The Way My Mother Speaks Flashcards
1
Q
“in my head”
A
- In tune with the train’s rhythm, the persona repeats her mother’s phrases herself - ‘in my head’ - suggesting the closeness she feels to her mother.
2
Q
“under the shallows of my breath.”
A
- The phrase ‘under the shallows of my breath’ indicates that her breath is shallow (and therefore rapid), suggesting nervousness, conscious of not wanting to be overheard, reinforcing her feelings of isolation.
3
Q
“The day and ever. The day and ever.”
A
- The use of italics conveys that the words are being spoken.
- The repetition captures the rhythm of the moving train as she recites one of her mother’s sayings.
4
Q
“this slow evening”
A
This transferred epithet of “this slow evening’ - where ‘slow’ refers to the train rather than the evening, emphasises the train’s tedious progress.
5
Q
“goes down England browsing”
A
-The word choice of ‘goes down England’ and ‘browsing’ highlights the slowness of the journey.
6
Q
“too blue swapped for a cool grey.”
A
- “too blue” suggests her sunny life at home which is being swapped for the ‘cool grey’, with its connotations of dullness or threat of the prospect ahead; her apprehension, suggested in the first verse, is developed here.
7
Q
“For miles i have been saying what like is it”
A
- She hears her mother’s voice asking ‘What like is it’, the Scots version of ‘what is it like’.
- She has been saying this phrase ‘For miles’, which suggests a trance-like state as she thinks about her home and her mother.
8
Q
“Nothing is silent. Nothing is silent.”
A
- The position of the contradiction and the double negative not only suggests that in her confused thoughts she still hear her home life,
- But the repetition also captures the rhythm of the train which seems to echo the rhythm of her thoughts, always with her.
9
Q
“What is like it”
A
- The repetition of the quote refrain in her head.
10
Q
“Only tonight I am happy and sad like a child”
A
- The word ‘only’ means here ‘on this one occasion’, on this particular train.
- She is both confused and excited; she is young, embarking on a journey into adulthood, with all the associated contradictory emotions:
- ‘I am happy and sad’; the simile like a child’ captures her feelings of tentativeness.
11
Q
“end of summer”
A
- The metaphor here signals the end of those long happy days at home with her mother.
12
Q
“dipped a net into a..”
A
- ‘Dipped’ again conveys her coyness, wariness of venturing into ‘a green, erotic pond’.
13
Q
“The day and ever. The day and ever.” (near the end)
A
- The enjambement and the repetition of her mother’s saying again captures the rhythm of the train as well as the rhythm of her thoughts.
14
Q
“I am homesick, free, in love with the way my mother speaks.”
A
- The final two lines express the contradictions and confusions developed throughout the poem.
- ‘homesick’ - she misses home already; ‘free’ - she no longer experiences restraints and the need to conform.
- But the final enjambement ‘in love / with the way my mother speaks’ not only expresses her love for her mother, but her love for her roots and her mother’s voice in her head.
15
Q
“restful shapes moving”
A
- The ‘restful shapes moving’ is an oxymoron: the train is moving but the scenery is stationary or maybe the scenery is moving while she sits still - the image conveys her confusion and uncertainty.
