theme: Strong Bonds Flashcards
‘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 = Causley’s father died when he was seven; his memories based on photographs of father when younger R = this makes the poem moving and poignant 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?)
‘Marilyn’.
L= metaphor comparing her mother to Marilyn Monroe suggests her mother’s glamour, which contrasts with 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 angelic, Madonna-like figure. C = Causley had a strong bond with his mother and nursed her for six 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 = speaker reunited with parents in afterlife OR Holy Trinity.
Stream = symbolizes liminal space between life and afterlife that he must cross to join them.
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 of 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 has shared with her, the scene feels immediate to the speaker; she feels as if she is there with her mother.
‘I’m not here yet’.
Caesura emphasizes 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 her 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.
‘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 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.
‘before you were mine’
= refrain.
‘Leisurely/they beckon to me’
L= adverb represents his parents as content in the afterlife. Structurally, he line break creates a pause emphasizing 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 him that it won’t be ‘hard’ to join them. R= would find this moving and touching.
Umbrella sentence:
In both ‘Eden Rock’ and ‘Before You Were Mine’, the poets explore the strong bonds between parents and children.
TS1:
In both poems, the speakers’ strong bonds with their parents are evoked through photographs.
ts2:
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.
