Material - Ros Barber Flashcards
Title
symbolic of connection between the speaker and mother
‘My mother was the hanky queen’
- colloquial term, relatable tone
- idolisation of the mother, aware of the relationship they had
‘not paper tissues bought in packs from late-night garages and shops,’
symbolistic of the disposable and unsentimental nature of modern society
‘waving out of trains’
war imagery
‘she’d have one, always, up her sleeve.’
represents the constant of the speaker’s mother
‘Tucked in the wrist of every cardi, a mum’s embarrassment of lace embroidered with a V for Viv, spittled and scrubbed against my face.’
symbolistic of caring relationship with the mother
‘And sometimes more than one fell out as if she had a farm up there where dried-up hankies fell in love and mated, raising little squares.’
The satirical aspect helps to add a familiar tone and humourous effect
‘She bought her own; I never did.’
the caesura in the sentence acts as separation between speaker and mother
‘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.’
- Hankies seem to bond the family
- seen as a nod to old traditional gender roles that have evolved over the years
‘Hankies, which demanded irons, and boiling to be purified’
the personification of the hanky reinforces its representation of households in the 50s/ 60s
‘And somehow, with the hanky’s loss, greengrocer George with his dodgy foot delivering veg from a Comma van is history,’
a sense of community, it could contrast to the lack of connection in modern society
‘lay opposite the dancing school where Mrs White, with painted talons, taught us When You’re Smiling from a stumbling, out of tune piano:’
the specific and visual reference evokes nostalgia.
- the addition of musical and sensory imagery adds to the memories
‘Nostalgia only makes me old.’
shortest line of the poem - the narrator feels old in relation to the huge changes in societal attitudes, since their childhood
‘And it was me that turned it on to buy some time to write this poem’
irony - the poem itself is the result of poor motherhood
‘There’s never a hanky up my sleeve. I raised neglected-looking kids,’
admission of guilt this juxtaposes her mother’s constant while being negative about herself as a mother
‘What awkwardness in me forbids me to keep tissues in my bag when handy packs are 50p?’
rhetorical question emphasises the speaker’s trouble with finding her identity as a mother and letting go of her ‘rose-tinted’ memories of her mother
‘I miss material handkerchiefs, their soft and hidden history.’
- hankies represent her childhood and familiarity with her mother
- alliteration, identifying the importance of an object so simple, has had for generations
‘But it isn’t mine. I’ll let it go. My mother too, eventually, who died not leaving handkerchiefs but tissues and uncertainty:’
hankies brought order to her life and her mother’s ‘constant’. Motherhood in the modern day is complicated and more temporary
‘that this is your material to do with, daughter, what you will.’
the mother’s voice coming through gives her daughter permission to do things her way of motherhood. passing over the mantel of motherhood.
Overall messages:
- the nostalgia of a past-time
- finding your individuality and letting go of the past or family experiences
- grief and how we hold on to artificial things that remind is of loved ones
Structure
- iambic tentrametre (8 syllables)
- 10 regular stanzas - 8 lines
- half rhyme consonance and assonance (reflects the connection between mother and daughter)
