Higher English - "The Way My Mother Speaks" quotes

Themes of "The Way My Mother Speaks"

language as identity, growing up

Stanza 1:

"I say her phrases to myself in my head"
"under the shallows of my breath, restful shapes moving"
"The day and ever, the day and ever"

Stanza 2:

"browsing for the right sky, too blue swapped for a cool grey"
"For miles I have been saying"
"Nothing is silent, nothing is not silent"

Stanza 3:

"Like a child who stood at the end of summer and dipped a net in a green erotic pond"
"I am homesick, free, in love with the way my mother speaks"

"I say her phrases to myself in my head"

word choice: "her" suggests possession which suggests that they belong to her mother which conveys the deep connection she has to them

"Under the shallows of my breath, restful shapes moving"

metaphor: compares her breathing to shallow water which suggests anxiety
metaphor/oxymoron: language does not have a physical form, the contrast between "restful" and "shapes" conveys the uncertainty of the journey

"The day and ever, the day and ever"

repetition: mimics the sound of a train and also tells us that she is not going to forget the phrase

"browsing for the right sky, too blue swapped for a cool grey"

word choice: the contrast between "too blue" and "cool grey" conveys the bright optimistic colours she associates with her childhood and the mundane and sombre grey of her adulthood
word choice: "browsing" suggests the journey is aimless and has an uncertain goal

"Nothing is silent. Nothing is not silent"

double negative: in the second implies that, what doesn't exist in the here and now (your memories, your past) still has a voice in your head and still has influence

"Like a child who stood at the end of summer and dipped a net in a green erotic pond"

compares herself to a child at the edge of innocence
word choice: "erotic" contrasts with the other words used to describe the pond as it has more adult themes which conveys the world that the child soon has to face

"I am homesick, free, in love with the way my mother speaks"

she looks optimistically to the future with awareness of the significance of the past