Connotations of change and
development
Hints that there will be a
Effects transition and how that
Alan Jenkins impacts someone.
Overview
This is a poem is about the death of the speaker’s mother and her physical and mental decline
leading to this. There is a regretful tone as the speaker lacked closeness with his mother, and now
wished he had done more to connect with his mother while she was alive.
Themes
Loss
Death
Guilt
legacy
Form and structure
Irregular rhyme structure
o Reflects confused mental state of the mother and she grows ill, (or alternatively the
confusion that can come with grief.)
o The rhyme scheme does become more consistent towards the end of the poem,
which can be interpreted as showing the greater sense of clarity.
All one stanza, use of long convoluted sentences and much enjambment.
o Speaker has an outpour of emotion and fails to contain them.
o Speaker overwhelmed.
o Speakers attempt to evoke the complexity of his mother.
Moments of caesura.
o Often used for the speaker to reflect on their past actions, which they are critical of.
Moments of random and disjointed rhyme
o Speakers desire for closeness, however, this is unable to occur as the mother is now
in death.
Rhyming couplet/ triplet at the end of the stanza.
o The speaker is aware of the distance between him and his mother and this gives a
sense of finality.
o End stopped line also used to convey how both the poem has come to an end as
well as the life of the speakers mother.
Key methods and language techniques
Begins with an intimate moment after the death of the mother- closeness implied by gesture but
mocking as this is after death
‘I held her hand’
first line focuses on the two people in the poem through the choice of the personal
pronouns, forming an immediate and intense connection.
This is reinforced by the alliteration which hints there is a strong emotion, as well as
establishing that this emotion is in the present.
The verb choice suggests that this is a relationship characterised by care and gives an insight
to their love.
This results in a flood of memories, where the speaker establishes further characteristics of the
mother and their relationship.
‘always scarred’
development
Hints that there will be a
Effects transition and how that
Alan Jenkins impacts someone.
Overview
This is a poem is about the death of the speaker’s mother and her physical and mental decline
leading to this. There is a regretful tone as the speaker lacked closeness with his mother, and now
wished he had done more to connect with his mother while she was alive.
Themes
Loss
Death
Guilt
legacy
Form and structure
Irregular rhyme structure
o Reflects confused mental state of the mother and she grows ill, (or alternatively the
confusion that can come with grief.)
o The rhyme scheme does become more consistent towards the end of the poem,
which can be interpreted as showing the greater sense of clarity.
All one stanza, use of long convoluted sentences and much enjambment.
o Speaker has an outpour of emotion and fails to contain them.
o Speaker overwhelmed.
o Speakers attempt to evoke the complexity of his mother.
Moments of caesura.
o Often used for the speaker to reflect on their past actions, which they are critical of.
Moments of random and disjointed rhyme
o Speakers desire for closeness, however, this is unable to occur as the mother is now
in death.
Rhyming couplet/ triplet at the end of the stanza.
o The speaker is aware of the distance between him and his mother and this gives a
sense of finality.
o End stopped line also used to convey how both the poem has come to an end as
well as the life of the speakers mother.
Key methods and language techniques
Begins with an intimate moment after the death of the mother- closeness implied by gesture but
mocking as this is after death
‘I held her hand’
first line focuses on the two people in the poem through the choice of the personal
pronouns, forming an immediate and intense connection.
This is reinforced by the alliteration which hints there is a strong emotion, as well as
establishing that this emotion is in the present.
The verb choice suggests that this is a relationship characterised by care and gives an insight
to their love.
This results in a flood of memories, where the speaker establishes further characteristics of the
mother and their relationship.
‘always scarred’
