Paula Meehan Quotes Flashcards
Colloquial language
“Yer Ma”
“Spare me”
“Tanner”
Memory of her parents fighting
“As Zeus and Hera battled it out”
Meehan was slapped across the face by her mother
“The sting of her hand across my face”
When Meehan and her mother had
“Grown bitter apart”
She has yet to visit her mother grave
“I’ve never gone back to visit her grave”
Lack of understanding between Mother and Daughter
“She favoured sensible shades/I dreamt a robe of colour so pure it became a word”
Meehans mothers father shoved her
“Whole head under the kitchen tap”
Her father
“Scrubbed every spick of lipstick and mascara” off her face
Her father deployed metaphorical
“Thunderbolts”
Her mother could give a look so dirty they could kill
“For his every thunderbolt/ she had the killing glance”
Tennis metaphor
“I’m net, umpire, and court; most balls are lobbed over my head”
Hurtful statements of (go between the two parents)
“Tell your mother” “ask your father”
(After her father gave her his wages)Her mother
“Straightened each rumpled pound note”
The poverty caused her mother to
“Throw the lot in the fire”
The money in the fire creates an
“Alchemical scene”
The poet was awoken by the
“Whinny”
Looking into the pub
“I envied each soul in the hot interior”
(Buying winkles) She would: when going to buy the Perry winkles
“Weave a glad path through men heading out for the night”
In relation to her parents arguing
“For his every thunderbolt/she had the killing glance”
She threw:
“The lot in the fire”
Throwing the money into the fire created an
“Alchemical scene”
(My father perceived)Her father:
“Threw up his hands and tossed the crumbs into the air”
After her father gave up his wages Her Mother:
“Straightened each crumpled pound note”
Lack of understanding between mother and daughter:
“She favoured sensible shades/I dreamt a drobe of colour so pure it became a word”
When her and her mother had:
“Grown bitter apart”
Her mother making the dress:
“She must have stayed up half the night/to finish the dress”
She wore the dress with
“Little grace”
The dress
“Spelt poverty”
The poet wants to travel to
“Zanzibar,Bombay, the land of the Ethiops”
simile to conclude her description of the fire
“flames sheered from cinder to chimney breast/ like trapped excotic birds”
personification
“shadows jumped floor to ceiling”
