effects Flashcards
I held her hand, that was always scarred
From chopping, slicing, from the knives that lay in wait
In bowls of washing-up, that was raw,
i held her hand- aalliteration of ‘h’ sound in the opening line emphasises exhaling effect- sigh of grief and emotion
scarred- hands bear her love forever
chopping, slicing- chopping and slicing emphasises the nature of tough love she gave, that he only recognises now. she showed love through physical action and manual labour she was used to as a qorking class woman
The knuckles reddened, rough from scrubbing hard
At saucepan, frying pan, cup and plate
And giving love the only way she knew,
In each cheap cut of meat, in roast and stew,
harsh imagrey of reddened knuckles emphasing working with hands and working class (double burden of traditional gender roles and being a working class woman)
-the ongoing list exemplifies the intesity of her sacrafice for him. she played the traditional role of a mother.
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Old-fashioned food she cooked and we ate;
old fashioned food- the speaker had distain for it then but is now realising that she was sharing her own childhood and the comfort of her mother with them
-highlights how he was very passive and didn’t appreciate her actions
And I saw that they had taken off her rings,
The rings she kept once in her dressing-table drawer
With faded snapshots, long-forgotten things
(scent-sprays, tortoise-shell combs, a snap or two
From the time we took a holiday “abroad”)
-return to the present in sentimental tone.
-her value towards these keepsakes and jewlerry show her care towards them- core symbols of life.
-asyndetic list is comforting to the speaker
-‘abroad’ highlights their financial problems as a family, yet she still tried to make it nice for them.
-divide between the speaker who has moved away
But lately had never been without, as if
She wanted everyone to know she was his wife
Only now that he was dead.
-full stop emphasises truth
-she wants to highlight he status as a wife yet there is an element of resentment from the speaker as he didn’t understand why she did’nt wear it until her husband passed
-in reality he doesn’t understand that it was so valuable that she had to keep in away in the safe
And her watch? – Classic ladies’ model, gold strap – it was gone, And I’d never known her not have that on,
-shows that the watch was a key pafrt of her identity and a symbol of pride of her feminity
Not in all the years they sat together
Watching soaps and game shows I’d disdain
speaker wishes he had watched the soaps with them and spent time with them
soaps and gameshows are considered cheap entertainment (theme of class) and he used to scorn them as he experienced social mobility
And not when my turn came to cook for her,
Chops or chicken portions, English, bland,
Familiar flavours she said she preferred
To whatever “funny foreign stuff”
Young people seemed to eat these days, she’d heard;
reversal in speakers role marked, he found english flavours that she liked
highlights the speakers modern experience of society Vs mothers conventional conservatism
-she suggests xenophobia showing generation disparity
Not all the weeks I didn’t come, when she sat
Night after night and stared unseeing at
The television, at her inner weather,
Heaved herself upright, blinked and poured
Drink after drink, and gulped and stared – the scotch
That, when he was alive, she wouldn’t touch,
That was her way to be with him again;
and stared unseeing- detached and wanted to forget her daily reality
Not later in the psychiatric ward,
Where she blinked unseeing at the wall, the nurses
(Who would steal anything, she said), and dreamt
Of when she was a girl, of the time before
I was born, or grew up and learned contempt,
-deterioration of mother expressed
who would steal anything she said- highlights deterioration of her sanity
While the TV in the corner blared
To drown some “poor soul’s” moans and curses,
And she took her pills and blinked and stared
As the others shuffled around, and drooled, and swore…
almost robotic nature of her deteriration that speaker reflects on
But now she lay here, a thick rubber band
With her name on it in smudged black ink was all she wore
On the hand I held, a blotched and crinkled hand
Whose fingers couldn’t clasp at mine any more
Or falteringly wave, or fumble at my sleeve –
The last words she had said were
Please don’t leave
But of course I left; now I was back, though she
Could not know that, or turn her face to see
A nurse bring the little bag of her effects to me.
-thick rubber band contrasts to gold wach that had sentimental value. shows her currecnt reality and removes her identity, shes just another victim of death
blotched and crinkled hand- parallelism of opening line hand imagrey. emphasises the symbotic circle of life
no scars further removes her identity
falteringly wave or fumble- alliteration of f sound emphasises the desperation felt in old age to to be alone/ isolated mirrors the desperation her son feels for her now
admission to guilt he left
return to effects, belongings brought out provoke emotional longing
structure
-contains only 2 full stops showing 2 main parts of life
-complex structure of clauses and subclauses
rhyme
varying rhyme scheme at start in generally regular scheme, reflects instability felt in grief
