Description
This collection consists of two sets, each with the Student’s Copy and Teacher’s Notes. The Student’s Copy includes handouts and worksheets for students, while the Teacher’s Notes provides teaching steps and ideas, as well as the suggested answers and resources for teachers’ reference.
This collection is useful for English literature students
Study Set Content:
21
atmosphere
October evening
Peaceful/tranquil scene with beautiful autumn leaves on
trees, fifty-nine swans paddling calmly on the lake and
the lake reflecting the sky like a mirror
Form and structure
Regular lyrical form with five stanzas of six lines each
The second and fourth lines rhyme in each stanza, while
the fifth and sixth lines form a rhyming couplet
Alternate long and short lines
Sound effects
Alliteration: “b” in “bell-beat”; “k” sounds in “cold
companionable”; “w” sounds in “wander where they
will”
Assonance: repetition of “i” sound in “drift on the still
waters, mysterious, beautiful”
Consonance of ‘l’ throughout the poem
The use of sound devices, rhyme and rhythm
contributes to the harmonious musical effect of the
poem,
mimicking
the
fluid
movement
and
paddling/flipping of the swans
Poetic devices
Rich imagery to show the beauty of nature
Visual – “brimming water”
Auditory – “bell-beat of their wings”
Tactile – “trod with a lighter tread”, “paddle in cold
companionable streams”
Personification: swans are endowed with human
qualities such as “passion or conquest”
Metaphor: the lake is compared to a mirror; the flapping
of the swans’ wings is likened to the beating of a bell
Contrast: past vs. present; unwearied swans vs. the
speakers’ aging fading self (transience vs. immortality)
Symbolism: the swans symbolise permanence and
immortality, as well as passion, energy, ambition and
beauty that can stand the test of time
Diction/word
choice/use of
language
Simple and descriptive language
Short everyday words
Repetition of the word “still”
Through colour-coding different elements of the analytical paragraph, teachers can
develop students’ ability to monitor, regulate and review their own writing, as well as to
identify the inadequacy in their own answers. Peer feedback could be encouraged by
engaging the class in identifying the strengths of some outstanding paragraphs in terms
of the ideas, structure and language, as well as pointing out the problems in some less
satisfactory paragraphs and suggesting ways to enrich and improve them.
22
SET 2
A.
Pre-reading Activities:
1.
Interviewing mum
Ask your mother to show you a few pictures of her teenage or early adult life, (i.e.
around 18-22 years old/years before you were born) and ask her the following
questions:
What kind of life did you lead in your younger days?
What was your favourite pastime? Who did you hang out with and where did
you usually go together for fun?
Has marriage and childbirth changed your life? How?
Take down her answers and bring the pictures to class (if your mum agrees) for
sharing with your classmates.
2.
Information search
To prepare for reading the poem, search online for information of the following:
Carol Ann Duffy’s biographical details (e.g. her family life and career as a poet)
Marilyn Monroe
Life of women in Scotland in the 1950-60s
23
B.
Reading the Poem – Comprehension and Appreciation
Read the following poem by Carol Ann Duffy and complete the questions that follow.
Before You Were Mine
I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on
with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.
The three of you bend from the waist, holding
each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.
Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.
5
I’m not here yet. The thought of me doesn’t occur
in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows
the right walk home could bring. I knew you would dance
like that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the close
with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it's worth it.
10
The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?
I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics,
and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Square
till I see you, clear as scent, under the tree,
with its lights, and whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?
15
Cha cha cha! You’d teach me the steps on the way home from Mass,
stamping stars from the wrong pavement. Even then
I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere
in Scotland, before I was born. That glamorous love lasts
where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.
Carol Ann Duffy (1955- )
20
Source: Carol Ann Duffy’s
Mean Time
(2004)
24
1.
Who does the pronoun “you” refer to? Describe the relationship between “you” and
“I” (the speaker) in the poem. Support your answer with two examples from the
poem.
2.
Summarise the main ideas expressed in this poem in 50 words.
3.
How does the form and structure of the poem help to convey the message of the
poem?
