Half Agony, Half Hope

Family Tree – 1st Draft (14/11/20):

• I wrote this draft in iambic pentameter, inspired by Robert Frost’s Branches. It discusses the way families change as you grow up and see each other less frequently.
• When editing the poem I needed to work on making certain lines fit into the metre and cut out unnecessary lines, as it is quite long and narrative, and some areas repeat similar ideas.

Family Tree 2nd Draft (01/12/20):

Starting thick and strong, they spread out far

Thinning as they go, further further.

I try to climb across to where you are

But is the branch a strong and sturdy one?

Or does it weaken as I try to climb?

The trunk is just a phone pole now,

The cables thin and wobbling like my voice;

So scared that they will snap at your request.

Call too much and will the cable snap?

Not enough and will the branch collapse?

I want it to stay green and young like us,

The kids that used to hide in wicker tubs,

Or under beds with grinning faces wide,

Or in the wardrobe where I’d find the woods

And you would play along but now you won’t. 

Now we only speak through wavy lines.

A pixel face,

When you’re free from work,

Glitching on a cracked black screen.

Your words are sparse and awkward. But I still

Cling    to    every    one.

• In the final lines of this draft I consciously diverted from the iambic pentameter because I wanted to mirror the ‘glitching’ of the conversation. I also cut out lines that I wasn’t keen on from the previous draft and made the metre strict across the rest of the poem, to make it more emphatic when I break it at the end.

Family Tree – Final Draft (07/12/20):