She was born to a
Scottish mother and
Nigerian father, but was
adopted at birth and lived
with her adoptive parents
and their other adopted
child.
She has 5 published
collections of poetry for
adults along with
several collections for
children.
One of her
adult
collections
‘The adoption
papers’ won
several prizes.
She was awarded
and MBE in 2006
C.A.P
Context--The poem is from one
of Kays collections based on
experiences from her life. This
specific memory is clearly
explaining memories
surrounding her grandpa.
Audience--Most likely
adults or modern
audiences, maybe
older children.
Purpose--Mostly to entertain
the audience as it is quite a
playful poem. Also to
explore family relationships
and the nature of memories
Lexis
semantic field of food
'And Grandpa says, Och,
which rhymes with hough and
loch, Och Dont be daft'
The Scottish dialect gives the reader a sense of
where the poem actually came from and the
heritage left by her grandpa.
Kay cleverly shows the reader how
'och'is pronounced with 'hough
and loch'
Throughout the poem Kay uses minimal
negative words about her grandpa, this
displays the fondness she felt towards him.
repetition of 'the perfect size' shows how
proud she was of the soup.
poem is written in free verse
first person narrative
indicates that it is a personal
memory she feels, but this
doesn not limit it to her, its
could be relatable to anyone
who feels fondly of their
grandparents.
written in the present tense,
even though it is clearly not
happening now, showing the
narrator is reliving the fond
memory in her head.
Metaphors
The soup could stand as a metaphor for
him, saying that everything about him
was perfect nothing was out of place and
wrong with him; that nobody can replace
him or recreate him because he was one
of a kind.
kay compares the soup to a
sea, this implies that the soup
is now unreachable and vast -
'like a rich island in the middle
of the sea' line 8.
(lines 14-19) kay starts to realise that the soup wont
be there forever and this changes the tone of the
poem. It goes from being a happy and nostalgic poem
to a slightly sadder tone; this is when she realises
that her grandpa wont be there forever and she wont
have him to rely on constantly. she is also saying that
when he is gone she will still long to see him and
when he is gone nothing will be quite right because
the thing she loved is gone so she cant even bare to
try anything that ismeant to similar to avoid
destroying the memories that the soup has created
Repetition
'the perfect size' is repeated
on lines 2 and 3 suggestion
the childish voice of her and
depicting how perfect the
soup was to her
childish voice shown in
'No one makes soup like
my Grandpa's'
in the second stanza she uses 'grandpa' lots, this is making it
more personal to her, and showing how much she idolised
him. It also is making the soup a possession of her grandpa's
highlighting (again) that it cant be recreated by anyone.
Grammatical Features
The first stanza uses
minimal punctuation to
firstly make the poem
flow better and give it a
rhythm, and secondly to
give the idea of thoughts
popping into her head as
she writes it, which in
turn shows excitedment
there is only punctuation on lines 4-8, and this is only minimal.
rhetorical question on line - '..what are their
names?' - this is kay suddenly trying to remember a
key part of the recipie. It sounds like a thought that
you get on the tip of your tounge but cant quite
remember it
second stanza is filled with more punctuation
as she begins to fade away from the soup and
edge towards memories of her grandpa.
More of the lines
end with full stops
as if they are just
lone thoughts.