Before You Were Mine (P)

Question 1

Exposition
“Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn”

Answer 1

A01:
Duffy likens her mother to Marilyn Monroe the Hollywood movie star of the 1900s

A02:
Glamorous imagery she imagines her mother as a beautiful woman before having children
The cinematic caesura is almost like a Hollywood ‘cut!’ By a movie director almost like her mother is a movie star of her own life

A03:
Duffy may want to elaborate on the past lives of parents before they have children and the fun they got up to without parental responsibilities

Question 2

Mid-point
” high-heeled red shoes, relics” “your ghost clatters towards me “

Answer 2

A01:
The narrator reminisces back to their childhood imagining the life of her mother before her

A02:
Historic nouns- “relics” “ghost” she is but a wisp of her former self and it creates a more sad and reflective tone as the mother’s flamboyant spark is dampened by parenthood
Onomatopoeic verb “clatter” creates a vivid sensory detail and emphasises the childlike imagination of the narrator

A03:
This poem is autobiographical and Duffy explores her own feelings as a child

Question 3

Denouement
“stamping stars from the wrong pavement.”

Answer 3

A01:
The narrator thinks back to her and her mother on the way home from church and decides her mother should still be with her friends like the opening stanza

A02:
The cyclical link back to Hollywood and its “stars” highlight the mother’s lost pathway into the glitz and glam of the movies like “Marilyn” Monroe.
Disenchanted adjective “wrong” emphasises the daughter’s opinion that her mother should still be care free and “shriek at the pavement” with her friends like when she was young.