ENGLISH LITERATURE GCSE

English Literature

Before You Were Mine

For some background about the poet, see the Context section of We Remember Your Childhood Well.

Subject matter

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Before You Were Mine

I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh onwith your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.The three of you bend from the waist, holdingeach other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.

I'm not here yet. The thought of me doesn't occurin the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrowsthe right walk home could bring. I knew you would dancelike that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the closewith a hiding for the late one. You reckon it's worth it.

The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics,and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Squaretill I see you, clear as scent, under the tree,with its lights, and whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?

Cha cha cha! You'd teach me the steps on the way home from Mass,stamping stars from the wrong pavement. Even thenI wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewherein Scotland, before I was born. That glamorous love lastswhere you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.

The poet is talking to her mother, having seen a photo of her mother as a teenager.

Picture courtesy of Katya Knyazeva

• She describes the photo of her mother standing laughing with two of her friends.
• She knows that the thought of having a child one day doesn't occur to her mother when young, when she was wrapped up in a world of dances and teenage dreams.
• Now remembering her own childhood, the poet thinks of how she used to play with her mother's red shoes and imagines when her mother might have worn those shoes to meet a boyfriend in George Square (in Glasgow).
• She remembers how her mother used to teach her dance steps when she was a child - yet even back then, the young poet wished she could have known her mother when still young and carefree, before she was a mother - 'Before you were mine'.

Structure and Language

Structure

The poem is written in four equal stanzas [stanza: A group of lines of poetry that make up a unit - like a paragraph in a piece of prose; a verse. ] of five lines each. How does this help you to 'see' the poem?

• It may help you to visualise photos in an album, set out regularly over a page.
• It may help you to realise the regularity of time passing. (The poem keeps reminding us that ten years after the photo was taken, the happy, bold teenager had become a mother.)

Language

Picture courtesy of Snaethor Sigurbjorn Halldorsson

Think about how the language contributes to the mood of the poem. Here are some points to consider:

• There are many references to her mother as happy and bright - "you laugh / the bold girl winking in Portobello" ..."you sparkle and waltz and laugh"
• Life back then is seen as very glamorous. Her mother is likened to Marilyn Monroe and goes to a dance where a glitter ball hangs - "the thousand eyes". Her mother dreams of "fizzy, movie tomorrows" and she imagines her mother meeting a boyfriend "under the tree, with its lights".
• There is contrast [contrast: A description of all the differences between two things (in this case, two texts). ]between her mother's life as a teenager and as a mother of the young poet. The poet assumes her mother's life was better before her own "possessive, loud yell" was heard. The phrase "I'm not here yet" sounds almost like a warning to her teenage mother-to-be that the fun will end when she arrives.
• The poem is written in the present tense [tense: The verb formation that describes the time at which the action occurred, eg past, present or future. ], as if the events of the photo are happening now. Why do you think this is? Is the poet trying to make her mother's past as real as possible?
• The poet has a very confident, assertive voice, and makes definite statements: "I'm not here yet". She speaks to her mother in a familiar way: "The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?"

Imagery and Sound

Couples dancing

The poem is dominated by the image of the family snap, the dog-eared photo that turns up many years after the event in a shoe-box or album, and leads to the (imaginary?) conversation recorded in this poem. Interestingly, there is no actual mention of this photo; but we can see it clearly in the description of the three-girls-out-on-the-town scene in stanza [stanza: A group of lines of poetry that make up a unit - like a paragraph in a piece of prose; a verse. ] 1.

The poet deploys a great deal of glittering light to evoke the excitement of carefree teenage existence: the ballroom "fizzes"with light; the tree under which the mother is kissed has "lights" in it; mother and child "stamp stars" from the pavement as they cha-cha home from Mass; life before motherhood waltzes and"sparkles".

Sound

The poem is written to sound as if the poet is talking to her mother, so the poet follows the patterns of ordinary speech. Many phrases begin with I, as if the poet wanted to assert her presence even before she was a presence: 'I'm ten years away .. I knew you would dance like that.'

Attitude, Tone and Ideas

Much of the meaning of a poem is conveyed by the attitude it expresses toward its subject matter. 'Attitude' can be thought of as a combination of the poet's tone of voice, and the ideas he or she is trying to get across to the reader.

A good way to decide on the tone of a poem is to work out how you would read it aloud. How would you read this poem?

