“Before you were mine” is a composition written by a daughter about how she imagines her single mother’s life ten years before the child was born. The writer describes the photo of her mother with two of her friends. They “shriek at the pavement” and appear to be sharing a joke, young and lightsome (line 4). She sees that the thought of using a child some day doesn’t happen to her mom when your woman was young and had a lot of dreams.
Now remembering her own childhood, Duffy thinks of how your woman used to get her single mother’s red shoes and boots and imagines when her mother may have worn all of them.
She remembers how her mother utilized to teach her dance measures when your woman was a little girl. The composition is a four stanza one, each stanza being made from five lines, with some variation in length of line. The first two stanzas concentrate purely within the life from the mother ahead of the daughter came to be, whilst the third stanza clears with a mention of the the daughter’s birth and then moves to the daughter’s eyesight of her mother in her previous life, hence providing a hyperlink with the past stanzas.
Your fourth stanza starts with a recollection from the young one’s younger existence with her mother, then takes us back once again to the mom’s days of dancing. I consider that the language contributes to the mood of the poem. The poem can be written in first person story voice. There are plenty of references with her mother while very happy – “you have a good laugh / the bold lady winking in Portobello”, “you sparkle and waltz and laugh”(lines 13-15). The author’s mother’s lifestyle can be regarded as flashy.
Her mother is definitely likened to Marilyn Monroe: “Your polka-dot dress blows round the legs. Marilyn” (line 5). Duffy’s mother dreams of “fizzy, movie tomorrows” (line 7). The poem is drafted in the present tense, as if the actions of the doj of the image are taking place now. Perhaps in this way the poet attempts to make her mother’s earlier as true as possible. It seems juicy to learn a composition in which a girl imagines just how full of life and fun her mother must have been just before she was created.
Her admiration of her mother is definitely shown within a direct way, and phrases such as “shriek”, “sparkle” and “fizzy” picture the negligence of junior. Throughout, the poet is very possessive of her mom. References to her appear regularly: “I’m ten years away… “, “I’m not here yet… “, “I remember… ” (lines you, 6 and 12). The word “mine” looks in the name and the poem actually concludes with the same words because the title, like the poet person is securing her mom in a organization embrace of words.
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