Dennis Scott Marysong Poem Analysis

Dennis Scott’s Marrysong is written as his point of view of his marriage struggle to find understanding in his wife, throughout the poem he is confused and never stops trying to figure out his wife who is always changing. Seems one minute he is coming to grips of understanding her, all of a sudden she changes. Many of these changes can be linked to nature and adventure because he is always searching.
In Marrysong the poet said ‘he never learned her’ which means that he could never understand how her mind works, ‘year after year’ he spent a lot of time trying to figure out about his loved one. He calls her ‘that territory’ that suggests that he owns her and he is control of her, this may be seen as a defensive and less open approach when he was trying to figure her out and be open about

The words “stumbled” and “fell” also prepare us for the idea of an old man becoming like the dependent child. There is a very effective rhythmical device in “dipping and rising to his plod”. Here, Heaney describes riding on his father’s back as he ploughed. This again emphasises the enormous strength of the father but also captures the up and down movement of his progress along the field.
As the poet grows older and gains strength ‘It is my father who keeps stumbling behind me’ meaning that his father has grown old and now need the help of his only son, which he did when his father was able. So it is a big difference between the shift from Fit and able with the poet dragging him down. To the father then needing his help, this also brings out a shift in power. To conclude, for the first 5 stanzas he is emphasising how powerful his father is. But in the end it turns out that all of a sudden he was the one responsible for him, instead of the Father dragging around the child, the child is now having to drag around the Father and help him in his much older years. The sudden shift of power is very unexpected, it was also