Material Flashcards
‘my mother was the hanky ____’
queen
What device is used in ‘hanky queen’
-oxymoron
Analyse ‘she bought her own; I never did’
The use of caesura separates the speaker from her mother and makes clear how they represent different times/values.
‘parcelled rows of local crab’ ‘lay opposite the dancing school’
-enjambment across stanzas represent the speaker’s fond memories and how those memories are flowing back tot each other.
‘Nostalgia only makes me old’
-Blunt, end-stopped line suggests a turning point - focus shifts from narrator’s mother to her own children
‘there’s never a hanky up my sleeve’
-Repeats earlier phrase ‘up her sleeve’ from stanza one - makes clear both the bond between the narrator and her mother and how they are different.
‘this is your material’ ‘to do with, daughter, what you will’
The poem ends with a shift in perspective as the narrator imagines her mother’s voice, who passes on the duty of motherhood. The narrator seems to find some form of resolution/acceptance which is reiterated by the rhyming couplet that ends the poem.
‘spittled and scrubbed against my face’
Sibilence is used to emphasise the sense of disgust she recalls feeling at this time, but now she feels a sense of regret for feeling this way and now feels an appreciation of the past.
‘I miss material hankercheifs’
She misses her mum and her childhood with the community.
‘But it isn’t mine. I’ll let it go’
Argument marker changes the tone but she moves on from criticising herself and lets it go.
‘This is your material, to do with, daughter, what you will’
Rhyming couplet offers an opportunity to move past grief be free of societal constraint. Her mother’s voice is used here to offer support for her change.
