aqa love and relatioships poetry 2018

Her smile went out, and ‘twasn’t a woman – more like a little frightened fay’

comparing the women to a mythical creture and how quickly her smile went out 

Use of dialect gives sense of farmer's voice

Shy as a leveret, swift as he, / Straight and slight as a young larch tree’

Pair of similes suggests his bride is almost not human

The narrator laments that he never 'heard her at all'

Reminds us of the silence of the bride both in the poem and in the marriage

Poems you could compare with The Farmer's Bride:

1 When We Two Parted 2 Neutral Tones 3 Porphyria's Lover

like a winged seed loosed form his parent steam 

show that the child  is not ready to go  that the parent steam provides  the child  stem with nutriants wth the child steam being loosed the staem would need to fend for its self 

Key Comparisons with Walking Away

• Mother, Any Distance

  • Parent–child relationships

  • But from the perspective of a child

• Follower

  • Changing parent-child relationship

    • But from the perspective of a child

  • Similar uses of time and memory

That glamorous love lasts / where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.’

This shows the glamour of her mother's life as imagined by the narrator, and her desire to possess even the memories of the past 'before you were mine'.

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

In this poem, the poet suggests that motherhood can be a burden, especially compared to the excitement of life before the 'loud, possessive yell' of a child takes over.

Key quotes in Winter Swans

• ''They mate for life' you said as they left'

  • Only instance of direct speech

  • Marks turning point

• Swans = ‘like boats righting in rough weather’

  • Simile

  • Foreshadows the reconciliation

  • Refers back to the stormy opening

comparisons between Winter Swans and Letters from Yorkshire:

1 Shows a continuing relationship rather than the beginning or end 2 Focus on everyday aspects of a relationship

they mate for life  they said 

• This is the only instance of direct speech in the poem.
• It marks the turning point as the image of the mating swans reunites the estranged lovers.

 were ‘like boats righting in rough weather’

• This simile foreshadows the reconciliation of the lovers.
• It refers back to the stormy opening of the poem and turbulence (instability) of the relationship.

Key comparisons - Before You Were Mine

• Eden Rock

  • Distorted presentation of the parents and the past

  • Mix of memories and imagined scenes

• Mother, Any Distance/Walking Away

  • Distanced family relationships

  • Looking to the past

Key quotes in Before You Were Mine

• ‘That glamorous love lasts / where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.’

  • Glamour of her mother's life as imagined by the narrator

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

  • Suggests that motherhood can be a burden

Key quotes in Before You Were Mine

• ‘That glamorous love lasts / where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.’

  • Glamour of her mother's life as imagined by the narrator

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

  • Suggests that motherhood can be a burden