Before You Were Mine - Carol Duffy

• "I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on"


  The speaker reminisces about her mother's carefree youth before parenthood. This sets the tone for the poem's exploration of the impact of motherhood on personal identity and relationships.
• "The three of you bend from the waist, holding

  each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement."


  Through the use of youthful descriptions of bending, "holding" and "shrieking", the speaker portrays freedom, contrasting with the speaker's later reflections on the responsibilities of motherhood.
• "Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn."

  By likening the mother to Marilyn Monroe, the speaker celebrates her glamour and vitality before motherhood. The use of a famous icon adds a layer of nostalgia and poignancy, suggesting both admiration and a sense of loss for the mother's identity before she became a mother.
• "I'm not here yet. The thought of me doesn't occur

  in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows"

  The speaker's absence is emphasised through the repetition of "I'm not here yet", and contrasts with the vivid description of the ballroom, a world of excitement, possibility and freedom.
• "... the fizzy, movie tomorrows

  The right walk home could bring."

  Hypothetical language ("could bring") and assonance highlights her mother's sense of adventure and the potential for new experiences.
• "... your Ma stands at the close

  with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it's worth it."

  The colloquial language and matter-of-fact tone convey the speaker's admiration for her mother's rebellious spirit. The use of dialect and slang adds authenticity.
• "The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?

  I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics,"

  The speaker's nostalgic remembrances add a poignant contrast between the mother's past freedom and the speaker's own demanding presence.
• "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?"

  Referring to her mother as a metaphorical ghost, the speaker conveys a sense of absence and longing. It suggests a continued connection between the speaker and her mother despite the passage of time.
• "Cha cha cha! You'd teach me the steps on the way home from Mass,"

  Alliteration ("stamping stars from the wrong pavement") and onomatopoeia ("cha cha cha") depict the playful and spontaneous nature of their early relationship.
• "Before you were mine,"

  Duffy's repetition of the refrain "before you were mine" highlights the separation she feels from this earlier version of her mother, but also reinforces the profound nature of the love between mother and child.