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3.
How does the form and structure of the poem help to convey the message of the
poem?
The poem is written in four regular five-lined stanzas (quintains). The structure
suggests a degree of regularity associated with the passage of time and the cyclical
bonding between the mother and daughter – a circular relationship passing from one
generation to the next.
Despite the regular stanza form, subtle changes in mood and emotions are hidden
between the stanzas. The physical presence and emotional involvement of the
daughter are escalating as the stanzas go. While the first two stanzas focus mainly on
the description of the carefree young woman yet to be a mother, the daughter comes
into existence and plays a part in the third and fourth stanzas, changing the youthful
lady’s role from a mover/dancer to a mother. Sentences of varying lengths and
enjambment (run-on lines) are also used to introduce irregularity and vary the pace
of the poem, which helps to express the changing emotions of the speaker from
admiration to empathy to a tinge of poignancy towards the end.
4.
Comment on the use of tenses in the poem and discuss the effects it creates?
In the poem, there are frequent switches from past to present, both in terms of the
presentation of events and the use of tenses, to interweave the speaker’s
imagination of her mother’s past and her thoughts and feelings as a daughter.
It is worth noting that the speaker uses the present tense when she describes what
happened/might have happened ten years before she was born. What is described is
the speakers’ re-creation of her mother’s past triggered from a photo she sees at
present, rather than a factual account of her mother’s past. In other words, the
speaker is imagining and fantasising how her mother’s life must have been like back
before she was born. She describes the events of the photo as if they were
happening now to make her mother’s life as real as possible. The use of the present
tense also allows the daughter who did not exist at the time when the photo was
taken to witness and take part in the world of the “young mother” and bridges the
temporal distance between them.
The use of the past tense at times serves to accentuate the speaker’s sense of
possessiveness towards the mother. For example, in lines 9-10, “I knew you would
dance like that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the close with a hiding for