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Mother How old is your mum? What are her hobbies?
What food does she like? What was her first job? What was she like at school? What were her hobbies growing up? Where was she born? Do you have any pictures of her in her childhood?
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Class feedback on: Mine
Possessive pronoun Selfish Loving Treasured Controlled Owned Not letting go Loved
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Class feedback on: Fizzy
Happy Sensations Childhood Fuzzy Celebration Hyper/ Dizzy Champagne Bubbles
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Class feedback on: Movie
Celebrities Fun Cuddles Cinema Premiers Magical Actors/ Actresses Luxury
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Class feedback on: Tomorrows
Fresh start Seize the day Unknown Uncertainty Hope Pluralised (many tomorrows) Mystery Future
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Movie star (‘7 year itch’)
Sexy Model Movie star (‘7 year itch’) Past Pretty Provocative Glamour Line 5: Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn. Famous Purity Beautiful Heart-throb Fashion icon Hot Dressy
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Line 7: in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, Music Old school 60s/80s Memories Boogies John Travolta Lights Middle school Celebration Flares Night Fever Dance Glam Glitter Sparkles Party Disco
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No specific Reference but is this what Duffy’s mother was hoping for in the “movie tomorrows the right walk home could bring”? Lines 7-8 Clark Gable Handsome Sexy Boyfriend Gentleman 40s/ 50s Olden films Well groomed Good posture
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Line 12: those high-heeled red shoes, relics (very old/ precious)
Bold Fancy Attention grabbing Old-fashioned Special occasion “There’s no place like home” Sequin Ruby red *Connotation Dorothy Wizard of Oz Movie Singing Musicals Sparkles Jazz Dancing Dressing up
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Line 13: George Square (Glasgow) i.e. where Duffy now is
Movie Wealthy Pretty Ancient Very old Classy History Past Line 18: refers to Portobello in Edinburgh where the “bold girl” grew up
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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 dance like 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.
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Poetic Devices A Use of 1st person B Use of 2nd person C Present tense
D Onomatopoeia E Alliteration F Contrast right-wrong G Question H Rhetorical Question I Sight, sound, smell 1 Cha cha cha - stamping stars 2 decade…best one, eh? 3 clatter - sparkle 4 I’m not here yet 5 You bend from the waist 6 walk – pavement 7 Whose small bites…? 8 polka-dot – yell – scent 9 Your ghost clatters…
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Possible Effect/ Explanation
Poem Before You Were Mine Poet Carol Ann Duffy Content The poet imagines what her mother’s (Marilyn) life was like before she became a mother. The poet imagines she had fun with friends and led a carefree existence, full of hope. Themes Family relationships Love (mother and daughter). Memories/ the past Feminism. Point (technique) Evidence (quotation) Possible Effect/ Explanation Alliteration ‘Cha cha cha’ Adds to the liveliness; dance ‘Stamping stars’ Exciting imagery – walk of fame Contrast right-wrong ‘the right walk’, ‘the wrong pavement’ Suggests mother’s dreams unfulfilled as she teaches Duffy to dance Film imagery ‘Marilyn’, ‘high-heeled red shoes’ ‘wrong pavement’ (Stamping stars’) Emphasises mother’s dreams when young Language of hope ‘fizzy, movie tomorrows’ Optimistic, positive, exciting language Onomatopoeia ‘clatters’, ‘sparkles’ Heightens senses for the reader Past tense ‘Even then I wanted…’ Reminder that this is in the past Personification ‘ballroom with a thousand eyes’ Disco ball or the eyes of potential suitors Possessive pronouns ‘mine’ ‘my’ Suggests that mother is owned by daughter Present tense ‘Your ghost clatters’ Experience seems to be happening now – Past written about as the present Question ‘whose small bites … sweetheart? Suggests mother’s mischief when younger Rhetorical question ‘The decade ahead of …best one, eh?’ Suggests mother’s happiest times when young – informal ‘eh’ suggests intimacy Synaethesia ‘polka-dot’, ‘yell’, clear as scent’ Senses stimulated in poet’s imagination Written 1st & 2nd person ‘I’m not here’, ‘You bend from…’ Personal experience, talks to mum direct
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Form and structure The form of the poem is conventional: blank verse (unrhymed pentameters) stanzas, all of five lines. Regularity could reflect time itself. A few lines run on, but most end with a pause at a punctuation mark. Note the frequent switches from past to present both in chronology and in the tenses of verbs - the confusion here seems to be intended, as if for the poet past and present are equally real and vivid.
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Do you agree or disagree with the statements below? Explain why.
The poet is thinking about her mother, Marilyn, twenty years before she became a mother. This poet uses time in a complicated way in the poem. She moves from the past to the present and back again. Duffy imagines her mother as a teenager and imagines that she was disobedient and a rebel. Line 7 says, ‘the ballroom with the thousand eyes.’ This is describing the glittering mirror ball suspended from the ceilings in dance halls. Lines 7 and 8 say, ‘the fizzy, movie tomorrows the right walk home could bring.’ This means that the mother was always hoping to meet her dream man on her nights out. The poet thinks that the best years of her mother’s life were when she was looking after her as a baby. In line 13 Duffy says, ‘and now your ghost clatters toward me.’ This means that she is remembering her mother how she used to be in the past, before she was a mother. In the last stanza Duffy says that her mother has changed a lot since she became a mother and she is hardly the same person. Duffy thinks that this is a bad thing. This poem is about the joys of motherhood This poem is about shattered dreams.
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