Summary In-depth analysis notes of 'Before You Were Mine' by Carol Ann Duffy
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English
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GCSE
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New GCSE English Literature AQA Poetry Guide
In-depth analysis of the poem 'Before You Were Mine' by Carol Ann Duffy from the AQA Poetry Anthology - Love & Relationships. Other poems from Cluster are available
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Daughter – Mother Relationship Direct Address - Can be
compared to ‘Mother, Any
Before You Were Mine
Carol Ann Duffy
Distance’. Similar ideas around
Attention of Detail - Brings the possessiveness and ownership
reality of the mother’s previous life of identity through “mine”.
alive. Emphasised through “polka-dot Title Analysis - Slightly misleading, perhaps
dress” - similar focus in ‘Eden Rock’. in order to highlight youthful, romantic life
her mother led prior to becoming a parent
Suggests the free affection I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on Metaphor - Reference to Marilyn Monroe.
that the mother showed in her Creates glamorous image of her mother, as she is
with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff. linked to an attractive movie star. May also hint
youth before the sense of
The three of you bend from the waist, holding
possession over the mother’s at a sense of tragedy - Monroe died young, perhaps
affections which comes with speaker is suggesting that motherhood has put an
each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement. end to her mother’s glamourous potential
having a baby
Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn. End-Stop Line - Emphasises the metaphorical
reference to ‘Marilyn’ Monroe. This allusion
Hyperbole - Again emphasises to Adjective - “fizzy” implies
implies glamour and attractiveness while also
mother’s strikingly beautiful image. bubbly energy, excitement and aging the mother (the Hollywood golden age?).
possibly a lighter happier ending.
Perspective - Speaker I’m not here yet. The thought of me doesn’t occur Metaphor - Suggests excitement
inserts herself into the as the happy endings of “movie
past of her mother as if in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows
tomorrows” are fantasy but can
she is there admiring her. the right walk home could bring. I knew you would dance be indulged by a young person as
like that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the close a genuine possibility.
Tonal Shift - The with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it’s worth it. Cyclical Nature of Relationships - Demonstrated
glamourous life of the when subject’s own mother is waiting for her,
mother fades into the past Juxtaposition - The speaker acknowledges showing speaker’s awareness of mother’s
Noun - “ghost” reinforces the claim over her mother - this cry for rebellious times, but inevitably the subject will
constant demand sharply contrasts from the adopt the role of the responsible, scolding parent.
Simile & Synaesthesia - The the death of the mother’s shrieks of pleasure from the friends before
mixing of senses gives the previous life.
impression of a strong sensory
power the speaker’s memory of The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?
her mother creating the idea that
this past identity is still highly I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics, Conversational Tone - The informal
important to both. and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Square rhetorical question shows the two
don’t adopt the traditional power
Light Imagery - Used throughout till I see you, clear as scent, under the tree, dynamic you may expect from a
poem enhancing the idea the traditional parent-child relationship.
mother’s sparkling image with its lights, and whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?
However, as the speaker is an adult
now, looking back, perhaps this
Role Reversal - The speaker seems to playfully Adjective - The theme of movie-star glamour shows more equality.
interrogate the mother in a position of maturity. continues however now the sacred objects are
Again, giving a sense of possessiveness. “relics” suggesting the death of mother’s Juxtaposition - “Cha cha cha!”
previous identity, while still showing it as being directly contrast with more
Themes - Returns same sense important and sacred although it is over. mundane visit to “Mass”,
of glamour surrounding mother. showing how the mother’s life
Also link to second stanza Cha cha cha! You’d teach me the steps on the way home from Mass, has changed course.
where her mother would “teach stamping stars from the wrong pavement. Even then
me the steps”, showing the Adjective - Direct link to first stanza.
marring of the two identities. I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere “wrong” implies that perhaps the
mother truly belonged in a youthful
Adjective - Continues theme to in Scotland, before I was born. That glamorous love lasts world full of possibility and that maybe
Hollywood glamour suggesting her where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine. this life is not what she excepted.
life should have been like a movie
stars (Marilyn?), yet she has a Verb - The list helps to celebrate the Foreshadowing - Turning point could
completely different life now. Caesura - Shows the daughter mother as still being an individual be foreshadowed in first stanza
recognises her mother’s
identity as it emphasises the with energy and life . She is the with reference her mother standing
Analysing Structure (A02) same person despite some changes at the “corner” with her friends.
turning point in mother’s life.
Focus & Movement inflicting her life e.g. motherhood
.
tition
Stanza 1
Shift in th
That glamouro e Third Stanza Contrast and Repeg
nc in
m is past - that ve us life fades into the • References to da & mixing of the
Much like ‘Eden Rock’, poement rsio Imagery of light sia)
connected to a spe cif ic mo mother becom n of the speaker’s •
ms to dancing show es a “ghost”, her senses (synaesthe ourous
in the past and also see e it s ar Ordinary VS Glam
ph
describe a photogra aker’s - her as “relics” of ae now described •
is an im ag e of the spe bygone era.
ing
mother as a teenager pos
wi th her fri en ds. Last Stanza Summary 1
Fin al stanz a unites the mother and The speaker talks directly to her mother about the life she had
First Half e senses before the speaker was born. The mother had friends and
Focuses on the glamourous, child in a dance, and in somod of the romantic interests, and - in photographic snapshots - her life
the past and present sel fho
youthful life of the speake stars” on a appears to have a cinematic glamour which is now lacking.
mother in Glasgow, before r’s mother as she “stamps onhaps Duffy
she different pavement. Per
had any children. past life the
shows that some of the the playful, Summary 2
in
mother led now lives on s with her The speaker seems to want to lay claim over her mother, even
loving relationship she ha. as she recognises that she is an individual who had a life
daughter now before she became a mother.
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