For Heidi With Blue Hair

Question 1

When you dyed your hair blue

Answer 1

Addressed to Heidi, personal

Question 2

(or, at least, ultramarine for the clipped sides, with a crest of jet-black spikes on top)

Answer 2

Parenthesis give humor

Question 3

Tears in the kitchen, telephone calls

Answer 3

Harsh t-k t-k

Question 4

Freedom loving father

Answer 4

Soft f sounds

Question 5

‘She’s not a punk in her behaviour; it’s just a style” “she discussed it with me first- we checked the rules”

Answer 5

Lots of dialog = brings reader into action

Question 6

we checked the rules.’ ‘And anyway, Dad,

Answer 6

Caesura: shows rushed conversation

Question 7

not even if I wanted to try.

Answer 7

End-stopped lines = restricting rules

Question 8

Your mother’s death shimmered behind the arguments

Answer 8

Metaphor: reflective, like sunlight, always in the back of everyone’s minds

Question 9

Teachers twittered

Answer 9

Alliteration

Metaphor: like birds that never stop, are very noisy but have nothing important to say, annoying background noise

Question 10

an act of solidarity, a witty

tease. The battle was already won

Answer 10

Tease: showed how Heidi made fun of school rules
Battle: metaphor, Heidi won

Question 11

Tone

Answer 11

Satarises, sarcastic

Question 12

Themes

Answer 12

Family relationships
Individuality
Validation of a young women’s experience

Question 13

Structure

Answer 13

Free verse (no rhyming) + enjambment = freedom
Structured stanzas = rules of school

Question 14

Context

Answer 14

Written in 1980s

Punk look represented rebellion against social conformity