Before You Were Mine

Cards (11)

  • Im ten years away

    from the corner you laugh on
  • your polka dot dress blows

    round your legs. Marilyn.
  • The thought of me

    doesn't occur
  • the decade ahead of my

    "Loud,possessive yell was the best one eh?"
  • your ghost clatters towards me
    over george square
  • the bold girl
    winking in portobello
  • sparkle and waltz and laugh
    Before you were mine
  • Poet
    carol ann duffy
  • When was the poem published
    1993
  • Structure
    a regular stanza form, but aside from that doesn't use a particular poetic structure. The poem consists of four quintains (five-line stanzas), written in free verse with no rhyme scheme. The poem is framed as a direct address from the speaker to her mother's younger self
  • Rhyme scheme
    no rhyme scheme