Material Flashcards
General Structure
Rhyme scheme (ABCDEFE) - rhyme scheme is a strict and formal mirroring the formality of the bygone era
The strict adherence to this shows how subconsciously the persona is longing for the past and desires to be her mother
It can also shown how the pasts still haunts and constraints her
My mother was a hanky queen
when hanky meant a thing of cloth,
not paper tissues bought in packs
from late-night garages and shops,
but things for waving out of trains
and mopping the corners of your grief:
when hankies were material
she’d have one, always, up her sleeve.
My mother - is the focus
Hanky Queen - metaphor / playful / queen sense of tradition / mother superiority / affectionate tone
Hanky not like tissues - something that can not be bought / personal / you can not buy a mothers love
‘Waving out of trains’ - bygone era of stoicism
Mopping the corners of your grief - Handkerchief is there for comfort and moments of sadness / hiding sadness / stoicism
Up her sleeve - magical / mystery or mysticality
The relic and traditional nature of the cloth contrasts the transience and insubstantial nature of modern tissues
The Handkerchief is a extended metaphor of all the emotions and memories that the persona has with her mother
Tucked in the wrists of every cardi,
a mum’s embarrassment of lace
embroidered with a V for Viv,
spittled and scrubbed against my face.
And sometimes more than one fell out
as is she had a farm up there
where dried-up hankies fell in love
and mated, raising little squares.
Spittled and scrubbed / alliteration and onomatopoeia shows the agitation and annoyance
Against my face - embarrassment / too close in proximity / uncomfortableness / In contrast now she just wants her mother back and close to her
V for viv - shows the personalisation of the handkerchief
Sense of childhood wonderment - childish retelling of the stories her mother would say
Enjambment - adds to the sense of wonder
Rhyme - adds to the playfulness and nostalgia
Personification too
She bought her own; I never did.
Hankies were presents from distant aunts
in boxed sets, with transparent covers
and script initials spelling ponce,
the naffest Christmas gift you’d get –
my brothers too, more often than not,
got male ones: serious, and grey,
and larger, like they had more snot.
Naffest- sense of annoyance
Semicolon - shows the antithesis of her and her mother : her mother is very traditional and part of the older generation / the persona is not and is part of a new era / also literally does not have a handkerchief
Ponce - derogatory / pointing or alluding to her rebellious teen years
My brothers … serious and grey and larger - shows a partly playful tone due to ‘snot’ I feel as though maybe it is alluding to the sexism within the older generation and how the older generation whilst great in some ways aren’t as great in others and similarly with our generation
It was hankie that closed department stores,
with headscarves, girdles, knitting wool
and trouser presses; homely props
you’d never find today in malls.
Hankies, which demanded irons,
and boiling to be purified
shuttered the doors of family stores
when those who used to buy them died.
Comparison of before and after
Died - end stop line / dying of the families but the death of the older generations and their attitudes and traditions
The Hanky here turns into a symbol that there is a need for change - commercialism can bring in all these great homely and domestic materials
I feel as though there is a negative connotation here however as it seems excessive the past appears to be a simpler time whether that is better or not can be controversial
Purified - highlights the impractical nature of the hanky which may be alluding the uselessness and mindlessness of some traditional practices
And somehow, with the hanky’s loss,
greengrocer George with his dodgy foot
delivering veg from a Comma van
is history, and the friendly butcher
who’d slip and extra sausage in,
the fishmonger whose marble slab
of haddock smoked the colour of yolks
and parcelled rows of local crab
George - name seems personal / older generation more connected
The use of listing shows the vast and myriad amount of things that have changed over time
Enjambment - free flowing nostalgia feels as though we are back in the old times / reader is reliving these experiences with the persona
Extra sausage - sense of familiarity between people within the community / as if everyone is helping out one another / everyone is nice and helping out each other unlike mostly capitalist societies now where it is all about the survival of the fittest
Dodgy foot - same thing sense of personal connection and community / this person to person connection has been phased out by a world of commercialism
lay opposite the dancing school
where Mrs White, with painted talons,
taught us When You’re Smiling from a stumbling, out of tune piano:
step-together, step-together, step-together,
point! The Annual Talent Show
when every mother, fencing tears,
would whip a hanky from their sleeve
and smudge the rouge from little dears.
Mrs White - back to being sorta autobiographical / she as this poem is going on is reliving in her past and nostalgia / the material handkerchief is what is causing this
Every mother - unity
Fencing tears - tears of joy and pride / deeper sense of connection / fencing also sounds like fighting / the fight to be stoic a very traditional mentality to have
Step together - repetition causes emphasis / together / giving a sense community
Hanky - Hanky once again useful and in this case is symbolic of community, the commonality of a hanky, and the pride of a mother
Nostalgia only makes me old.
The innocence I want my brood
to cling on to like ten-bob notes
was killed in TV’s lassitude.
And it was me that turned it on and eat bought biscuits I would bake
if I’d commit to being home.
Nostalgia only makes me old - cynical tone / end stop line
Killed- the innocence of children being killed
Biscuits - baking is a very typical picture and activity which is connected to motherhood/feeding and nurturing one’s children / ‘cooking with love’
Bought - commercialization and convenience / lacking the personal touch which is prevalent all around us
Alliteration highlights her lack of domestic prowess
Commit to being home - Unlike her mother and the traditional concept of motherhood she does not stay home and take care of the kids, or at least that is not her only and primary role
There’s never a hanky up my sleeve.
I raised neglected-looking kids,
the kind whose noses strangers clean.
What awkwardness in me forbids
me to keep tissues in my bag
when handy packs are 50p?
I miss material handkerchiefs,
their soft and hidden history.
There’s never a hanky up my sleeve - comparing herself to her mother
Tissues - showing furthermore why her children are neglected there seems to be a lack of personal touch
Noses strangers clean - Her children learn from strangers rather than her / teachers other adults etc
50p - shows the lack of symbolism in tissues in comparison to material handkerchiefs which cannot be bought just as how a mothers unconditional love can not be bought too
Miss material - connotations of loss and remembrance longing for everything that it represents
Hidden history - alliteration highlights their hidden nature and how traditional thing and attitudes are now out of plain sight and are hard to find
But it isn’t mine. I’ll let it go.
My mother too, eventually,
who died not leaving handkerchiefs
but tissues and uncertainty:
and she would say, should I complain
of the scratchy and disposable,
that this is your material
to do with, daughter, what you will.
Italics - mother speaking
‘Scratchy and disposable’ - she too wants to stick towards the familiar of the traditional
Handkerchiefs - comfort and warmth but her mothers death did not bring this but rather disconnect and depersonalisation as shown by the tissues
