Before you were mine

• Engels
• Further Education (Key Stage 5)

Goals for today 

Structural conventions in poetry 

Consider time in "Before You Were Mine"

Consider performance and interpretation of the poem 

Respond to a guiding question. 

Poetry structure 

There are several forms that a poem can take. It is important to consider structure even though you may not feel that it is significant enough to write about. 

Stanzas - couplets, tercets, quatrains, quintains, sestets (sixtains), septets. Consider why certain ideas are contained in separate stanzas 

Free verse - no rhyming scheme 

Shakespearean sonnet - 14 lines, iambic pentameter, three quatrains abab cdcd efefgg and a rhyming couplet 

Poetry structure 

Petrarchan (Italian) sonnet - 14 lines, two sections one octave (8 lines) and one sestet - ABBAABBA CDCDCD or CDECDE

Volta - means 'turn' and it is a change in thought or argument. In Shakespearean sonnets between the final quatrain and the rhyming couplet, in the Petrarchan sonnet between the octave and the sestet. 

Villanelle - 19 lines, five tercets and a concluding quatrain and repeating lines in the first and third line.  

Poetry structure 

Ballad - narrative (long, song-like) ABCB or ABAB

Haiku - medieval Japan, 3 lines, 5-7-5 syllables per line. Traditionally focused on nature and a single moment in time. 

"Before You Were Mine" p.21

Written in 1993 from the anthology Mean Time

This anthology focuses on the concept of time 

The title references Greenwich Mean Time, which is a time zone, but it also references how time can be cruel and threatening.  

1. Read the poem through once. 

2. Reread the poem and mark references to time and remembrance. 

"Before You Were Mine" p.21

Go to digitaltheatreplus - the login details are on the next slide. Search and find - Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy: The recital 

1. Watch both performances. The supporting fact sheet is in MB files in the Carol Ann Duffy folder. Consider the differences in interpretation of these two performances.

2. Then search and find - Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy: The analysis. 

3. Having watched the analysis, and the recitals, what is the relationship between the speaker and her mother? Find evidence to support your idea. 

Digital Theatre plus log in 

Username: student_708 

Password: 

excitement@7978 

Note the username and password

"Before You Were Mine" p.21

Here are some terms that you can use in your answer: 

Answer this question in at least two paragraphs: 

How is loss and regret presented in "Before You Were Mine"? 

Upload your work to your Class Notebook in the tab - Carol Ann Duffy. 

This is homework for tomorrow - 7th Jan 1st lesson upload to the dropbox.

colloquial language, imagery (consider which senses at what point in the poem), enjambment, caesura, possessive pronouns, present tense verbs, assonance, free verse, stanzas, quintains, synecdoche (thousand eyes), tone, poetic persona, polysyndeton