LITANY POWER OF LANGAUGE POETRY

‘The soundtrack then was a litany’

the word litany refers to a series or prayers used in church services. They are prescriptive, just as the soundtrack to the speaker’s life was

‘stiff haired wives’ ‘red smiles’

Suggest an upper class world that values money, social standing and possessions

‘The Lounge’

A place of wealth and social climbing. As the hard consonant sounds in these lines suggest, it is not a pleasant place.

‘I learnt at my mother’s knee’

transition into first person comes less as a surprise and more as a purposeful transition into a more personal and emotional part of the narrative

‘cancer, or sex, or debts’

concerted denial of reality on her mother’s part, seen most clearly through inability to say or even spell leukaemia

‘a butterfly stammered’

word stammer is used to describe its sudden, worrying movements. A reader should also consider how the word is related to speech, or an inability to speak, might connect to how the child was raised

‘Im sorry, Mrs Barr, Mrs Hunt, Mrs Emery, sorry, Mrs Raine’

list of names, the speakers tone is polite but sarcastic. She is mocking the way she learned to speak

‘the taste of soap’

Reference to the traditional punishment of washing a girl’s mouth out with soap. Represents a physical and spiritual cleansing. By treating her daughter this way, the persona’s mother is trying to get rid of the girl’s desire to break out of her mother’s world and move beyond her mute shame.