4.
Comment on the use of tenses in the poem and discuss the effects it creates?
5.
The poem is written in a conversational manner. Do you think this is appropriate to
the subject matter?
6.
Identify three examples of imagery from the poem. Explain how they appeal to our
senses and enhance the meaning and impact of the poem.
Example of imagery
Sense(s)
involved
Meaning and impact
7.
What does the speaker mean in the lines: “Cha cha cha! You’d teach me the steps on
the way home from Mass, stamping stars from the wrong pavement.” What may “the
wrong pavement” refer to?
25
C. Follow-up Activities
1.
Reviewing a short clip on the poem
Watch the following clip, which is a visual representation of the poem:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEIL9rJ9Ds8
Write a short commentary on the clip. You may like to talk about:
Whether the clip captures the emotions, tone and mood of the poem
Whether the clip changes your understanding of the poem
The cinematic techniques used (e.g. music, use of black and white or full colour
shots) to convey the ideas and create the mood
Whether you agree with the film-makers’ interpretation of the poem and treatment
of the themes
2.
Writing a short poem
Ask your father or one of your grandparents to show you a few pictures of his/her
younger days. Write a poem with several stanzas based on your imaginations or thoughts
evoked by these pictures. You may talk about the dreams or ambitions you think s/he
might have had or the life s/he might have lived before s/he got married and had
children.
26
Teacher’s Notes
Biography of the Poet
Carol Ann Duffy (born 23 December 1955) is a Scottish poet and playwright. She was
appointed Britain's poet laureate in May 2009. She is the first woman, the first Scottish,
and the first openly LGBT (initialism for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) person to
hold this pre-eminent position.
Carol Ann Duffy was born to a Roman Catholic family in a poor part of Glasgow, the
biggest city in Scotland. She started writing poetry when she was 11. Her work is widely
read and critically acclaimed. She has won numerous awards including the Somerset
Maugham Award, Dylan Thomas Prize, Whitbread Book Awards and T. S. Eliot Prize for
her poetry.
Carol Ann Duffy’s work explores both everyday experience and the rich fantasy life of
herself and others. She also writes on themes related to language and the representation
of reality, identity and gender issues, contemporary culture, and many different forms of
alienation, oppression and social inequality.
This poem is taken from her poetry collection
Mean Time
published in 1993.
A.
Pre-reading Activities
1.
Interviewing mum
This activity encourages students to explore their mothers’ past and discover the life
their mothers had before they were born. It aims to create a sense of empathy for
the mother (both in their life and in the poem), as students realise how their
mothers were once teenagers like they are now. The activity also prepares students
for putting themselves into the position of the speaker and helps them to
understand the tone and mood of the poem.
2.
Information search
The second activity allows students to understand the socio-cultural background
underpinning the poem and prepares them for deciphering the cultural icons of the
era (e.g. Marilyn Monroe) mentioned in the poem.
27
B.
Reading the Poem – Comprehension and Appreciation
Before going through the questions and answers, teachers may encourage students to
approach a poem following some basic steps and practice the skills regularly, especially if
the students are afraid of unseen poems:
Read through the poems three times:
1
st
time
to read aloud and get an overview
to form an impression of the mood and tone and identify the
key ideas and themes
2
nd
time
to look at details and observe patterns
to identify literary elements and figurative language (e.g. rhyme
scheme, rhythm, simile, metaphors, assonance, consonance,
pun) and label them
3
rd
time
to formulate one’s understanding and interpretation of the
poem
to move from the literal to the figurative and interpretative
level (i.e. figuring out the reasons for using literary devices and
poetic techniques, the impacts created and the message
conveyed)
The 7 questions are intended to draw students’ attention to different aspects of poetry
analysis. The table below shows the areas the questions touch upon:
Q
Content/
subject &
themes
Speaker,
tone &
voice
Setting &
atmosphere
Form &
structure
Sound
effects
Poetic
devices
Diction/word
choice/use
of language
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
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Suggested points/answers to the questions
:
The answers below are for reference and not intended to serve as model answers.
