Genetics - Sinead Morrissey

Question 1

What is Genetics about? (4 points)

Answer 1

Explores the poet’s relationship with her parents and their relationship with each other

Clever interplay of words suggests the complex genetic inheritance that goes into making a child - physical characteristics are passed on, but never a carbon copy of what went before

The parents seem no longer to be together but they remain present in the genetic inheritance manifested in the narrator’s body

At the end, a new relationship is introduced, in the pronoun ‘you’ - the next generation represented in the form of a new genetic mix

Question 2

What is the structure of Genetics? (4 points)

Answer 2

It is a villanelle:
+ Two repeated, rhyming lines which alternate at the end line of each three-lined stanza
+ Each pair of rhymes differs slightly in each stanza
+ Circular form - coming back in the final couplet to where it began

Suits the themes of separation, togetherness and marriage

Question 3

What is the language and imagery of Genetics? (3 points)

Answer 3

The voice is that of the poet using the first person singular pronoun ‘I’. The tone is gentle and thoughtful

The key rhyme is ‘palms’/‘hands’ — a consonant and not a full rhyme

Also, ‘mother’ and ‘father’ are consonant and echo each other - both sets close in meaning and sound