Before You Were Mine

Question 1

Stanza1

Answer 1

Precise imagery of mother with friends sense of exuberance of youth as they ‘shriek at the pavement’
Mother has same attributes as Marilyn Monroe (glamour and sex appeal) ‘Marilyn’

Question 2

Stanza 2

Answer 2

‘Ballroom with a thousand eyes’ ‘fizzy movie tomorrows’ excitement and glamour continues poet imagined mum being centre of attention
‘I knew you would dance like that’ poet imagined idealised memories of mum

Question 3

Stanza 3

Answer 3

Begins with rhetorical question ironic conversational tone- intimacy pathos bitterness
Pathos shows emotional understanding of difficulty of motherhood
Bitterness shows her mother never was as happy as she was ‘before’ she was hers

Question 4

Stanza 3 continues

Answer 4

Poets hands in ‘Red high heeled shoes’ juxtaposition between innocence of child play and dressing up as a sexual icon, relics because now useless
Sees mother ‘clear as scent’

Question 5

Stanza 4

Answer 5

‘Stamping stars’ pavement imagery repeated Hollywood glamour but this time at wrong pavement
‘Even then I wanted the bold girl winking’
Change in mother before her vs after her

Question 6

Structure

Answer 6

4 equal stanzas shows how speaker knows mother well
Lack of rhyme scheme shows chaos in relationship lack of understanding
Semantic field of happiness and freedom:‘laugh’ ‘shriek’‘waist’