12241489
Description
Mind Map by Shannon Dhillon, updated more than 1 year ago
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Created by Shannon Dhillon
about 6 years ago
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Before You Were Mine -
Carol Ann Duffy
- Context
- Autobiographical
- Writing
about her
own
personal
experiences
- Perhaps
her own
mother
- Autobiographical
- Feelings and Attitudes
- her mother was
happiest during the
10 years before she
was born.
- She wanted to be
like this more
often, but realises
that her mum
was only really
fun-loving and
glamorous before
she was born.
- The narrator imagines her
mother when she was
younger, possible informed
by her mother’s own
memories and anecdotes.
- Narrator admires her
mum’s glamour and
her headstrong,
rebellious approach
to life
- She wishes
her mum was
still
fun-loving
and carefree
- her mother was
happiest during the
10 years before she
was born.
- Structure
- Beginning- having
fun with her
friends End-
walking with her
daughter
- Emphasises the
changes that time has
brought There’s a clear
division between
before and after the
poet was born
- Present tense
- trying to make her
mother's past as real
as possible
- trying to make her
mother's past as real
as possible
- Present tense
- Emphasises the
changes that time has
brought There’s a clear
division between
before and after the
poet was born
- ‘I’m 10 years
away.’ ‘I’m not
here yet’ ‘The
decade ahead’
- Each first 3 stanzas
start with a reminder
of the distance in time
between the narrator’s
birth and her mum’s
youth and fun
- Each first 3 stanzas
start with a reminder
of the distance in time
between the narrator’s
birth and her mum’s
youth and fun
- ‘Before I was born.’
- Caesura
- Emphasises that
the narrator’s
birth was the
turning point in
her mum’s life
- Emphasises that
the narrator’s
birth was the
turning point in
her mum’s life
- Caesura
- Beginning- having
fun with her
friends End-
walking with her
daughter
- Exciting Language
- describe how
exciting, fun and
glamorous the
narrator’s mum’s
life was before the
narrator was born
- ‘that glamorous
love lasts where
you sparkle and
waltz and laugh
- Visual Imagery
- Lexical Field
- ‘that glamorous
love lasts where
you sparkle and
waltz and laugh
- ‘Your polka-dot
dress blows round
your legs. Marilyn.’
- Compares her mother with
Marilyn Monroe, a
glamorous and desirable
film star
- Compares her mother with
Marilyn Monroe, a
glamorous and desirable
film star
- ‘the fizzy,
movie
tomorrows’
- Figurative
language that
suggest energy
and exciting
possibilities
- She may have
hoped for a
life like a
movie heroine
- She may have
hoped for a
life like a
movie heroine
- Figurative
language that
suggest energy
and exciting
possibilities
- Repetition
of
‘and’
- Emphasises how
many energetic
qualities the
narrator thinks her
mother had
- Stresses her mum’s
defiance and energy
- romanticises her mother and
the glamorous life she used to
lead.
- romanticises her mother and
the glamorous life she used to
lead.
- Stresses her mum’s
defiance and energy
- Emphasises how
many energetic
qualities the
narrator thinks her
mother had
- describe how
exciting, fun and
glamorous the
narrator’s mum’s
life was before the
narrator was born
- Possessive Language
- The speaker believes that when
she was born, she took control of
her mum, and took away her
freedom
- This reverses the
typical idea of
children wanting to
break free from
their parents
- The child does not let
go of the parent ; the
child owns the parent
- The child does not let
go of the parent ; the
child owns the parent
- Here, it’s the child
stopping the parent
from having fun The
child cannot let go of the
parent
- ‘before you
were mine’
- Repetition of the
word ‘mine’
throughout the
poem and in the
title
- Emphasises the
difference
between then and
now It also
develops the
possessive tone
- Repetition of the
word ‘mine’
throughout the
poem and in the
title
- ‘till I see you,
clear as scent’
- Simile
- Show that her
imagination is
so vivid, that
she can smell
her mother
- Simile
- The speaker believes that when
she was born, she took control of
her mum, and took away her
freedom
- Colloquial
Language
- Creates an imaginary
conversation with her
mother Suggests that they
have a close, familiar,
informal relationship
- Was the best one, eh?’
- ‘And whose
small bites
on your
neck,
sweetheart?’
- Creates a
conversational
tone
- Sounds like something
a parent would say to
their child But here,
it’s the other way
around
- Creates an imaginary
conversation with her
mother Suggests that they
have a close, familiar,
informal relationship
- Key Themes
- Parent
and
child
- Admiration
- Nostalgia
- Memory
- Parent
and
child
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