Duffy

Question 1

Pluto - Stanza 1 quotes

Answer 1

‘When I awoke’

Question 2

Pluto - Stanza 2

Answer 2

‘same soap suddenly; so’ - sibilance creates a stuttering tone, representing the speaker’s mental deterioration as their speech is protracted. Metaphor for the slippery quality of their memory.

Repetition of ‘Pluto’ metaphor for isolation, disconnect from both the present and from the speaker’s memories & mind as Pluto is no longer classified as a planet & the speaker seems more attached to the alienated planet of Pluto, the furthest planet from earth reaffirming their utter disconnect from reality.

Question 3

Pluto - Stanza 3

Answer 3

‘an hourglass weeping the future into the past’ personified metaphor of the uncontrollable passage of time, bleak as suggests a bereavement or grief at the speaker’s journey through their memories resulting in them entering the present from which they feel greater alienated. - the impact of dementia

This is punctuated by the singular line ‘- and I was a boy’, parenthetic structure representing the disorganised mind of the speaker and the intermingling of the ‘future’ and ‘past’ - emulates the transition between memories.

Question 4

Before you were mine - Stanza 1

Question 6

BYWM stanza 3

Answer 6

• ‘my hands…high heeled red shoes, relics’ - the child restricting the mother’s mobility.
• ‘relics’, ‘ghost’ & ‘clear as scent’ = motif of intangible, relics are historical artefacts. no purpose, ‘ghost’ & ‘scent’ suggest a fading persona, the death of the mother’s youth and sexuality