Before You Were Mine Flashcards
quote about familial love + longing?
“where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine”
-very positive and jovial verbs
-written in present tense = highlights the change in behaviour and lifestyle her mother experienced after having Carol as a child
-The speaker idolises her mother’s past vitality & longs for her to radiate that same energy again
-she recognises that as he mother embraces societal expectations of womanhood, she loses some of this vitality.
quote about obsession + age?
“Your polka-dot dress blows around your legs. Marilyn.”
-single word sentence to emphasise a separation between her mother in the past and now
-Monroe commited suicide = reflect the unhappiness which was associated with Duffy’s birth
-Monroe was iconic and a symbol of glamour. Female sexuality is intrinsically linked to a woman’s individual freedom.
-Her meticulous focus on details, & romanticised obsession with her mother’s pre-motherhood life
->shows her desire to envision her mother liberated from the responsibilities and burdens imposed by parenthood
context
/Carol Ann Duffy was born in 1955 in Glasgow. In 2009, she became Poet Laureate. This poem, published in 1993, is autobiographical - Duffy is writing about her own personal experiences.
summary
1) The poem seems to begin with the narrator looking at a photograph of her mother having fun with friends. The narrator imagines her mother when she was younger, possibly informed by her mother’s own memories and anecdotes - her mother stays out late dancing and isn’t put off by being told off by her own mother.
2) The speaker says that her mother was happiest during the ten years before she was born.
She remembers glimpses from her childhood of her mum’s fun-loving past.
3) She remembers her mum teaching her to dance. She wanted her to be like this more often, but realises that her mum was only really fun-loving and glamorous before she was born.
form
FORM - This poem is made up of four equal stanzas of five lines. This consistent form reflects the steady passage of time and the inevitable changes that time brings.
structure
STRUCTURE - The poem begins and ends with the mother on a pavement - at the beginning she’s having fun with her friends and at the end she’s walking with her daughter. This emphasises the changes that time has brought - there’s a clear division between before and after the poet was born.
exciting language
EXCITING LANGUAGE - A lot of the words and phrases used describe how exciting, fun and glamorous the narrator’s mum’s life was before the narrator was born
possessive language
POSSESSIVE LANGUAGE
- The speaker believes that when she was born, she took control
of her mum, and took away her freedom. This reverses the typical idea of children wanting to break free from their parents - in this poem, it’s the child stopping the parent from having fun.
colloquial language
COLLOQUIAL LANGUAGE
- The speaker uses colloquial language to create an imaginary
conversation with her mother - this suggests they have a close, familiar relationship.
