Starter quiz
- 'Before You Were Mine' is a poem about...
- a father, describing the relationship between his child and their mother
- a mother, mourning the loss of her independence after having children
- a mother, describing how they miss their daughter's childhood now they are grown
- a child, reflecting on scenes of their mother's youth ✓
-
- Which word from the title of 'Before You Were Mine' is a possessive pronoun?
- Before
- You
- Were
- Mine ✓
-
- Duffy's writing often questions the traditional roles society expects women to play. In this way, we could describe her as a ______ poet.
- 'feminist' ✓
- Which of these words from 'Before You Were Mine' signifies a shift in the mood of the poem?
- "shriek"
- "fizzy"
- "yell" ✓
- "ghost"
- "winking"
-
- Starting with the first, put these quotations from 'Before You Were Mine' in the order they appear in the poem.
- 1⇔"Marilyn"
- 2⇔"ballroom"
- 3⇔"yell"
- 4⇔"relics"
- 5⇔"Cha cha cha"
- Match each quotation from 'Before You Were Mine' to a relevant inference.
- "shriek"⇔The mother's youth was filled with joy and laughter. ✓
- "eyes"⇔The mother' beauty garnered lots of attention. ✓
- "relics"⇔The mother's dancing days are a thing of the past. ✓
- "Mass"⇔The mother's life has drastically changed now she is a mother. ✓
Exit quiz
- What is an ekphrastic poem?
- a narrative poem with alternating rhyme, telling a story, often of folk origin
- a 14-line poem with specific rhyme scheme, exploring themes like love or nature
- a poem where initial letters spell out a word or message vertically
- a traditional Japanese poem, containing 3 lines with 5-7-5 syllable structure
- a poem that describes or responds to an image or sculpture ✓
-
- Match these literary methods to the correct definition.
- vignette⇔a short descriptive ‘scene’ that captures a moment without any plot ✓
- enjambment⇔continuation of a sentence or phrase across line breaks ✓
- caesura⇔pause or break within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation ✓
- Which object is described as "relics" in stanza 3 of 'Before You Were Mine'?
- a dress
- shoes ✓
- a pavement
- stars
- a church
-
- The "yell" in line 11 of 'Before You Were Mine' signifies a shift in the mood of the poem from joy to sadness and loss. This is an example of a...
- 'volta' ✓
- Which of these quotations from stanza 5 of 'Before You Were Mine' is an echo of a previous stanza?
- "Mass"
- "pavement" ✓
- "Portobello"
- "stars"
-
- In the final stanza of 'Before You Were Mine', Duffy's use of echoes to earlier stanzas suggests that although the mother has lost her independence, her maternal bond with her daughter is a...
- constellation
- conservation
- consolation ✓
- conflagration
- convalescence
-
Worksheet
Loading worksheet ...
Presentation
Loading presentation ...
Video
Lesson Details
Key learning points
- Duffy opens the poem with a vignette of the mother as glamorous and admirable in her youth before the speaker is born.
- Duffy uses imagery to convey the sense of awe and wonder felt towards a parental figure.
- Duffy uses a rhetorical question to suggest the guilt the speaker feels at curtailing the mother's glamorous life.
- Duffy uses imagery to suggest the consolation a close maternal bond can bring to both mother and child.
- Duffy uses enjambment and caesuras to convey the speaker’s guilt about the effect she had on her mother’s life.
Common misconception
The mother feels a loss of her her beauty, confidence and independence after having a child.
It's important to remember that the 'voice' we hear this from is the speaker's (the daughter). In this way, the negative connotations associated with motherhood could be interpreted as the speaker's guilt for taking her mother's freedom.
Keywords
Vignette - a short descriptive ‘scene’ that captures a moment without any plot or action
Enjambment - continuation of a sentence or phrase across line breaks, maintaining flow
Caesura - pause or break within a line of poetry, often marked by punctuation
Ekphrastic poem - a poem that describes or responds to an image or sculpture
Consolation - comfort or solace provided in a time of grief, disappointment, or distress
+