The Annotated Edition
Before You Were Mine by Carol Ann Duffy
- Poet
- Carol Ann Duffy
- Composed
- 1993 · Contemporary
In copyright · excerpt not reproduced
Read the full poem at Anvil Press Poetry, 1993.
Our analysis below quotes only short phrases from the poem under fair-dealing criticism and commentary. The complete poem is available through the publisher above.
mother-daughteryouthmemory
TeacherAQA scaffold — preview
AO1 — Interpretation + textual reference
In 'Before You Were Mine', Duffy presents a daughter who desires to possess her mother's pre-maternal self, constructing a love rooted in longing and a form of possessive grief. The speaker projects herself into a past she never witnessed, …
- AO2 — Language, form, structure (with effect)
- AO3 — Context woven into close reading
- Comparison hooks
- Common student errors
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