Before You Were Mine Flashcards
Who’s the author and status the context
Carol Ann Duffy
Autobiographical she was brought up in Glasgow and catholic
Role of women in 1950s and the religion expectations > once having a child your fun life was over
What can you compare this poem to
Walking away - son is growing up whereas in this poem mum is growing up»_space; changed in life
Follower - admiration to parents from children
Followe and Eden rock - childhood memories
What themes are in the poem
Admiration
Growing up
Family relationships
Memory
How does she show that she admires her mother
Describes her beauty referring her to ‘maryilin’ and ‘thousand eyes’ which suggests she was centre of attention
Her admiration is tinged with regrets that she’s never actually get her old mother back
What’s the structure and what does it show
Consistent tightly packed steucture which reflects a steady passage of time and inevitable role of women
Also right control of child parent relationship
How is it a cyclical structure
Beings and ends with mother on pavement
Beginning - laughing with friend
End - walking with daughter
Shows what change has brought and the theme of fate that events in life are predetermined
What mood if language is used
Exciting
Possessive
Colloquial
How is exciting language used
Give quotes
Describes the mothers life before
She is consorted to ‘marilyn’ who was a desirable star but had a tragic death
‘Sparkle and waltz and laugh’ repetition of and shows how many great qualities she had
How is possessive language portrayed
Speaker believes when she was born she took control of her mums life by taking away her freedom
Which is the reverse typical idea of children wanting to break free
‘Before you were mine’»_space; ‘mine’
‘I wanted the bold girl’»_space; narrator wanted what she couldn’t have
Language
What does the quote portray
‘Eh?’ ‘Whose small bites in your beck sweetheart’
Colloquial tone - it sounds like something a mother would say rather than a daughter she wants to talk to her young mother
^ role reversal
Each stanza starts with what
A reminder of the distance in time between narrators birth and her mothers youth
What’s the authors message
Inevitable fate of women are to have and their predetermine roles
That their meant to have children and stay at home
Domestic duties take over idealistic world
What’s the form of the poem
Dramatic monologue (partially)
The controlling and possessive child
Reverse normal role should
What language technique is used which links to memory
Synaesthesia
