Paula Meehan Flashcards
What is buying winkles about
A young girl buying winkles from a winkle seller who sits outside the Rosebowl Bar with her pails of winkles in front of her.
Colloquial language in buying winkles
Adds to the sense of place
Spare her a sixpence
Tanner
Gardener street
Gender roles in buying winkles
Spatial politics that divided the city along gender lines
Men went to the pubs
Woman stayed at home or lingered in doorways
Contrast between the men and woman
Poverty in buying winkles
Spared her a sixpence
Intreguied by Pubs hot interiors
Childhood in buying winkles
The journey is like an adventure
Unafraid
Innocent
Unaware
Takes delight in completing the task
Childhood memory
Good memory of her mother
Methaphors
The sweetest extra winkle that brought the sea to me
What is The Pattern about
The speaker of this poem is afraid of her mother, but more importantly, she is afraid of what she might have in common with her. Paula Meehan’s poetry is heavily influenced by the complexities of family relationships. The Pattern” is about escaping destiny. It is about how we try to separate ourselves from our past mistakes and our parents’ mistakes.
Mother daughter relationship in the pattern
Mother and daughter are alike and this causes conflict
Roles expected of woman in the pattern
The poet attempts to dissociate herself from the tags that society gives to women. She thinks that had her mother been alive, she would have tried to know her as another human being. The poet is also attempting to show how women are always looked at with respect to the role they play and never as individuals. They are always characterized either as a mother, sister, daughter etc.
Poverty in the pattern
Handmade clothes
Council flat
Money in short supply
Regret in the pattern
Poet never got to explore a different relationship with her mother
Honesty in the pattern
Poet is Honest about her relationship with her mother
Not visiting her grave
The sting of her hand across my face in one of our wars
Struggling to connect
Nostalgia in the pattern
Looking back on her childhood and the work her mother did
Making clothes
Scrubbing the floor with sunlight soap
Worked hard
Identity in the pattern
The poet imagines in this stanza whether or not her mother ever attempted to identify her true self. She wonders whether she caught a glimpse of her face when she uses the wax. She wonders did her mother ever find a glimpse of herself in the mirror – just like she does.
Anecdote in the pattern
Direct speech from the mother brings her alive
When she put makeup and a dress on to go and meet Paula’s da but her grandad caught her and scrubbed all her makeup off
