Long Distance II by Tony Harrison

Long Distance II by Tony Harrison is an emotive poem which explores the speaker’s struggle to reconcile his belief that ‘life ends with death’, with his grief at the passing of his father. In the first three stanzas, the speaker criticises his father for never having accepted the death of his mother, and yet at the end of the poem, he comes to realise he is perhaps not so different himself.

This study guide is written for students and teachers of English Literature, particularly those studying CCEA’s GCSE English Literature Relationships Anthology. For more study guides from this anthology, check out the Relationships page, or the list of poems in the series at the bottom of this guide. If you are studying one of the other anthologies in the CCEA Literature course, check them out here: IDENTITY Anthology or CONFLICT Anthology.

Long Distance II

Though my mother was already two years dead
Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,
put hot water bottles her side of the bed
and still went to renew her transport pass.

You couldn’t just drop in. You had to phone.
He’d put you off an hour to give him time
to clear away her things and look alone
as though his still raw love were such a crime.

He couldn’t risk my blight of disbelief
though sure that very soon he’d hear her key
scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.
He knew she’d just popped out to get the tea.

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.
You haven’t both gone shopping; just the same,
in my new black leather phone book there’s your name
and the disconnected number I still call.

What is 'Long Distance II' all about?

Stanza 1

The opening verse describes the speaker’s father’s behaviour after his mother’s death: warming her slippers and her side of the bed, renewing her bus pass, despite the fact that she has been dead for two years, demonstrating his father’s profound grief and loss.

Stanza 2

In verse two, he continues to describe his father’s behaviour, making clear that a surprise visit would cause his father embarrassment. Calling ahead gave his father time to clear away the mother’s belongings. It is clear in this verse, that while the father’s behaviour is not rational, it is conscious i.e. not the result of demensia or misunderstanding.

Stanza 3

In verse three, the speaker reveals the extend of his father’s denial at the death of his mother, explaining that, at any moment, his father would expect to hear her key unlocking the door. He also acknowledges that his own disbelief was a barrier between the men: one failing to understand the shows of grief, the other embarrassed to be discovered.

Stanza 4

The final stanza marks a slight shift in tone as the speaker explains his own beliefs: he does not believe in an after life or any variation of that. He knows that both are dead, but the direct address reveals the grief he feels, speaking directly to them both. His final revelation, that he often dials his late father’s disconnected phone line, shows that, like his father, he struggles to let go of these loved ones.

Context of 'Long Distance II'

Tony Harrison's life, education and career

Tony Harrison was born in Leeds, England, on 30th April 1937 to a working class family; his father was a baker. Life was austere in Britain at this time, post WWI and pre WWII, and while family life was valued, men often struggled to express their emotions. These themes of stoicism, loss and struggle are often present in Harrison’s works.

Harrison won a scholarship to Leeds Grammar School, a private fee paying school, and went on to study Classics at the University of Leeds. His works include poetry and translations of ancient Greek tragedies and Middle English plays.

This excellent article from The Poetry Foundation delves into Harrison’s works in detail, this one, from The London Magazine explores his controversial poem ‘V’, and this Prospect article explores his politics.

Context of 'Long Distance II'

One context to explore in this poem is the relationship between the characters in the poem. The reader sees these characters as autobiographical, as versions of Tony Harrison himself, and his own father. Harrison’s father was a working class man, a baker, but Harrison went on to study classics and literature at university. The more Harrison studied, the more he felt the distance grow between himself and his family. This autobiographical poem acknowledges both the love for, and distance between, the speaker and his parents. This struggle for common ground was compounded by a difference in values, beliefs, and lifestyle, particularly as Harrison’s education and career took him far from his working-class roots. The emotional disconnect between generations becomes a key focus of the poem, as the speaker tries to make sense of his father’s continued attachment to his late wife, and eventually confronts his own unexpected need to hold on.

Harrison’s poetry often explores themes of power, class and identity within the context of working-class life in the north of England in the 20th century. While this topic is close to his own life and upbringing, we cannot necessarily assume that the speaker in this poem is Harrison’s own voice. What we can say is that the speaker’s relationship and beliefs seem to echo or reflect the poet’s.

Harrison’s education and political views created a distance between his life in academic circles and that of his parents, which is alluded to in verse four of Long Distance II in the difference between the speaker’s own belief that death is the end, compared to the speaker’s father, who clings to memories as if time can be undone. Harrison’s wider works reflect his passionate critique of those in power and with influence, an irony not lost on him as he writes poetry from a position of privilege.

