Summary
Summary Reciprocities - Poem analysis
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Reciprocities by Cathal Lagan colorful and compact poem analysis, Past papers used.
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1Reciprocities
by Cathal Lagan
Reciprocities
for my mother
Summary
1. She gave me skeins of wool
2. To hold out (like a priest at Mass), In this narrative free verse, the speaker reflects on how he used to
3. With stern rubrics not to fidget, while she help his mother during her knitting sessions. He thinks about how
4. Wound it into a ball, unwinding me,
5. Unravelling my hands and arms, checking his mother would make him hold the skeins of wool so she could
6. My lapses with a gentle tug roll it into a ball. He is also reminded of the relationship they had.
7. When I wandered off through images
8. Her chat had made, for though He is now a writer, and his writing process reminds him of those
9. She kept the line between us taut childhood years. So, he compares his writing to his mother's
10. She kept my heart at ease with all her talk.
knitting. His mother benefitted from him just like he benefitted
11. And when her ball compacted grew, from his mother’s experience, commitment, talks and skill.
12. And my few strands fell limp away,
13. I knew there was no loss, for she
14. Would knit it back again to fit me perfectly.
15. But richer still, Tone and Mood
16. I see today these lines are drawn out from me
17. To knit through this faltering verse Appreciative: The speaker appreciates the
18. A thread of memory
lessons he leans from his mother. Nostalgic
19. Time has pulled away from consciousness.
and sentimental: The speaker feels nostalgic
and sentimental when he writes poetry.
, 2
A “skein” = loops of wool (possibly from an old jersey, which has been
unravelled to re-use the wool for another, new jersey). The loops must be CHARACTER: the mother is a frugal person,
rolled into a ball, for ease of knitting the new garment. possibly also implying that the speaker and his
mother lived in difficult circumstances, even
though re-using wool was not uncommon at the
Reciprocities time
for my mother
The verb, “gave”, hints at a firm instruction from
1. She gave me skeins of wool the mother to the speaker.
2. To hold out (like a priest at Mass),
Note the
3. With stern rubrics not to fidget, while she
enjambment
4. Wound it into a ball, unwinding me,
into line 2,
5. Unravelling my hands and arms, checking
linking with the
6. My lapses with a gentle tug
idea of the
7. When I wandered off through images
looping wool
8. Her chat had made, for though
and the ongoing
9. She kept the line between us taut
winding thereof.
10. She kept my heart at ease with all her talk.
11. And when her ball compacted grew,
12. And my few strands fell limp away,
13. I knew there was no loss, for she The speaker remembers how he helped his mother by holding
14. Would knit it back again to fit me perfectly.
the skeins of wool to wind it into a small ball so she could do
15. But richer still, her knitting. He details the process focussing on her mother’s
16. I see today these lines are drawn out from me
17. To knit through this faltering verse precision and attention to detail. He then compares that
18. A thread of memory
19. Time has pulled away from consciousness. whole process to that of him writing his poetry.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines reciprocity as a state of
Type and Form
mutual dependence. So, this poem is about mutual benefits.
The poem ‘Reciprocities’ is a narrative poem
with a free verse. It does not follow a specific The mother would be assisted by the boy when knitting. The
set of rules. The first stanza comprises 10 lines, boy has now grown up to be a man, and he now writes
the second stanza has 4 lines and stanza 3
comprises 5 lines. poetry. He now compares his writing to his mother’s knitting.
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