Before You Were Mine - Carol Ann Duffy

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

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Before You Were Mine - Carol Ann Duffy

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