Themes in the poem:

Line-by-line analysis

Stanza 1

Though my mother was already two years dead

The opening subordinating conjunction ‘though’ establishes the contradiction which the speaker goes on to outline: the contrast between the fact that the mother is dead, and the inability of the speaker’s father to accept this, as shown through his actions.
Enjambment is used to run these lines together, establishing the narrative tone of the poem.
There is a directness in the speaker’s words in ‘two years dead’ which establishes the speaker’s tone and attitude which is blunt, matter-of-fact and unsentimental, which is in direct contrast to his father’s behaviour, which is warm and tender.
Temporal framing is used (‘two years’) to show how grief lingers over time, and that mourning is ongoing, not fixed to a specific period.

Dad kept her slippers warming by the gas,

Domestic imagery of the home, fireplace and slippers suggest comfort and companionship, which contrasts to the reality, suggesting a hollow emptiness rather than comfort.
Sibilant repetition is used in this line, with the ‘s’ sounds in ‘slippers’ and ‘gas’ creating a soft tone, reflecting the tenderness of the speaker’s father’s actions.
Ironic contrast is used in the difference between the ‘slippers warming’ compared to the coldness of death in ‘two years dead’ of line one.

put hot water bottles her side of the bed

Warm, sensory imagery is again used in line three, with the father warming the mother’s side of the bed

and still went to renew her transport pass.

Juxtaposition is used to contrast the mundane with the profound: the action of renewing a bus pass is mundane, transactional behaviour, reflecting the father’s practical care for his wife. The profound experience of grief and death sits behind this mundane action, reflecting the poignancy of the desire to preserve memories and routines to remind the mourner of their loved one.
The temporal adverb ‘still’ highlights the persistence of the father’s grieving rituals.
The end stop on this line forces the reader to pause and acknowledge the absurdity of the father’s actions, but also sympathise with his loss.

Stanza 2

You couldn't just drop in. You had to phone.

Caesura in the middle of this line causes the reader to stop, reflecting the barriers put up to control emotions and stop surprise visits.
The caesura creates a conversational style, as if the speaker is helping us understand just how extreme his father’s situation is, and it adds emphasis to the insistent verbs ‘couldn’t’ and ‘had to’.
The generic pronoun ‘you’ emphasises this universal command to all visitors – phone ahead to avoid difficulties which are explained in the next line.

He'd put you off an hour to give him time

The speaker clearly has personal experience of being asked to wait by his father, to allow his father enough time to hide away the signs of denial: her slippers, her personal effects that the father puts back out again each day after visitors leave.
The euphemism ‘put you off’ softens the action, building the reader’s sympathy for the old man who is struggling with his grief.
The rhythm of the line is iambic pentameter, matching the flow of everyday speech, which adds to the conversational tone.

to clear away her things and look alone

The full rhymes in this verse are emphasised through the pauses at the end of each line, sometimes emphasised by punctuation, such as in lines 1 and 4, but also through syntax and the natural pause of a sentence.
Irony is used in the phrase ‘look alone’ suggesting the father is performing the role of someone alone and lonely. It is ironic, as the father truly is alone, and yet his late wife’s possessions mask this loneliness for him.
Enjambment is used to maintain the conversational tone of this verse.

as though his still raw love were such a crime.

Repetition of ‘still’ is used in this line, echoing the same word in the last line of stanza one. The word implies continuity, as though nothing has changed, reflecting the denial of loss. It also implies the stillness of death. In this line, the image is of an unhealed wound, ‘still raw’, painful and fresh.
A tone of bitterness creeps in here, as the grieving father thinks others will not understand his grief, seeing it as shameful or criminal in some way. Perhaps this also reflects a critique of the masculine repression of emotion common among the speaker’s father’s generation.

Stanza 3

He couldn't risk my blight of disbelief

The metaphor ‘blight’ suggests that the speaker’s disbelief is seen as destructive like a disease.
There is a harsh consonance in the repeated ‘b’ sound in ‘blight’ and ‘disbelief’ which adds tension to the verse, as if mimicking the conflict between the father and son. The speaker’s rational and critical reproach is avoided by his father’s hiding of the signs of grief.

though sure that very soon he'd hear her key

Auditory imagery is used to paint a picture of happiness and relief at ‘hear her key scrape in the rusted lock’, yet the reader is aware that this false hope only brings more grief.
The ironic use of ‘sure’ to describe the father’s hallucination evokes further pathos.

scrape in the rusted lock and end his grief.

The sound of the key in the lock, however, is not a perfect image: the onomatopoeia of the key which scrapes, and the image of time passing in a rusted lock both jar against the hope of the image. These negative descriptions are gentle but tragic, reminding the reader that they are not real.
The door with its ‘rusted lock’ symbolises the barrier between life and death.

He knew she'd just popped out to get the tea.

The colloquialism of ‘just popped out’ is informal and casual, adding a conversation and realism to the speaker’s voice with which the reader can bond. However, there is also an underlying mocking tone in the son’s voice, to utter something so ridiculous as the idea of her death as having ‘popped out to get the tea’.
The mocking tone is extended in the verb ‘knew’ which the reader knows to be false.
Bathos is used to juxtapose the very serious matter of death with the very trivial idea of popping out to get the tea, creating a dark humour to the verse.

