Paula Meehan - LC Poetry Quotes

Mother would spare me sixpense

BW: Shows how Meehan grew up in poverty - one euro was a lot for her mother to give her. Would implies she does this many times during her childhood

Don’t be talking to strange men / I’d dash from the ghosts

BW: her mother tells her to be careful of men while Meehan would run away from ghosts (childhood innocence) (direct speech - authenticity, intimacy, powerful imagery)

Gardiner Street / Rosebowl Bar / blown \[bulb\] / I envied each soul in the hot interior

BW: where she lived in a tenement \[and a bar\] and images to show the poverty - broken light, the pub is warm, while her home is cold

I’d wave up to women at sills or those lingering in dorways / \[while\] men \[are\] heading out for the night

BW: gender division - hint at prostitution or men can go out during the night while women have to stay home with the kids

But even in the rain I was happy

BW: she is enjoying the adventure no matter the weather (she is optimistic, feeling adrenaline and enjoying the responsibility)

Tell yer Ma

BW: colloquial language, the winkle seller knows Meehans mother

newspaper twists / bulging fat with winkles / proudly home, like torches

BW: the conclusion of the hero’s journey - return with the elixir. simile and contrast between the dark night and her triumph

money to burn \[or\] burning a hole in your pocket

HL: either of these phrases bring back this painful memory. foreshadows the dramatic actions of her mother later in the poem.

crouched by the fire / while Zeus and Hera battle it out

HL: they are poor, she is cuddling up to the fire to try keep warm. she could also be afraid as her parents are fighting again (classical allusion)

Sean MacDermott Street / Cosmo Snooker Hall

HL: place names give credibility to the story

for his every thunderbold / she had the killing glance

HL: parents fighting using their weapons (nod to domestic abuse?) (classical allusion - elevates their argument to the grandeur and scale of a mythical battle between two gods)

she’ll see her fancyman / and raise him to \[gambling\] / he’ll raise her airs and graces / or the mental state of her siblings

HL: an extended metaphor of a poker match in which the parents play their best hand to win - father accuses her of being unfaithful, she him to gambling, he feels above her and that her family is crazy

net / most balls / are lobbed over my head / \[their\] bitter words

HL: likens the fights to a tennis match, perhaps to process the trauma. she is young and doesn’t totally understand what is happening

she straightened each rumpled pound note / she threw the lot in the fire

HL: shows Zeus is careless, and Hera decides to break free from the toxic relationship (dramatic)

the flames were blue and pink and green /

HL: power of three, the fire links back to the phrases at the beginning of the poem

‘its not enough’ / and we all knew it wasn’t / the last astonishing word

HL: he did not bring home enough money, but also this refers to their marriage and familial relationship, she finishes the relationship

heart / Grant us / knock / track / back

PCL: instances of repetition in the poem. 1 - invokes the loving support of the community, 2. makes the poem feel prayer-like and meditative, 3. alliteration - makes the stanza feel jarring and agressive

grant us / the memory of trees / the forest’s silence / the comfort of snow

PCL: nature imagery is associated with peace, spirituality and healing - the nature is used to enhance the effect of asking for calm and a moment of peace

the scream, the siren, the knock / the needle in its track / the knife in the back

PCL: contrast from peace and tranquility to violence, addiction, suffering. the ck sound makes it more aggressive and violent.

let us hear / the song / the breath

PCL: replaces the aforementioned violent imagery

The streets that defeated them / led them astray / gave them visions and dreams / that delivered nothing / the streets we brought them home to

PCL: local streets depicted as places of cruelty and complacency that have failed, ignored and destroyed the children - metaphor for the drugs that lie that drugs bring happiness

let their names be the holiest prayers

PCL: Meehan wishes that the victims have dignity in their death

bitter / wind / seeds of ice

SVGS: images of the cold conditions the statue must endure

tucked up safe / without as much as a star / to ease my vigil

SVGS: while the whole town is tucked up asleep warm in their beds, the statue is forced to stand out in the cold to watch over them

where men hunt eachother / \[in the\] various names of God

SVGS: men fighting and using religion as an valid excuse to justify their violence

Mother of all this grief / their prayers / blaze a moment, then wink out

SVGS: even though she must carry the grief of mankind, she is unable to do anything for those who pray to her: their prayers are like sparks that die in cold and darkness

my being / cries out to be incarnate / and tousled in a honeyed bed

SVGS: the statue yearns to be flesh and bones and to have sex

she pushed her secret out into the night / far from the town tucked up in little scandals / i did not move / lift a finger / intercede with heaven

SVGS: the “child” of “fifteen summers” gave birth at the statues feet, away from the town packed with pettiness and prejudices - however the statue is unable to do anything as it is just a statue

on a night like this I number the days to the solstice

SVGS: the statue turns to the son, abandoning God and religion

1963 / Miss Shannon

EMBP: creates a sense of place and time → authenticity and personality

Attend to you books, girls / or / you’ll end up / in the sewing factory

EMBP: direct speech, the teacher tells the girls they will end up as factory workers if they don’t work - girls - class of girls only

those words ‘end up’ robbed the labour of its dignity

EMBP: Meehan felt that the teachers words were dehumanizing - the women who work in factories are doing their best to make ends meet and the work is not hard

the teacher was right / but I saw them / trussed like chickens

EMBP: she took the teacher’s words on board and worked hard to follow her dreams, but she now, even as an adult, believes her words are dehumanising also simile

words could pluck you / leave you naked / your shiny feathers all gone

EMBP: extended metaphor of preparing chickens which leave the workers vulnerable, restricted and exposed