Analysis of poem 'Material' by Ros Barber

• Born in 1964 , grew up in Essex 
• an academic , poet and novelist 

• Poem , Hanky - brings back vivid detail / description of poet's memories 
• written in past tense
• set when poet was growing up -1960's 

                                           Verse 1 

• 'My mother was the hanky queen' - centres around hankerchief 
• the hanky is symbolic of motherhood
• 'when hanky meant a thing of cloth,( next line) , not paper tissues bought in packs '
• modern day alternative ( tissues ) 
• 'from late-night garages and shops .'- line contrasts hankies to ordinary everyday tissues
• it comments on our 24 hr disposiable culture 
• 'but things for waving out of trains ' - romantic nostalgic notion
• 'and mopping the cornerrs of your grief: ' - mopping away is a metaphor ( can comment of effect of this ) 
• 'when hankies were material ( next line) 'she'd have one , always up her sleeve.'
• 'always'- prepared , 'up her sleeve' - can be take literally or metaphoricially 
• having these hankies was part of her mother's characteristic 

• 'a mum's embarrassment of lace' - eupheimism 
• 'embroidered with a V for Viv' - personalised - Viv is her mother's name 
• 'spittled and scrubbed against my face' - alliteration 
• 'as if she had a farm up there ( next line) where dried -up hankies fell in love' -metaphor 
• 'where dried -up hankies fell in love ( next line ) and mated ,raising little squares.'
• idea = humourous /amusing 
• 'rasing little squares.' - protective / nurturing -goes back to the idea of motherhood ,which is a running theme throughout the poem 

Verse 4

• 'She bought her own; I never did.'- poet's direct comparision between herself and her motehr
• 'and script initials spelling ponce,' - joke ( ponce - derogatory term :idea of being 'gay'/ stuck up , hankies were not considered cool when she was growing up ) 
• 'the naffest Christmas gift you'd get- ( hankies) - embarrassment 
• 'my brother too, more often than not ( next line ) 'got male one: serious and grey, ( next line ) and larger ,like they had more snot.' 
• gender positions at time 
• old fashioned idea  that women and as an extension of that , their noses/snot were somehow more delicate /smaller                 Verse 5

• poet lists old fashioned iteams that along with hankies are no longer commonly found in big stores e.g girdles

• changing envrionment - shifting towards moderninity - 'you'd never find today in malls.'
• comparision with today's disposable culture - work was involved 'Hankies ,which demanded irons, ( next line ) and boiling to be purified.' 

• 'shuttered the doors of family stores ' - internal rhyme of doors and stores
• idea  of finality 
• individual shops out of buisness - hanky no longer sold / used
• 'when those who used to buy them died.' -come full circle

Verse 6

• 'And somehow with the hanky's loss,'- ties together
• 'greengrocer Geroge with his  dodgy foot'- informality -everyone knew each other
• nostalgia -good things are gone 
• and parcelled rows of local crab' - note the use of the word 'local'
• verse ends in enjambment - a continous flow 

Verse 7

• 'lay opposite the dancing school' - back into her memories of youth
• 'taught us When You're smiling' - well known song 
• 'a stumbling ,out of tune piano:' - personification
• 'step-togther ,step-together, step-togther.' - world without individuality -dance moves are atmospherical - conformity 
• no expression- they are all doing the same thing
• 'when every mother, fencing tears,.....and smudge the rough from little dears.'- rhyming is comforting 

Verse 8

• 'Nostalgia only makes me old.' 
• 'The innocence i want my brood' - her own children - she wants the best for them
• 'to cling on to like ten-bob notes'- old money pre 1971 
• 'was killed in TV's lassitude.' ,weariness ( they are sitting in front of telly)
• 'And it was me that turned it on.' -sense of guilt - her own role as mother 

• 'to buy some time to write this poem
• 'and eat the biscuits I would bake ( next line) if i'd commit to being home.'- regrets /differences -she has fallen short of her idea of a mother which she got from her own mother

Verse 9

• 'There's never a hanky up my sleeve.'- vastly different to her own mother
• 'the kind ( of children she has ) whoose noses strangers clean.' -again a sense of guilt
• 'What awkardness in me forbids ( next line) me to keep tissues in my bag 
• when handy packs are 50p?') 
• relectance to accept times have changed
• she is ralling agasint acting like her mother
• again there is commentary on disposable culture 

• Shifted to present day ( from Verse 7/8)
• 'I miss material hankerchiefs ( next line ) 'their shoft and hidden history.' - she misses them , like she misses her mother , although the hankerchief is different because it is only a small thing 
• Verse 10

• 'But it isn't mine'- she cannot be possessive
• 'My mother too, eventually ( next line) 'who died not leaving handkerchiefs' - an end to hankerchief 
• her mother wanted to give up hankies - and as 'queen of hankies ' is now dead- there seems  no point/ need  for  them
• 'but tissues and uncertainty : 
• 'of the scratcy and disposable , 
• last two lines: - mother's voice takes over
• that this is your material to do with, daughter what you will. ' - if mother heard her complaining , metaphorical meaning that the mother says it is up to the daughter to become what she wants e.g make her own story     

• New materials -how mothers shape us and how we in turn shape our children
• theme of inheritance /continuity 
• strucuture : regular , prehaps reflective of dated time , relating to a  more formal time or era of hankerchief 
• rhyming sequence : a,b,c ,d ,d ,e ,f ,e 
• also poem contains : internal rhyming , metaphors, personification , alliteration ,enjambement  and vivid description of the poets memories - as mentioned throughout cards 2-8