Summary
The speaker addresses his mother, telling her that measuring any distance beyond a certain length requires more than one pair of hands. The mother helps her child (the speaker) measure house fixtures such as windows, the decorative panels above windows used to conceal curtain rods, and doors. She also helps him measure the larger spanning walls and landscapes of the floors.
Using a tape measure, the mother stands at the base (the zero-end) while the speaker unspools the tape and reports back the lengths in the household. These lengths also indicate the years between the speaker and his mother. Their relationship is described as that between "Anchor [and] Kite" to further illustrate this distance.
As though moving in outer space, the speaker walks through the empty bedrooms of the house and climbs the ladder to the loft. He calls this the "breaking point" that will change the nature of the relationship between mother and son. Below, the mother continues to hold on tight to the "last one-hundredth of an inch" of measuring tape. Meanwhile, the speaker reaches upward to open a hatch that will reveal the sky. The sky is described as endless, and it offers equal opportunities to fall and to fly.
Analysis
In this poem, Armitage layers the metaphors of a house, landscapes, and measurable distances to portray the relationship between the speaker and his mother. Because Armitage did not give the poem an official title, the first line serves as the title: "Mother, any distance greater than a single span." This establishes the poem as an address and places emphasis on the character of the mother. The word "mother" is a trochee, meaning that it is composed of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable. The rest of the first line is also composed of trochees, while the following three lines are iambic (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). This creates a lively rhythm that gives these lines a playful feel.
Overall, the poem can be classified as free verse, but it is clear from the first lines that Armitage still engages with formal traditions such as particular meters and rhyme. The rhyme scheme of the first four lines is AABB, but this pattern is not consistent throughout. Just as the speaker begins to experience freedom as he grows up (while still having his mother as a comfortable base), the poet relies on traditional formal elements while traversing the realm of free verse. The fifteen lines of the poem almost form a sonnet, which commonly features two contrasting characters, emotions, or actions. Love is also a primary subject in many sonnets, and this poem focuses on the relationship between the speaker and his mother.
The speaker informs his mother that "any distance greater than a single span / requires a second pair of hands." The sibilance of "single span" reflects the ease with which this unspecified distance could be dealt with on one's own. But in this case, the mother comes to help the speaker measure household fixtures and structures such as windows, pelmets, doors, walls, and floors. Armitage does not specify whether this house is the speaker's childhood home or if it's a house the speaker will live in as an adult. The lack of specific details is important in building the extended metaphor in the poem, which ultimately focuses on the speaker's relationship with his mother and with himself.
The extended metaphor in the poem involves houses as shelters and the measurement of distance as both a physical and emotional endeavor. As the speaker gets older, he grows into the freedom of being responsible for his own decisions in life. This distances him from his mother, who remains at the "base": the beginning of the measuring device.
Armitage extends the image of being inside a house to connect to surrounding landscapes in the line "the acres of the walls, the prairies of the floors." If the house is interpreted as the speaker's childhood home, then this line shows how expansive the house felt to the speaker as a child. The fact that the distances being measured become drastically longer than just the length of a door also represents the way that the speaker is beginning to distance himself from his mother as he grows up.
The speaker's mother remains at "the zero-end" of the measuring tape. This not only shows that she is the speaker's origin, but that she is the steady base from which he can venture out into the world and into adulthood. The spool of tape still connects them, and the word "feeding" brings to mind an umbilical cord. The speaker ventures out and returns back to report different lengths to his mother. This represents him growing up as the tape "[unreels] the years between" himself and his mother.
Armitage defines the relationship between the speaker and his mother in two words: "Anchor. Kite." An anchor is a device used to keep sea vessels in place. When a person is called an anchor, it is a metaphor that means that they can be relied upon for support and stability, but it also could represent feelings of being held back or stuck in place. A kite is a toy that is flown in the wind, and it represents a sense of freedom and enjoyment. In both metaphors, the speaker is connected to his mother by a rope or string, and is not totally free-floating or cut loose in the world. A normal aspect of growing up is chafing against the rules of one's parents and wanting to forge one's independence. The speaker may feel this conflict while also appreciating the stability of his relationship with his mother.
Traveling through the house, the speaker "space-[walks]" through the empty bedrooms. This time, Armitage extends the metaphorical landscape inside the house to evoke outer space. Because the distances at issue in outer space are generally much vaster than the "acres" and "prairies" mentioned earlier in the poem, it is clear that the speaker is beginning to feel a greater distance between himself and his mother. However, when astronauts walk in space, they are always connected to a shuttle or station via a safety tether. Even if the speaker feels removed from his mother, there is still some attachment.
The movement upward through the house demonstrates the years passing. The speaker climbs the ladder to the loft, which is described as "breaking point, / where something has to give." In other words, the childhood cord of connection between the speaker and his mother (represented by the tape measure) will reach its end as the speaker ventures into adulthood. Two floors below, the mother pinches "the last one-hundredth of an inch" of the tape. In other words, she holds on to being a mother to a child who needs her rather than a mother to an adult son capable of taking care of himself. Like the word "anchor," the word "pinch" suggests both the affection of the mother and the speaker's feeling of slight suffocation at being treated like a child. However, these lines about the mother holding on to the last little bit of tape also imply that she will always be there for the speaker.
In the last movement of the poem, the speaker reaches towards a hatch "that opens on an endless sky / to fall or fly." The endless sky represents the speaker's future as well as the world he will engage with as an adult. This is a world filled with risks and rewards—the speaker can either "fall or fly." The alliteration of the "f" sound highlights how there are equal opportunities for the speaker to fail and succeed. With this being among the shortest lines in the poem, as well as the line that disrupts the sonnet form, there is quite a bit of emphasis placed on these four words. The speaker fully embraces the opportunities to fail or succeed, as shown by the act of his reaching. The rhyme between "sky" and "fly" ends the poem on an uplifting note.