Stanza 4

I believe life ends with death, and that is all.

The tone shifts here to blunt and declarative, reflecting the shift in time and thought: verses one, two and three focus on the speaker’s father’s grief. Verse four focuses on the speaker’s own grief at the passing of both parents. The blunt tone is emphasised with the hard consonant sounds of the ‘d’ and ‘th’ in ‘life ends with death, and that is all’.
Caesura in the middle of the line creates a pause, emphasising the finality of death.

You haven't both gone shopping; just the same,

Dark humour is used to refute the ironic idea that the speaker’s dead parents have ‘gone shopping’.
Another caesura at the semi-colon interrupts the flow of the line, causing the reader to pause at the contradiction of the speaker’s belief vs his actions.
The phrase ‘just the same’ after the pause continues the conversational tone, making the reader feel more at ease in the middle of this moment of honest grief, as he tries to convince himself that his behaviour is acceptable.

in my new black leather phone book there's your name

The adjectives used to described the phone book, ‘black’ and ‘leather’, are symbolic of the darkness and permanence of death, perhaps the clothes one might wear to a funeral. The choice to make clear to the reader that the phone book is ‘new’ makes clear the irony and juxtaposition of the son’s behaviour: a new phone book does not need his dead parents’ phone number in it. Logic has broken down here in the face of grief.

and the disconnected number I still call.

The final line of the poem leaves the reader with a visual image of the grieving son calling a disconnected phone number.
There is irony in the vocabulary choice of ‘disconnected’ to describe the son’s futile attempt to seek connection with dead loved ones.
The tone is quietly devastating as the metaphor is highly relatable – reader’s can identify with this illogical act as they have, perhaps, done a similar thing in their own grief.
The final line which describes the son’s behaviour echoes and mimics the father’s behaviour described previously: the cycle of grief continues into each new generation. Perhaps the son is not as different from his parents as he once believed.

Analysis of form and structure

Form

Long Distance II takes the form of a personal lyric poem, with elements of a dramatic monologue. The speaker addresses an implied listener — perhaps the reader, perhaps himself — as he recounts memories of his father’s grief and reflects on his own unexpected response to loss. The poem is autobiographical in tone, but as with much of Harrison’s work, we should be cautious about reading it purely as memoir. The form allows for introspection and narrative development, blending past and present as the speaker moves from observing his father’s behaviour to confronting the ways he now mirrors it.

Verse structure

Long Distance II is composed of four quatrains (a quatrain is a verse with four lines). This regular stanza structure mirrors the carefully controlled tone of the poem, as the speaker reflects on both his father’s grief and his own emotional response. The use of quatrains provides a sense of order and balance, even while the subject matter deals with the messiness of loss and memory.

The neat structure also contrasts with the emotionally raw content, reinforcing the theme of grief being managed, hidden, or internalised. Each stanza progresses the narrative subtly, moving from an observation of the father’s behaviour to a realisation about the speaker himself, showing emotional development within a tightly controlled form.

Rhyme

The poem follows a consistent ABAB rhyme scheme in each quatrain. This alternating rhyme pattern creates a steady, unobtrusive musicality that mirrors the speaker’s controlled tone and restrained emotions. The rhyme links lines together, subtly reinforcing connections between ideas or contrasting images, such as in “dead” / “bed” and “pass” / “gas”.

The lack of dramatic or forced rhymes keeps the poem grounded in realism and conversation, supporting the personal, reflective nature of the piece. The consistency of the rhyme also suggests that, despite the chaos of grief, life continues in predictable patterns — a tension at the heart of the poem.

The use of enjambment and caesura in many of the lines moves the emphasis and pause from the end of the line to the middle of the next, which has the effect of burying the rhyming sound, create a much more subtle sound.

Rhythm

The rhythm of Long Distance II is conversational and loosely iambic, with most lines written in iambic pentameter or close to it (ie ten syllables per line, organised into a natural ‘unstressed followed by stressed’ pattern). This natural, flowing rhythm contributes to the poem’s intimate tone, as if the speaker is confiding in the reader, and talking directly to us.

The use of enjambment — where lines run into the next without punctuation — helps to maintain a speech-like quality, avoiding a rigid or overly poetic feel. Occasional disruptions in the rhythm, such as the short, blunt line “and that is all,” create emphasis and emotional weight. These shifts draw attention to key moments, allowing Harrison to balance formality with genuine feeling.

