My Parents

Question 1

Structure

Answer 1

Lack of rhyme = freedom of bullies

Even stanzas, end-stopped = restraint experienced by speaker

Question 2

Themes

Answer 2

Isolation (created by contrast)
Bullying
Longing 
Parental control 
Childhood relationships

Question 3

Tone

Answer 3

Ambiguous: speaker both fears and admires bullies

Question 4

Verbs describing bullies

Answer 4

Active e.g. threw, ran, climbed, stripped

Suggests full of life

Question 5

Verbs describing speaker

Answer 5

Passive: kept, feared, looked, longed

Suggest isolation

Question 6

Similes

Answer 6

Muscles like iron: strong, tough
Threw words like stones: sharp, hurtful, unfeeling (rejecting speaker and showing no sympathy)
Like dogs to bark: aggression
I feared more than tigers: powerful, strong, scary but also exotic, awe-inspiring, majestic, foreign

Question 7

Antithesis

Answer 7

Speaker “pretends to smile”

Bullies “threw words like stones”

Question 8

Ideas

Answer 8

Money doesn’t equal happiness
Bullies are everything he is not
Resentful of parents

Question 9

Context

Answer 9

Written when there was contrast between social situations (middle class and lower class)