The only cleverness that I will credit this poem with is the way that it develops the paradox of ‘Last Act’. Sheers gave us an ‘ending’ right at the beginning of the book, now he is giving us another ending in a situation which is usually the mark of the beginning of something (getting new keys cut). The epigraph itself however, has been chosen most judiciously, for there are at least four obvious thematic paths it can lead us down, and several more subtle. Line 1 indicates a theme of age/youth, line 2 indicates a theme of modernisation and the breakdown of society and line 3 indicates a theme mortality and spirituality.

So, what is the poem telling us? Unlike the rest of the collection, the poetic ‘you’ can be assumed to be the reader. The lines ‘Don’t be surprised it has taken so long to show you these’ may be indicative of the time gap between Skirrid Hill and his previous collection. If we take this to be the case then ‘the actor, bowing as himself / for the first time all night’ could be taken as an apology of sorts for his dissatisfaction with his debut collection, The Blue Book, which received a lot of criticism. This may well be a proclamation that this is Sheers’ first genuine collection of poetry – the last one was just a warm-up. The line ‘they were told to walk, not to run’ is a comment on the emotional reserve often attributed to British people, particularly of the upper classes. The idea of these brave men being lead into battle by leaders who do not care for their safety becomes key to the meanings of later poems such as ‘Tea with Dr. Hitler’ and ‘Liable to Floods’. The final lines are ambiguous, depending on how the reader interprets these final lines, the poem can be negative or positive. On one hand, they are certainly closer before, but yet they still have an incredibly long way to go. But is the gap between the generations too far to cross, ‘farther’ than Sheers imagined? The loss of innocence caused by Sheers’ early encounter with mortality is also telling. He is unable to enjoy the simple act of playing with the abandoned cars anymore. This is partly because he has returned to the cars by himself, which may give us the suggestion that things can only be enjoyed in company. The fact that the cars seem ‘smaller’ to Sheers now suggests that the vastness of death has overshadowed his ability to engage in innocent play and he can now only see the cars as further corpses. This transition we see in the role of the farrier is an interesting one and could be used as an illustration of ‘masculinity’ being just another ‘role’ or pretention that does not stand up to interrogation.As much for the sake of developing my understanding of Owen Sheers as it is for developing your understanding. So, in what sense has the poet become ‘lost to man’? This may imply that by leaving his hometown and travelling he is ‘lost’ to the dangers that lurk beyond the safety of the small rural community with a highly specific culture. Or it could simply refer to a child’s loss of innocence and dependency when he grows up. The focus on the ‘mare to be led’ is important for two reasons. The first is that it characterizes the horse in the poem as female, allowing for the exploration of male-female relationships within Sheers’ writing. Secondly, the fact the male is actively ‘leading’ the ‘mare’ leads to the suggestion of a power dynamic across the genders. The feminine is passive, while the masculine is active. Farther’ is a free verse poem written within the form of one unbroken stanza, spanning 32 lines. The lines vary greatly in length and syllable count. There is no distinctive pattern in rhythm. As a poem that touches on the delicacy of connection, it seems appropriate that Sheers has selected a form that is in itself interconnected. The continuous form could also be a reflection of the narrative of the poem, with the long, arduous hike being symbolized through the continuous stream of poetry.

In 2007 his play about Alun Lewis was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, and his first novel, Resistance, was published. He later co-wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation, released in 2011. His novella Two Ravens, one of the stories in Seren's 'Mabinogion' series, was published in 2009. That same year, he presented the BBC4 television series A Poet's Guide to Britain, and wrote the accompanying book of the series.The image of ‘the tractor writing with its wheels’ is also quite pivotal in this piece. Writers, especially writers who do not come from writing families, will often try and find aspects of the lives of their friends and family that are analogous to what they do. If a tractor’s primary task is to till the soil – that is to stir it up, overturn it and make it ripe for the sewing of seeds, then Sheers is suggesting that this is what he does with his writing. He takes what is there and makes it ripe for vital things to grow, perhaps, if we are to extend this metaphor, for things that can be exported and therefore increase the power of Wales.

The ‘elephant’s graveyard of cars’ is a potent image within the collection as it reminds us of Mametz Wood. The ground is gradually purging itself of the manmade impositions (it was dead bodies and their uniforms in the first poem, now it is ‘dead’ abandoned cars). World War One was a time of such horror and ferociousness that it has never quite left the consciousness of historians and writers. This later turns out to be easier said than done however, as Sheers shows us that in our day to day lives, we are always playing roles in some sense. Mametz Wood," the first poem, intelligently signals Skirrid Hill’s more inclusive sense of divorce or separation. In the battle of the Somme in 1916, the 38th Welsh Division fought for five days to take the wood, resulting in 4,000 casualties, including approximately 600 killed. The poem imagines farmers finding the dead soldiers "for years afterwards" as pieces of bone emerge from the soil and concludes with the discovery of twenty skeletons in single long grave, The tension of this poem is in the playful, carefree nature of the young boys with the funereal, morbid imagery to describe the place. We almost get the sense that the ‘buzzards above’ the children are waiting for the right moment to scavenge the passed remains of their very childhood.The poem comprises five stanzas of four lines each (quatrains), interspersed with three couplets. There is no rhyme scheme. An interesting suggestion is that the two lined stanzas represent blades of slate. By likening the models to birds and the photographers to a ‘crocodile pit of cameras’, Sheers is increasing the sense of men being a controlling, negative force in the world of women. By likening the scar to ‘lovers who carve trees’, Sheers is continuing his theme of comparing that world of nature to the world of man – in this case ‘skin’ and ‘bark’ are tenor and vehicle.