Teachers should accept any reasonable answers with textual support and alternative
interpretations showing understanding of the ideas and appreciation of the poetic
techniques.
1.
Who does the pronoun “you” refer to? Describe the relationship between “you” and
“I” (the speaker) in the poem. Support your answer with two examples from the
poem.
“You” refers to the mother of the speaker. The speaker “I” has a very strong bonding
and close relationship with her mother as reflected in the conversational tone of the
poem and the use of words like “eh” (line 11) and “sweetheart” (line 15).
The poem shows the speakers’ strong sense of possessiveness towards her mother,
as shown in the title “Before You Were Mine”. The possessive pronoun “mine” is used
to suggest she dictates and controls her mother’s life. This sense of possessiveness is
also admitted by the speaker when she describes her yelling as “loud” and
“possessive” (line 11). The poem concludes with the same words of the title (i.e.
before you were mine), which also creates the effect of locking the mother in a firm
embrace of words.
The speaker has great reverence and admiration for her mother. She re-imagines her
mother’s youthful days and idealises her as a “bold girl winking” (line 18) living a life
of romance, vibrancy and pleasure. Her admiration for her mother is expressed
through the use of strong and powerful verbs such as “shriek” (line 4), “sparkle” (line
20) and “waltz” (line 20), which all vividly depict her mother’s glamour and liveliness.
2.
Summarise the main ideas expressed in this poem in 50 words
.
In this poem, the speaker romanticises her mother and the glamorous carefree life
she led before she was tied down with motherhood. While celebrating her mother’s
period of youthful rebellion, reckless gaiety, passion and romance, the speaker
recognises her mother’s sacrifice in bringing her up and laments her loss of freedom.
29
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
30
the late one”, the speaker attempts to assert her presence in her mother’s past with
“I knew” even though she says “I’m ten years away” (line 1) and “I’m not here yet”
(line 6) in the poem. She acts and speaks as if she were her mother’s mother
watching out for her staying out late at night.
5.
The poem is written in a conversational manner. Do you think the style is
appropriate to the subject matter?
The poem is written in a highly conversational manner. The alternation of very short
and long sentences creates a fluid rhythm and pauses in a natural speech. Informal
and colloquial words such as “pals” (line 2) are used to create a warm and
affectionate tone, which brings out the theme of the poem and the intimate mother
and daughter relationship. The tender and loving tone is accentuated when speaker
addresses her mother like a lover or her own child with expressions like “sweetheart”
(line 15).
While the poem gives the impression of a speech from the daughter to the mother,
this speech is more like a retrospective interior monologue inspired by a photograph,
which is not intended to be delivered to or heard by the mother. The speaker asks her
mum direct questions that require no answers, e.g. “The decade ahead of my loud,
possessive yell was the best one, eh?” (line 11) and depicts her mother’s feelings and
responses as if she could read her mother’s mind, e.g. “You Ma stands at the close
with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it’s worth it.”(lines 9-10). An interior
monologue adopting a first-person voice suits the content of the poem, which mainly
focusses on the daughter’s re-creation of her mother’s past from her subjective
experience and imagination. The limited perspective and one-sidedness of the
speech also help to bring out the daughter’s self-centredness and sense of
possessiveness towards the mother.
6.
Identify three examples of imagery used in the poem. Explain how they appeal to
our senses and enhance the meaning and impact of the poem.
Example of Imagery Sense(s) involved
Meaning and impact
1.
Your polka-dot
dress blows round
your legs. Marilyn.
(line 5)
Visual imagery
(sense of sight)
Tactile imagery
(sense of touch)
The mother was alluded to Marilyn
Monroe, the sexy icon of the 1950s,
with the wind blowing over her
polka-dot dress to reveal her legs,
which connotes sexual
31
seductiveness. The use of imagery
serves to highlight the enchanting
youth and glamour of her mother.
2.
