Notes on Family House – The Poem is not on the website.
This is a simple, straightforward description of a remembered place. I lived here, with my sister and parents, from when I was ten years old until I left home. All details are true and carefully chosen. These are real memories, such as many of us have of the home where we lived during teenage years. Verse 2 describes my mother, who had beautiful red hair. Verse 3, sounds and smells of the sea, the particular tune made by the lightship on foggy nights. Verse 4, the old house, with its garden and outbuildings, was sold; memories persist, and continue in verse 5, particularly the smell of apples stored for winter in the loft. Most survive, but bruised apples rot.
Metaphors: freckled; flame; heartbeat; held breath. Simile: ‘soft-skinned as toads’.