Strong Bonds- ‘eden Rock’ And ‘before You Were Mine’ Flashcards
Ts1: in both poems, the speakers’ strong bonds with their parents are evoked through photographs.
‘They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden rock: My father, twenty five, in the same suit’
‘Marilyn’
TS2: in ‘Eden rock’ a strong spiritual bond exists despite death, where as in ‘Before You Were Mine’ the speaker wants to bond with her mother as she was in the past.
‘Her hair… takes on the light’
‘The sky whitens as it lit by three suns’
‘Ghost’
‘I see you clear as scent’
TS3: Whilst the speaker in ‘Eden Rock’ experiences peace and reassurance at being reunited with his parents, in ‘Before You Were Mine’, the speaker is possessive of her mother.
‘Leisurely/ they beckon to me’
‘I wanted the bold girl’
‘My loud, possessive yell’
Structure: In ‘Eden Rock’, Causley breaks the regular quatrains with a single line stanza which implies that he is finally reunited with his parents in the afterlife, where as in ‘Before You Were Mine’, caesurae are use to emphasise the difference between the speakers’ mother in the past and the present.
‘I had not thought it would be like this’
‘I’m not here yet’.
‘They are waiting for me somewhere beyond Eden rock: my father, twenty five, in the same suit’
L= adjective ‘same’- moment frozen in time. C= Causleys father died when he was 7; his memories based on photographs of father when younger R= this makes the poem moving and poignant (emotionally moving) for the reader. PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE- bond not broken despite the passage of time; certainty that he will be reunited with his parents. Causley’s mother a strong Christian member of church. ‘Eden’- biblical association with paradise and heaven C= not a real physical place (like heaven?) L= vague and imprecise adverb ‘somewhere’ D= shows that death and the after life are beyond linguistic representation so he had to use ‘somewhere’ as he doesn’t know what it’s like.
‘Marilyn’.
L= metaphor comparing her mother to Marilyn Monroe suggests her mother’s glamour, which contrasts her current role as a mother. Suggests Duffy’s fascination with her mother as she once was. Caesura creates the effect of a ‘snapshot’- a moment frozen in time. C= Duffy only daughter with 4 brothers- reason for close bond with mother. She IDEALISES her mother.
‘Her hair… takes on the light’
L= can be interpreted as symbolising heavenly light, illustrating that he perceives his mother IN AN IDEALISED WAY as an angelic, Madonna like figure. C= Causley had a strong bond with his mother and nursed her for 6 years until her death, which explains his idealisation of her.
‘The sky whitens as if lit by three suns’
Breaks the realism of the first 3 stanzas, becomes SURREAL. Suggestive of a heavenly or spiritual light. I= represents light from heaven so speaker being reunited with his parents OR the three suns symbolise the HOLY TRINITY- the father, son and the Holy Spirit.
‘Ghost’
L= metaphor. The person her mother once was is a ‘ghost’- it has died and belongs to the past. The red shoes- symbols of extroversion- are used to conjure up memories based on anecdotes on how her mother once was.
‘I see you clear as scent’
L= synaesthetic image suggests that, although the scene is just based on an anecdote her mother had shared with her, the scene feels immediate to the speaker; she feels as if she is there with her mother.
‘I wanted the bold girl’
L= mother was rebellious. Speaker admires this quality and wants to possess the person her mother once was; this is futile(pointless) as this was before the speaker existed.
‘My loud, possessive yell’
L= adjectives suggest speaker’s desire for her mother’s exclusive attention from birth. R= understands the demands of motherhood and how it affects the mother’s freedom and ability to be spontaneous; how it has changed her.
‘Leisurely,/ they beckon to me’
L= adverb represents the parents as content in the afterlife. Structurally, the line break creates a pause, emphasising their calmness; it suggests it will not be difficult or traumatic for the speaker to join them. The verb ‘beckon’ suggests their love for their son; they reassure that it won’t be ‘hard’ to join them. R= would find this moving and touching.
‘I’m not here yet’.
Caesura emphasises the contrast between the past, when she did not exist as was not of central importance to her mother.
R/I= may interpret speaker as self- centred- her mother’s life revolves around her. Alternatively, the speaker may also feel guilty that her birth robbed the mother of her freedom.
‘I had not thought it would be like this’
Single line stanza breaks quatrain pattern. Structurally implies he has crossed the divide( represented by the stanza break) from life into the afterlife.
L= pronoun ‘it’ is deliberately vague.
D= reflects fact that death is beyond linguistic representation.