The thought of me
doesn’t occur
in the ballroom
with the thousand
eyes (lines 6-7)
Visual imagery
(sense of sight)
The thousand eyes in the ballroom
may be a metaphor of the mirror ball
casting glittering light across the
dance floor or a synecdoche/
metonymy of the potential suitors
whose eyes are watching the
charming dancer. The use of imagery
enhances the excitement of the
ballroom and creates the image of
the mother being as an enchanting
goddess and centre of attention in
the ballroom.
3.
I remember my
hands in those
high-heeled red
shoes, relics,
and now your ghost
clatters toward me
over George Square
till I see you, clear
as scent, under the
tree…
(lines 12-14)
Visual imagery
(sense of sight)
Audial imagery
(sense of hearing)
Olfactory imagery
(sense of smell)
The clattering sound symbolises the
mother’s younger days when she
moved on the dance floor in her
high-heeled shoes. In likening her
mother’s red high-heeled shoes to
“relics”, some historical old objects,
the speaker expresses mixed feelings
of sadness and reverence for her
mother’s bygone youth.
The mixing of senses (synaethesia) in
“I see you, clear as scent” shows the
speakers’ vivid recollection and
imagination of her mother dancing,
as if she could see the moving image
(“your ghost” in line 13) and smell
her perfume. The speaker then went
on to imagine the romantic
encounter her mother had with the
love bites on her neck.
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7.
What does the speaker mean in the lines: “Cha cha cha! You’d teach me the steps
on the way home from Mass, stamping stars from the wrong pavement.” What
may “the wrong pavement” refer to?
The speaker recalls in the quoted lines an incident in her childhood, where her
mother would teach her the “cha cha cha” dance on the way home from church.
“Stamping the stars from the wrong pavement” has multiple possible meanings.
“Stamping” provides a stark contrast with the “clattering” of red high-heeled shoes in
the ballroom, showing a change in lifestyle from the glamorous social life to a
practical and humble domestic life. Her mother is not dancing with her pals in her
high-heels in the glittering ballroom, but going to church probably with plain
comfortable shoes with the child.
“The wrong pavement” may suggest the pavement is not the right place for a sensual
Cuban dance, nor a platform for realising the mother’s teenage dreams, implying that
parental responsibilities has confined the mother’s freedom and suppressed her
vibrancy. The stars further allude to The Street of Stars in Hollywood Boulevard,
which echoes the reference to the actress Marilyn Monroe in Stanza 1. The speaker
longs to see the mother’s younger self, who is imagined as a sparkling bold girl like
Marilyn Monroe, with all her glamour and carefree liveliness.
C.
Follow-up Activities:
1.
Reviewing a short clip on the poem
Teachers may play the clip once in class and ask the students to view it again at
home. It is important that students read the poem first to formulate their
independent views and interpretation before showing the clip, as the visual
presentation may limit students’ imagination.
For weaker students, teachers may vary the length of the writing and adapt the task
from a critical review/commentary of the clip to a personal response/reflection.
Students may simply talk about:
Whether they like the clip
Whether the visual representation enhances their understanding of the poem
The most striking scene and reasons why the scene is powerful
Any thoughts on mother-daughter relationships after watching the clip
33
Differences between the poem and the clip in the presentation of
mother-daughter relationship (e.g. the poem seems to present a warmer and
more affectionate relationship between the mother and daughter than the clip.
While the poem shows more the admiration of the daughter for the mother,
the clip reveals more the darker emotions such as the sense of insecurity in the
teenage daughter’s mind as she flips through the album and discovers the
exciting life her mother had before she was born.)
2.
Writing a short poem
This activity provides an opportunity for students to discover and explore their
father/grandparent’s past, as well as practise writing a poem based on some pictures.
Teachers may ask students to explain how their creation is inspired by Carol Ann
Duffy’s poem. The assessment of students’ work could primarily focus on the
following areas:
Characterisation and description of the person (e.g. details on his/her physical
appearance, actions and speech, thoughts)
Use of tone to establish the relationship between the person and the speaker
(i.e. the student)
Complexity of feelings and thoughts expressed in the poem
For more advanced students, teachers may set more requirements and assess
students’ performance in the following additional areas:
Use of poetic techniques (e.g. imagery)
Structure and form
