Before You Were Mine

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Before You Were Mine The poem “Before You Were Mine” by Carol Anne Duffy, speaks out the thoughts of a daughter mourning over her mother’s death and wishing that her mother had enjoyed herself more when she was still young. The theme of love both from the speaker for the mother and from the mother for the speaker is explored in this poem, as the poet employs various language techniques such as symbolism, imagery and repetition. The tone throughout the poem is gentle and loving, and the use of the first person narrative point of view shows the close bond the speaker has for the mother. Using these techniques, the poet is able to express the speaker’s sorrow for the loss of her mother and the genuine love her mother had for her. The poem starts with “I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on”, showing that the speaker is reconstructing her mother’s past before she was born, imagining her happy childhood. The listing of the actions, “bend from the waist, holding/ each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement,” shows that her mother and her friends, in their teens, like to dance a lot, and they may be very good at dancing, as suggested by the name “Marilyn”, which was not only the mother’s name, but also a beautiful and elegant woman figure. Hence a beautiful and charming image for the mother in the eyes of an admiring speaker. The beginning of the next stanza, “I ‘m not here yet”, highlights again that this part of the poem is about the past when the speaker was yet to be born. In this stanza, the speaker re-emphasizes the popularity of her mother who has a passion for dancing. The pun “thousand lights” is used to describe the disco ball in the dance hall but can also have a connotation of people watching the speaker’s mother dancing, which enhance the popularity her mother enjoys. Her mother’s passion for dancing is so great that she does not care
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