Before You Were Mine

• Summary - Before You Were Mine:

  The speaker reflects on her mother's life before the speaker was born
• Before You Were Mine - Concepts:

  • parenthood forces adults to mature, calm/settle down
  • parents are forced to sacrifice a lot for their children and we should be grateful
  • children may regret that they can never know their parents in their "prime"
  • children may feel guilty/responsible for the loss of their parents' old lifestyle
  • children are possessive/entitled to their parents' love
• your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.

  • iconic imagery
  • beauty + glamour
  • famous life - lots of attention (links to Marilyn Monroe)
  • Monroe's life ended abruptly - peak of her fame, in her prime (link to parents' loss of lifestyle, sacrificing for their child)
  • comparison shows admiration - looking up to famous people, inspiring
  • connotations of tragedy - foreshadow the speaker's feelings later
• and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Square till I see you, clear as scent

  • metaphor for mum's old life
  • ghost - dead, haunting (guilt for changing mom's life)
  • ghosts are formed when people die, formed when mom's old life "passed away"
  • synaesthesia (multiple senses experienced at once)
• the thought of me doesn't occur in the ballroom with a thousand eyes

  • attractive - centre of attention
  • freedom
  • child feels guilty for taking that away from her mum
• the right way home

  • path imagery
  • memory
  • mum = glamorous
  • speaker feels that trajectory of life is better for her mum
  • "right" = correct
• before you were mine

  • memory before child changed lifestyle for worse
  • "mine" - owns her mum
• you'd teach me the steps on the way home from Mass, stamping stars on the wrong pavement

  • life changed - "teach" - appreciation for knowledge
  • "stamping stars" - Hollywood, reminder of old "famous" lifestyle, but now on the wrong trajectory - speaker feels guilty
• that glamorous love lasts where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine

  • triple adjectives - admiration reinforced
  • "mine" - echoes accountability the speaker feels
  • feelings of sadness and responsibility
• I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics

  • reflecting on childhood, playing with mom's accessories, growing up.
  • "relics" - life she had = ancient, stopped long ago
• whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?

  • rebellious
  • sex, freedom