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LETTERS FROM YORK SHIRE
The poem opens with a description of a man working in his garden, planting potatoes, seeing lapwing birds return after winter, then the speaker imagines him coming inside to write to her. The poem does not reveal what the relationship is between them - they could be friends or family.
The speaker is busy with her work, typing on to a computer and thinking about the news headlines. She asks the direct question 'is your life more real...?' because he is connected with the land, but knows he would not agree with this. She describes the letters as being filled with 'air and light' as if the fresh Yorkshire air has been posted to her. This helps to make her feel that their souls are connected 'across the icy miles'.
CLIMBING MY GRANDFATHER
The speaker of the poem may be thinking back to his childhood and how he used to view climbing his grandfather as climbing a mountain. Another interpretation could be that as an adult, climbing a mountain now reminds the speaker of his grandfather. Either way, Waterhouse presents the reader with an extended metaphor, which compares a kindly old man and a craggy mountain.
