Before you were mine Flashcards
“Possessive”
L: possessive adjective, links with the title.
Suggests she might feel guilty
about taking the glamour away
from her mum’s life.
‘You reckon it’s worth it’
shows her mother was young and carefree, didn’t care about what other people thought of her
“Cha cha cha”
Short sharp sounds: refers to the dance and shows excitement
What poems can you compare this to?
- walking away
- mother, any distance
“Marilyn”
L: metaphor
The speaker metaphorically compares her mother to Marilyn Monroe because her skirt is blowing up like her
I: this could also be her way of saying that her mother is glamorous
“I knew you would dance like that”
“You reckon it’s worth it”
L: declarative statements
They convey how well she thinks she knows her mother but she doesn’t
“a hiding” and “reckon”
L: colloquial language
Brings the scene vividly to life
I: even though she’s punished she thinks it’s worth having the memory of the night
“the decade”
I:
- this could signify that the speaker wishes to go back in time to meet her mother
- could signify how much her mother has changed in a decade
“High-heeled red shoes” “relics”
L: metaphor
The shoes are metaphorically relics
C: catholics worship religious relics
D: this could signify that the speaker worships her mother
“clear as scent”
L: simile and synaesthesia
Emphasises how she can vividly immerse herself in the imagined scene
“wrong pavement”
C: reference to Hollywood wall of fame
Speaker feels her mother should’ve been a glamorous movie star
What does this poem tell he about mother-daughter relationships?
Parenthood changes a person - they need to take responsibility for their child and sacrifice some of their freedom
You can never truly know another person, however strong the parent-child bond is
