The Black Lace Fan my Mother Gave Me: Key Quotes

Section 1: Descriptive Language and Imagery

“The blackbird on this first sultry morning, in summer, finding buds, worms, fruit,” – Boland uses sensory imagery to set the scene, immediately drawing the reader into the lush, organic nature of summer’s beginning, which contrasts with the eventual deterioration brought by the season’s heat.
“The day with its cool hands.” – A striking metaphor creates the image of the day itself as an entity that can touch and affect physical realities.
“Paris nineteen thirty six.” – A timeline is presented, grounding the poem in historical reality, adding personal and historical dimensions to the narrative.

Section 2: Point of Comparison

“How strange it is. With a little distance you can look at anything. Even love.” – Boland uses contrasting ideas and her play with perspective to offer an alternate viewpoint on love and its enduring, yet sometimes convoluted, markings.

Section 3: Symbolism

“The black velvet roses.” – Roses rendered in velvet and black evoke a sense of opulence, beauty and perhaps melancholy or sorrow, as these objects become the symbolic epicentre of the poem.

Section 4: Decay and Change

“The wind unfurling the fan…” – The inevitable passage of time and change is illustrated through the uncontrolled forces of weather.
“Now it is her fan…” – Ownership shifts from mother to daughter, just as the symbols and meanings of the past shift over time.

Section 5: The Conclusion

“Like my mother I have also used it on sultry nights.” – The cycle repeats, threads of mother and daughter, past and present, intertwining in shared experiences and objects. This line also echoes the poem’s exploration of generational continuity and historical recurrence.
“I want to emphasise its dusty feathering, its tone of rose and the unslept-in bed in the photograph.” - Through a commanding, declarative tone, Boland asserts the poem’s intention to explore, unmask, and challenge the glamour and romanticism often associated with moments in the past. Through this lens, faded beauty, neglected objects and ‘unslept-in beds’ find their voice.