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English resources/Love and Relationships/Before You Were Mine

Before You Were Mine

Duffy looks at a photo of her mother, young and laughing, before she was born.

This poem in five words

Mother'slifebeforethebaby

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The quotes

3 big quotes in this poem.

I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello

Duffy · Before You Were Mine · parents and children · memory

Duffy looks at a photo of her mother before she was born. She wanted that girl, the fun one.

The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?

Duffy · Before You Were Mine · parents and children · memory

The ten years before the baby arrived were the mother's best. Duffy knows it. She was the yell.

stamping stars from the wrong pavement

Duffy · Before You Were Mine · parents and children · memory

Her mother dancing, sparks from her heels, in the wrong place for a good girl.

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The words of the book come from the AQA Poems Past and Present anthology, Love and Relationships cluster (poems quoted briefly for study; older poems are public domain). Every quote was checked against it. Paintings and drawings are public domain, from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each one. Notes by Akash Wadhwani. Copy it. Print it. Share it. No sign-up.
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