• admiringly, and with gratitude for the way her mother livened up her childhood - 'You'd teach me the steps on the way home from Mass'
• wistfully, dwelling on the poet's own memories ('I remember my hands in those red high-heeled shoes') and imaginings ('your ghost clatters towards me')
• ironically - contrasting the short-lived glamour of her mother's teenage life with the hard reality of motherhood
• affectionately - almost a love poem to her mother

Any of these tones would work. In fact the tonetone: The mood or manner of a text or part of a text. The author's 'tone of voice' or way in which they expect to be understood. The emotional load carried by a text. shifts subtly from one to another, ending on a note of enduring love between daughter and mother - "That glamorous love" that lasts.

Ideas

Picture courtesy of David Williams

The following ideas are all contained within the poem. Which do you think come across most strongly?

• The poet romanticises her mother and the glamorous life she used to lead.
• The poet longs to see her mother as she once was, before she was tied down with motherhood.
• The poet recognises that all mothers have mothers - her mother's mother used to 'stand at the close with a hiding for the late one', perhaps as the poet's mother now watches out for her...
• The poet is re-examining her own feelings as a daughter.

Comparison

In the exam, you will be required to write about several poems, some pre-1914 and some post-1914. To which poems would you compare Before You Were Mine? There will be a number of ways in which the poems can be compared, and you may well be able to think of ones which we have not!

Poet and poem	What to look for in your comparison
Clarke:Catrin	Both poems are a conversation between a mother and child, but in Catrin it is the mother, not the child, who is speaking. Both poems describe memories of family; but Catrin focuses on the creative tension, the 'love and conflict' between child and parent
Jonson: On my first Sonne	Again a conversation between parent and child; again a kind of love poem Duffy's poem takes pleasure in the continuing relationship between child and parent, Jonson's poem is an elegy (lament) for his dead son
Blake:Little Boy Lost / Found	In part this too is a conversation between son and father; but instead of real memories of a real family, this relationship is symbolic of something else - that between man and God. The language is much less like real conversation than either the Clarke or the Jonson poems

Now try a Test Bite

Before You Were Mine: Test

Read this question carefully. It is similar to the type of question you will be asked in the exam.

Sample Question

Question

Explore the ways that Carol Ann Duffy reflects on her mother's past and shows her affection for her in Before You Were Mine.

In answering this question you might comment on:

• how language is used
• the form and structure

Now have a go at answer the question, just as you would do in the exam.

• Allow yourself ten minutes.
• Remember Point - Quote - Comment (Make a point, support it with a quotation, and then explain how the quote reinforces the point you are making. )

When you've finished, hit Next to look at some sample answers to this question...

Before You Were Mine: Test (sample answers)

Below are some sample answers which examiners would mark at different grades.

Answer 1

The ballroom with the thousand eyes sets a very romantic scene and we can understand how the poet's mother would have been excited to go there and risk staying out late.

As well as illustrating how the light played on the mirrorball, sending light across the dancefloor, the thousand eyes could refer to the eyes of five hundred potential suitors (real or imaginary) standing round watching, which would have enhanced the excitement even more.

Throughout, the poet is very possessive of her mother. References to her appear constantly (I'm ten years away... I'm not here yet... I remember...). The word Mine appears in the title and the poem actually concludes with the same words as the title, as if the poet is locking her mother in a firm embrace of words.

Examiner's Comment

This answer would be of a Grade A standard.

Answer 2

The line I see you, clear as scent is difficult to understand, because you can't see scent. I think it means that the poet has imagined what her mum must have looked like, waiting by the tree, so clearly that she can almost smell the scene. Also, scent is quite a romantic word - maybe her mum wore scent when she met her boyfriend.

The fact that the poet names her mother's friends, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff (which sound like typical names from those times) help us believe in what she is writing. It is more personal - we feel we can get to know her mother's pals too.

Examiner's Comment

This answer would be of a Grade C standard.

Answer 3

The poet's mum used to imagine herself having as a perfect life, as if she was in a film - fizzy, movie tomorrows, if she met the right boy.

The poet says that her mother looked a bit like Marilyn Monroe in her polka-dot dress, which is interesting because her mother probably dreamed of being like Marilyn.

Examiner's Comment

This answer made points which would be of a Grade E standard.

If your answer was closest to Answer 1 - well done! If not, it might be a good idea to look back over the Revision Bite.

Resources:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAF4167898B5E5DFA