Before You Were Mine I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff. The three of you bend from the waist, holding each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement. Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn. I'm not here yet. The thought of me doesn't occur in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows the right walk home could bring. I knew you would dancelike that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the close with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it's worth it. The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh? I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics, and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Square till I see you, clear as scent, under the tree, with its lights, and whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart? Cha cha cha! You'd teach me the steps on the way home from Mass, stamping stars from the wrong pavement. Even then I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere in Scotland, before I was born. That glamorous love lasts where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.

Duffy’s autobiographical poem LO: to understand the love and relationship in ‘Before you were mine’ Duffy’s autobiographical poem AO1: What’s the poem about? There are 4 types of love: Duffy’s love for her mum Her mum’s love of life and friends in the past Her ‘sweetheart’ love Her mum’s love for Duffy

Context AO3 Does a mother typically look like Marilyn Monroe? How might the idea of the American Dream fit with this poem? What sort of life style would a woman from the 1940s have if this is what they wore..? This is George Square in Glasgow… how does the fact that this is a real place impact our reading of the poem?

Focus areas… Language: Exciting language Possessive language Are memories always accurate? What is the impact of this on the poem? AO2 focus 1 Form and Structure: 4 stanzas Quintets Enjambment and caesura (last stanza) Time shifts Setting first line and last line Before and after Duffy was born AO2 focus 2 Language: Exciting language Possessive language Colloquial language AO1 and AO2 focus 3 Admiration: from the daughter of the mother Self- Criticism: the speaker blames herself for taking her mum’s freedom- AO1 and AO2 focus 4 NOSTALGIA: wishes her mum was like she used to be This is ironic as it is impossible for her mum to be like she was before Duffy was born because otherwise Duffy wouldn’t exist! FEEDBACK

Q1- what evidence is there to suggest that the mother’s life was better before her child was born? Choose your top 2 quotes. Q2- Why do you think the speaker creates such vivid images of her mother as a young woman? Q3- What is the effect of describing the mother’s shoes as ‘relics’? Quick Think- Write- Trade