:Yes’ Affirmative and positive statement.
It could be a possible reference to
the last line of Joyce’s Ulysses,
which was based on Odysseus, a
traveller who is trying to return
home (nostos).
2/1-2 ‘This is how to Euphoric tone.
live’
2/2 ‘On the beaten Undermining the cliché by changed
track’ ‘off’ to ‘on’.
2/2 ‘sherpa pass’ A path in the Himalayas, named
after the people living there.
2/3-4 ‘Krakow and Poland and Croatia.
Zagreb’
2/4-5 ‘Siberian white Could represent both physical and
cells’ emotional isolation. ‘Cells’ could be
a pun upon prison cells or a mental
ward. Walter Pater quotation -
‘we are each of us trapped in the
solitary cell of ourselves’. Could
also be positive as white blood
cells defend the body from
infection.
3/1 ‘it came as clear Simile
as over a tannoy’
3/2-3 ‘in anony Pun for the reader. The fixed
mity’ rhyme and full stop assert the fixed
nature of ‘destiny’.
4/1 Larium An anti-malaria drug
4/3 Western Union Pun as the poem does not talk
about ‘union’, but loneliness
instead.
