Brendon gallacher

''he was seven and i was six, my Brendon Gallacher.

he was irish and i was scottish, my Brendon Gallacher.

his father was in prision; he was a cat burglar.

my father was a communist party full time worker.

he had six brothers and i had one, my Brendon Gallacher''

The ''my'' shows the ownership of Brendon for the girl. Repeating ''my brendon gallacher'' shows the reader that he is miossed and that he was import to her. ''Gallacher'' is also a commom irish name, and with sterotypes, gives us the impression that he is from a rough background. A ''cat burglar'' is a childish thing, this is showing us that they are children and it is from a childs point if view. A '' communist party full time worker'' is not an actual job, this could be showing us the imagination of the child. The half rhymes in this stanza show that it is childish and gives a sense of clumsyness and gives the voice of a child.

''He would hold my hand and take me by the river

where we’d talk all about his family being poor.

He’d get his mum out of Glasgow when he got older.

A wee holiday some place nice. Some place far.

I’d tell my mum about my Brendon Gallacher.''

''wee'' - scottish dialect, shows the origin and the child like behavior. Scottich accent - sounds like a nursry rhyme, sing song like. From some of the stuff im this stanza ''family being poor'' we get a sense of what her childlike was like because being a child of 6 years old, you cant imagine something like poverty, a parent being in prison and a parent being an alcoholic. ''how his mum drank(stanza 3)'' ''his fater was in prison(stanza 1)''. 

''How his mum drank and his daddy was a cat burglar.

And she’d say, ‘Why not have him round to dinner?’

No, no, I’d say, he’s got big holes in his trousers.

I like meeting him by the burn in the open air.

Then one day after we’d been friends for two years,''

more scottish dialect, could get a sense of the differences between brendon gallager and the main voice in the poem. this is a memory of hers. It gives a sense of reality to the poem and a sense of the childs voice in the poem. iit seems incomplete, like a dream. the enjambment shows us hat there is more to it. it has a conversational tone because she is having a convo with her mum and there is direct speech.

''one day when it was pouring and I was indoors,

my mum says to me, ‘I was talking to Mrs Moir

who lives next door to your Brendon Gallacher.

Didn’t you say his address was 24 Novar?

She says there are no Gallachers at 24 Novar.''

this is where the poem changes from past tense to present tense - has a sense that she is not over it yet. repeating ''Brendon Gallacher'' could give her a sense that he is still there and has not left yet. the way this sentance is read and the layout shows that she is littery next door to Brendon Gallacher.

There never have been any Gallachers next door.’

And he died then, my Brendon Gallacher,

flat out on my bedroom floor, his spiky hair,

his impish grin, his funny, flapping ear.

Oh Brendon. Oh my Brendon Gallacher.

a discription of what he looked like. She is growing up suddenly because she has found out he is just an imaginary friend and does not exist. this is similar to the begining, its a childish start and end. repeating his name shows us that she does not want to believe that he is gone.