Themes in 'Long Distance II'

Grief and Loss

Grief is the central theme of the poem, explored through both the father’s refusal to let go of his deceased wife and the speaker’s eventual recognition of his own mourning. The father’s actions — warming her slippers, renewing her bus pass — reflect a deep, unresolved grief that borders on denial. Although the speaker claims to accept death as final (“life ends with death, and that is all”), his admission that he keeps calling a disconnected number suggests he too struggles with letting go. Harrison captures how grief lingers, often resurfacing in subtle and private ways.

Family Relationships

The poem examines the emotional distance between father and son. The speaker is initially critical of his father’s behaviour, suggesting a lack of understanding or emotional connection. Yet the closing lines reveal a deep bond and a shared vulnerability. The poem explores the complexities of parent-child relationships, especially when shaped by generational differences in expressing emotion, belief, and coping with loss. This theme is perhaps a reflection of the distance Harrison felt towards his working class parents. Harrison is believed to have felt increasingly different and distanced from his family as he himself became more educated, moving in academic circles far removed from those of his family.

The poem subtly addresses the idea of emotional inheritance — how, despite trying to distance himself from his father’s beliefs and behaviour, the speaker ends up mirroring him. This suggests that grief, love, and memory shape identity across generations, often in unconscious ways. The speaker’s realisation at the end reflects a moment of self-awareness about the parts of his father he carries within himself, suggesting the endurance of patterns and relationships despite differences.

Denial and Acceptance

Denial plays a powerful role in the poem, particularly in the father’s refusal to accept his wife’s death. His rituals and secrecy (“clear away her things and look alone”) reflect both denial and shame. The speaker, in contrast, claims acceptance — but his actions suggest otherwise. Harrison explores how denial can be a coping mechanism, and how full acceptance of loss is rarely neat or complete.

Quiz

Long Distance II by Tony Harrison

Test your knowledge of the poem Long Distance II by Tony Harrison

Comprehension Questions

What techniques does Harrison use in the first stanza to show the father’s struggle with accepting the death of his wife? How do these details affect the reader’s perception of him (the father)?
How does the poem’s regular stanza structure contribute to the overall tone and emotional impact of the poem?
In what ways does the poet use contrast between the speaker and his father to explore different approaches to grief and belief?
How does Harrison use imagery and symbolism in the poem to represent memory and loss? Refer to specific objects or actions.
Examine Harrison’s use of rhyme and rhythm throughout the poem. How do these formal elements reflect the themes of control, habit, or emotional restraint?
What is the effect of the shift in tone and perspective in the final stanza? How does this affect your understanding of the speaker’s emotional journey?
How does Harrison use everyday, domestic language to convey deep emotional experiences in the poem? Provide examples.
What role does the theme of denial play in both the father’s and the speaker’s behaviour? To what extent does the poem suggest this is a universal aspect of grief?
Consider the speaker’s voice in the poem. Is he reliable or self-aware? How does the tone develop across the four stanzas?
Compare Long Distance II with another poem from the CCEA Relationships Anthology (e.g. Funeral Blues by W H Auden, Clearances 7 by Seamus Heaney or On My First Son by Ben Jonson). How do both poets explore the lasting emotional impact of past relationships?

Other poems from the CCEA Relationships Anthology to pair with 'Long Distance II'

Clearances 7 by Seamus Heaney

Both poems explores the themes of love, loss and the enduring bond between parents and children. In Long Distance II, the speaker reflects on his father’s inability to let go of his late wife, highlighting the rituals of memory and denial that keep her presence alive. The tone is conversational and stoic, yet there is pain and grief in each verse, reflecting the complex relationships of this particular family unit. In contrast, Clearances 7 is highly charged and intimate throughout, with the speaker describing the last moments of his mother’s life, showing a greater sense of acceptance of his loss, compared to the speaker in Long Distance II. Both poems explore themes of loss and grief in the form of a sonnet, although neither poem follows the form tightly.

On My First Son by Ben Jonson

Both Long Distance II and On My First Son are deeply personal elegies that explore grief, but they do so from opposite generational perspectives — one from the viewpoint of a child mourning a parent, the other from a father mourning his son. In On My First Son, Jonson expresses raw, almost theological grief at the death of his seven-year-old son, describing the boy as his “best piece of poetry” — a metaphor that fuses artistic pride with paternal love. Jonson’s tone is both tender and tormented, particularly in his self-reproach. In Long Distance II, Harrison explores his father’s prolonged grief for his wife, and ultimately reveals his own suppressed sorrow. The tone is initially critical and ironic, but turns introspective and vulnerable by the final stanza, where the speaker admits he still calls his deceased father’s number. Both poems use simple but controlled structures — Jonson’s rhyming couplets and Harrison’s ABAB quatrains — to contain powerful emotions. Importantly, both poets examine the struggle between public restraint and private feeling, and the enduring nature of love after death. While Jonson tries to rationalise his loss with religious and philosophical ideas, Harrison reveals the quiet persistence of grief through ordinary actions, showing that emotional ties often outlast even our beliefs about death.