Main poems:

Small Female Skull - ""I see the scar where I fell for sheer love down treacherous stairs, and read that shattering day like Braille." - breakdown of relationship is a memory, Duffy remembers the damage it did
The Cliche Kid - implies Duffy has been dumped? - "don't make me pine for that first love"
The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team - "my stale wife", stale refers to something that is decaying, perhaps their relationship is rotting? The persona also doesn't mention his wife's name, but he does say "my name was in red on Lucille Green's jotter" - is Lucille Green more important than his wife?
First Love - memory of first love, feels comfortable to remember ("I speak your name after a silence of years")
Close
Nostalgia
Mean Time - talks about the aftermath of a break up, "there are words I never would have said nor heard you say" refers to an argument that perhaps caused the break up, narrator wants to rewind time to be with their lover again.
Before You Were Mine - family based relationship, child's perspective, talking about her mother's life before she was born. ("I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on"), child expresses guilt for taking away her mother's past life from her, as she is creating the gap between her mother's past and her present.

Compare:

Contrast:

The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form Team is different from the other poems, as the relationship is already broken, rather than in the process of breaking.
Close talks about a relationship that is forming, whereas First Love talks about a relationship that has long since passed.
Before You Were Mine and Mean Time both describe different types of relationships.

	Created by Summer Pearce almost 8 years ago

A-Level (Year 1) (Year 1) English Language and Literature (Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy) Note on Theme Overview: Mean Time, created by Summer Pearce on 11/01/2017.