Before you were mine Quotes

BP: admiration, change in parent

M___. (admiration)

Marilyn.

• comparing her mom to Marilyn Monroe a famous icon of beauty demonstrates how she views her mom as beautiful and fashionable

relics (admiration)

high-heeled red shoes, relics

• high heels are very glamorous and so could reflect her adventures of her youth

• colour red connotes bright and bold, perhaps her mother was like that

• noun ‘relics’ make them appear very ancient, almost as if that past life of her mothers is long gone and dead, her mother has seemed to lost a special part of her with only photos to remember it by

In the ballroom with the _____ (admiration + change in parent)

In the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows the right walk home could bring

• long listing sentence displays her mothers freedom and exciting younger life, there were so many things she could do

• Perhaps the use of ‘movies’ and comparison to Marilyn Monroe, which connotes stories and fiction could be interpreted as a contrast to the present harsh reality of taking care of her daughter Duffy and the challenges of being a mother

decade (change in parent)

The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?

• the regretful tone could possibly imply that Duffy feels responsible for her mother losing her carefree nature

• phrase ‘loud, possessive yell’ show how demanding children are, they require a lot of effort and end up making the parents sacrifice a lot, like their freedom

• Duffy here admits that her mothers life before her was better

pavement (change in parent)

the wrong pavement

• this imagery of a pavement contrasts to the ‘right walk home’ in stanza 2. This metaphor could be Duffy suggesting that her mother made the wrong choice having a child and how her life would’ve been better and more free without the restraints of motherhood

• This idea of pavements could reflect the different paths a person can take in life, Duffy is looking over her mother’s path and seeing how choosing a child made her mother change