Before You Were Mine

Nouns - open class

Human anatomy:

• “Waist, knees, eyes, hands, neck, girl” → youthful energy + physicality

“Sweetheart” → role reversal, informal + loving

Verbs - open class

• Dynamic verbs = Idealistic + joyful

• “Laugh, bend, holding, shriek, blows, dance, stands, yell, clatters, winking, sparkle, waltz, laugh

  • Mother was fun + dynamic but isn’t anymore

• Most verbs in the last line “sparkle and waltz and laugh”

Pattern: First and last verb = laugh

Deviation: “clatters” → violent, cacophonous auditory imagery

Voice + Register + Deixis + Structure:

Voice:

First person - Feels guilty about “possessing” her mother

Pronouns:

• Second person

• Informal mode of address

• Shows close bond between mother and daughter

Register:

Conversational + familial register → relaxed talking to her mother

This feature of spoken register gives the poem its voice

“Sweetheart” → close + loving

Deixis:

Proximal Deixis: “I’m not here yet” → reflects close bond = only they know where that is

Structure:

“I’m” structured away from “You” reflects the distance between mother + daughter

Adjectives

Heavy premodifying adjectives: 

• Mother’s life: fun + exciting

  • Fizzy, high-heeled red, bold, glamorous

• Daughter: loud, possessive, wrong

Semantics

Semantic field of glamour + joy

• Laugh, fizzy, glamorous

Shriek + laugh = auditory imagery → happiness

Repetition of “Before you were mine” emphasises how possessive the daughter feels over her mother/her guilt + role reversal, expected to be said from the mother

Pavement

Start: 

• “...shriek at the pavement.”

End:

• “...wrong pavement.”

Shift from the ‘glamorous Marilyn’ to a normal mum. Feels guilty her mum is on the ‘wrong’ pavement