Before You Were Mine

Themes:

- family relationships

- time

- guilt

- disillusionment

"I'm ten years away"

"I'm not here yet"

"The decade ahead"

First three stanzas begin with a reminder of the distance in time between the speakers birth and her mother's youth and fun

'I'm' = speaker is central to her mother's life

'pals' 'Ma'

colloquial language - makes the story more personal

'Marilyn.'

reference to Marilyn Monroe - a Hollywood actress who was the epitome of beauty and glamour in the 50s

1) She died young and had a tragic death - death of life and freedom

'bend'

'holding'

'shriek'

'Your polka-dot dress blows around your legs'

Reference to Marilyn Monroe in the film 'Seven Year Itch'

the speaker sees her mother to be emulating Marilyn Monroe and feels guilty that by being born, she will take that away from her

'the ballroom with the thousand eyes'

1) disco ball

2) 500 people are looking at her

'fizzy, movie tomorrows'

lived in hope, life was soaked in exuberance

- contrasts to when she had her daughter it had been partly taken away from her

'your Ma stands at the close with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it's worth it.'

the speaker admires her mother's rebellious nature

colloquial language - seems like she's speaking to a friend

'loud, possessive yell'

she occupied most of her mother's life

'high-heeled red shoes, relics'

- Glamour, red heels associated with youth and sexuality

- Relic

1) antique, the mother's glamour days are over

- but she still keeps them - perhaps her daughter can relive her youth

'ghost clatters toward me over George Square'

death of mother's youth (not her mother)

George Square = in Glasgow, where Duffy lived up to when she was 6

'clear as scent'

Simile is nostalgic and shows the speaker evoking the memory of her mother

Appeals to the sense to show that her imagination is so vivid that she can smell her mother

'whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?'

Rhetorical question directed to the mother.

Colloquial language: child is addressing their mother, but it normally is the other way around

shows their closeness.

'on the way home from mass'

AO3: Duffy was raised Catholic

'stamping stars on the wrong pavement'

idea that the mother alluded to something greater

her life took a downwards trajectory when she had her daughter and the speaker feels a bit of guilt for that

'sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine'

syndetic listing

- reflects child's fascination

- triad of verbs conveying energy and vitality

one-sided viewpoint:

we only hear from the daughter and how she thinks she has shaped her mother's life - she can only see the negatives she caused

- if we heard from the mother she would undoubtedly have some positives to say about the speaker coming into her life

Comparisons:

- Love Songs In Age

- Reference Back

Critic quote: lost loves

Katharine Viner - Duffy's poetry was filled with lost loves and yearning for the past