The Way My Mother Speaks Flashcards
I say her phrases to myself
Duffy writes in the first person and the reader is immediatley drawn to her personal thoughts and feelings. She links herself with her mother in a sentence that mixes ‘her phrases’ with ‘myself’ and ‘my head’. ‘Her’ is possessive suggesting the words belong to her mother but they are in ‘my head’ which shows they have a deep and personal bond.
too blue swapped for a cool grey
Duffy uses another contrast between the colour ‘blue’ and ‘grey’ to reflect both a real and metaphorical change. The move from blue to grey reflects the change from day to night. It also represents the change from child to adolescence. ‘Too blue’ connotes happiness and sunshine, ‘cool grey’ suggests the uncertainty of becoming an adult. Life is becoming darker.
For miles I have been saying/what like is it.
‘For miles’ emphasises the distance travelled. Again her mother’s voice emerges, the use of italics tells us that her mother is speaking. These phrases repeat themself in her head. She is not speaking them out loud, this shows us how much an effect her mother has had on her development: she is still within her thought processes.
Only tonight/ I am happy and sad
‘Only tonight’ asserts that this transition is a singular experience. She expresses contradictory,uncertain emotions. Perhaps she is sad about leaving her mother behind or even mourning the loss of her childhood. But she is also positive for what the future holds.
‘Like a child who stood at the end of summer/ and dipped a net/ a green erotic pond
She compares her feelings to this of moving from childhood to adulthood to the change of seasons. The delight and innocence of childhood is ending. There is a slight contradiction as ‘green’ has connotations of naivety while ‘erotic’ connotes a more adult theme. This juxtaposition could reflect the innocent child coming face to face with the wilder world.
I am homesick/ free in love with the way my mother speaks
She is homesick for her childhood, her past,her mother but she also feels free to establish her new identity, to stride forward, to continue travelling ‘down england’ and further. The line break just after ‘in love’leaves it hanging for a moment, as if she is ‘in love’ with a life, a love given to her earlier by her mother. The final line tells us that she is pleased to have such a bond with the past.
