“Before you had been mine” is a poem written by a daughter about how she imagines her mom’s life ten years earlier than the daughter was born. The writer describes the photograph of her mom with two of her pals. They “shriek on the pavement” and appear to be sharing a joke, younger and lightsome (line four). She is aware of that the considered having a baby someday doesn’t happen to her mom when she was younger and had lots of desires.
Now remembering her personal childhood, Duffy thinks of how she used to play along with her mom’s pink sneakers and imagines when her mom might need worn them.
She remembers how her mom used to show her dance steps when she was just a little lady. The poem is a 4 stanza one, every stanza being made up of 5 traces, with some variation in size of line. The primary two stanzas focus purely on the lifetime of the mom earlier than the daughter was born, while the third stanza opens with a reference to the daughter’s beginning after which strikes to the daughter’s imaginative and prescient of her mom in her earlier life, thus offering a hyperlink with the earlier stanzas.
The fourth stanza begins with a recollection from the daughter’s youthful life along with her mom, after which takes us again as soon as once more to the mom’s days of dancing. I take into account that the language contributes to the temper of the poem. The poem is written in first individual narrative voice. There are numerous references to her mom as very completely satisfied – “you snort / the daring lady winking in Portobello”, “you sparkle and waltz and snort”(traces 13-15). The writer’s mom’s life will be perceived as flashy.
Her mom is likened to Marilyn Monroe: “Your polka-dot costume blows spherical your legs. Marilyn” (line 5). Duffy’s mom desires of “fizzy, film tomorrows” (line 7). The poem is written within the current tense, as if the occasions of the photograph are occurring now. I suppose on this manner the poet tries to make her mom’s previous as actual as doable. It appears juicy to learn a poem by which a daughter imagines how lively and enjoyable her mom should have been earlier than she was born.
Her admiration of her mom is proven in a direct manner, and phrases resembling “shriek”, “sparkle” and “fizzy” picture the carelessness of youth. All through, the poet could be very possessive of her mom. References to her seem continually: “I’m ten years away… ”, “I’m not right here but… ”, “I keep in mind… ” (traces 1, 6 and 12). The phrase “mine” seems within the title and the poem really concludes with the identical phrases because the title, as if the poet is locking her mom in a agency embrace of phrases.