My Rival's house

Question 1

My Rival’s house stanza one

Answer 1

‘tables polished clear enough to see distortions in’

‘cushions so stiff you can’t sink in’

Question 2

My Rival’s house stanza two

Answer 2

‘shuffle stocking soled, tiptoe’
(sibilence, increases tension)
-comedy in the narrative voice which gets the reader onside and vilifies the mother in law

‘its surface must be protected’
metaphor giving the imagery of the mother protecting the son almost like he’s a possession

Question 3

My Rival’s house stanza three

Answer 3

‘i’m all edges’
double entendre

‘what squirms beneath her surface I can tell’

• satirises the mother
• bestial

Question 4

My Rival’s house form

Answer 4

Free verse and irregular meter, giving the reader or listener the idea that the poem is quite stunted like either her relationship with the mother or the mother imposing on the son.

It also gives the poem the feel as though it’s being said through clenched teeth

Question 5

Lochhead’s methods

Answer 5

Form
Enjambment (draws attention to phrases such as 'be protected'
Cutting narrative voice
Implicity
Tension
Imagery
Sibilence