Objectives

• Analyse how Duffy uses the dramatic monologue form and second-person address ('you') to position the speaker as simultaneously loving and guilty.
• Explain how the Marilyn Monroe allusion and the Woolworths street-corner image construct the mother's pre-maternal identity as glamorous and irretrievably lost.
• Trace how the poem's four-stanza chronology — from the mother's youth to the speaker's childhood — enacts the narrowing of female freedom.
• Identify how sound imagery (the 'loud, possessive yell' of the grandmother, the 'high-heeled red shoes' clicking) reinforces the poem's themes of constraint and longing.
• Write a well-evidenced analytical paragraph that compares Duffy's presentation of memory and identity with that in a paired poem, using embedded quotation and precise terminology.

The sequence

1. Lesson 1: What the poem does to the mother: voice, image, and structure in 'Before You Were Mine'

   55 min · ch. 1

   Do now

   Without referring to any notes, compose two sentences: (1) What stands out about the speaker and the addressee in this poem? (2) Choose one word from the title 'Before You Were Mine' and craft a sentence that reflects the speaker's feelings toward her mother.

   Teacher input

   Model a close reading of stanza 1, lines 1–5 ('I'm ten years away… you laugh') and stanza 2, lines 6–10 ('I knew you would dance… the right walk'). Highlight how the present-tense 'I'm ten years away' places the speaker in a moment she never experienced, showcasing an act of imaginative possession. Then, focus on 'Marilyn Monroe' — discuss the allusion as a cultural shorthand for female glamour, sexuality, and tragedy, and pose the question: what does it signify that the speaker associates this image with her mother? Illustrate how to construct one sentence of analysis: 'By comparing her mother's pose to Marilyn Monroe's, Duffy suggests that the mother's pre-maternal self was both radiant and fated for loss, as Monroe embodies a glamour that ultimately fades.'

   Independent task

   Students will annotate stanzas 3 and 4 of the poem on their own, and then write two analytical paragraphs (each 80–120 words) in response to the question: How does Duffy use imagery and sound in stanzas 3 and 4 to illustrate the mother's lost freedom? In Paragraph 1, students should focus on the grandmother's 'loud, possessive yell' in stanza 3, discussing what the verb 'possessive' suggests about domestic constraints. Paragraph 2 should center on the backyard cha-cha and the image of the speaker stumbling in her mother's 'high-heeled red shoes' in stanza 4, explaining how this image portrays the speaker as both an inheritor of and a contributor to her mother's lost identity. Students will submit the annotated poem along with both paragraphs.

   Exit ticket

   In one sentence, explain why Duffy ends the poem with the speaker as a child rather than returning to the Woolworths street-corner image from stanza 1 — what effect does this structural choice create?

2. Lesson 2: Writing the comparison: memory, identity, and female freedom in 'Before You Were Mine' and a paired poem

   55 min · ch. 1

   Do now

   Revisit the last four lines of 'Before You Were Mine' ('I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes… the decade ahead of me'). Without referencing your notes, write one sentence that captures the main emotion expressed in these lines and another sentence that describes the technique Duffy employs to express that emotion.

   Teacher input

   Model the opening of a comparative paragraph with the question: "How do poets explore the connection between the past and personal identity?" On the board, write and explain the creation of a topic sentence: "Both Duffy and [paired poet] depict the past as a force that shapes identity. However, Duffy's speaker actively reconstructs her mother's identity before motherhood through imaginative projection, while [paired poet] illustrates the past as an involuntary intrusion." Demonstrate how to incorporate the quotation "I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on" as evidence for Duffy's "imaginative projection." Identify the technique as present-tense dramatization and discuss its effect: the speaker inhabits a moment she never experienced, highlighting the central guilt of the poem.

   Independent task

   Students are tasked with writing a full comparative response (350–450 words) to the following question: "Compare how Duffy in 'Before You Were Mine' and the poet of your paired text present the idea that the past shapes — or destroys — a person's identity." The response should: (1) begin with a comparative topic sentence that identifies both poems and a point of similarity and difference; (2) include at least three embedded quotations from 'Before You Were Mine,' taken from at least two different stanzas — suggested quotations are 'Marilyn Monroe' (stanza 1), 'the decade ahead of me' (stanza 2), and 'the cha-cha' or 'high-heeled red shoes' (stanza 4); (3) identify at least two techniques (e.g., allusion, second-person address, sound imagery) and explain their impact; (4) conclude with a sentence that reflects on how the form — the dramatic monologue — conveys meaning differently compared to the paired poem's form. Students are to submit their complete written response.

   Exit ticket

   Write one sentence explaining how the dramatic monologue form — the fact that the speaker addresses her mother directly as 'you' throughout the poem — changes the emotional impact of the final image of the child stumbling in her mother's high-heeled red shoes.

Activities

Assessment

• Lesson 1 do-now: checks whether students can identify the unusual second-person address and unpack the possessive connotations of the title before any teaching has occurred.
• Lesson 1 teacher-input discussion: checks whether students can explain the Marilyn Monroe allusion as culturally specific — glamour, sexuality, and tragedy — rather than as a vague compliment.
• Lesson 1 independent paragraphs: checks whether students can embed a quotation from stanzas 3–4 and move from quotation to effect, specifically on the grandmother's 'possessive yell' and the backyard cha-cha.
• Lesson 1 exit ticket: checks whether students understand the structural significance of ending on the speaker's childhood rather than returning to the poem's opening scene.
• Lesson 2 do-now: checks whether students can identify technique and emotion in the poem's closing lines without prompting, demonstrating consolidation from Lesson 1.
• Lesson 2 exit ticket: checks whether students can articulate how the dramatic monologue form — the direct 'you' address — shapes the emotional impact of the poem's final image.

Standards covered

Common Core 11 12

• RL.11-12.1 — Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
• RL.11-12.4 — Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyse the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone.
• RL.11-12.5 — Analyse how an author's choices concerning how to structure a poem, order events within it, and manipulate time create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
• W.11-12.9 — Draw evidence from literary texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

AP Literature

• Literary Argumentation (LAN-1) — Explain the function of a narrator or speaker, including how the second-person dramatic monologue voice positions the reader in relation to the mother.
• Figurative Language (FIG-1) — Analyse the function of the Marilyn Monroe allusion and the sound imagery of 'clicking' heels and the grandmother's 'yell' in constructing the poem's central tension.
• Structure (STR-1) — Analyse how the poem's four-stanza chronological structure enacts the progressive narrowing of the mother's freedom.
• Literary Argumentation (LAN-1.E) — Develop a comparative claim that accounts for complexity and acknowledges the significance of form.

AQA

• AO1 — Read, understand and respond to texts, maintaining a critical style and developing an informed personal response, with references to the text to support interpretations.
• AO2 — Analyse the language, form and structure used by a writer to create meanings and effects, using relevant subject terminology.
• AO3 — Show understanding of the relationships between texts and the contexts in which they were produced, including the post-war 1950s cultural context of female glamour and domestic constraint.
• AO4 — Use a range of vocabulary and sentence structures for clarity, purpose and effect, with accurate spelling and punctuation (in the written comparative response).

Edexcel

• AO1 — Articulate informed, personal and creative responses to literary texts, using associated concepts and terminology, and coherent, accurate written expression.
• AO2 — Analyse ways in which meanings are shaped in literary texts, with reference to Duffy's use of dramatic monologue, allusion, and sound imagery.
• AO3 — Demonstrate understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are produced and received, including the feminist and confessional poetry movements of the 1990s.