Genetics - Sinead Morrissey

Question 1

What is the main message of the poem?

Answer 1

That parents will always be connected through their child

Question 2

What is used in the first and last line of the first stanza ending in “palms” and “hands”?

Answer 2

HALF-RHYME

Question 3

“separate lands,// to separate hemispheres”

Answer 3

METAPHORICAL use of place to show physical separation

Question 4

“but in me they touch where fingers link to palms”

Answer 4

ARGUMENT MARKER - presents the message that the parents will always be connected because they have a child together

Question 5

What is the double interpretation of the river?

Answer 5

NATURAL IMAGERY!! the river could represent a boundary between two people, the parents, but also represent a connection between two places

Question 6

“I shape a chapel where a steeple stands.” What is this referencing?

Answer 6

Reference to the childish game, suggesting connection

Question 7

What device is used in “at least I know their marriage by my hands”?

Answer 7

SYNECDOCHE - her hands/being is a physical symbol of their marriage

Question 8

“My body is their marriage register”

Answer 8

meant to be a permanent union

Question 9

“So take me with you” Device used? Why?

Answer 9

IMPERATIVE - asking her future husband to do the same for her

Question 10

What is the significance of the rhyming couplet at the end?

Answer 10

It reflects the meaning of the poem; despite the parents’ separation, they are eternally connected through her

Question 11

What form is the poem written it?

Answer 11

The poem uses a villanelle structure, a 19-line poem - interlaced rhyme