The Way My Mother Speaks: Stanza Three

“The Way My Mother Speaks: Stanza Three - Analysis”

Significance of Stanza Three

• The third stanza in “The Way My Mother Speaks” signifies the narrator’s shift from being an observer to an active participant within her mother’s memories.

• Here, the speaker closes her eyes and rehearses the phrase, indicating a clear desire to connect with her mother and her background.

Use of Language

• The repetition of ‘I say’ is a significant act of reclaiming and owning the mother’s language within the speaker’s voice.

• The line ‘beneath my hands, her hands.’ symbolizes the cyclist nature of the mother-daughter relationship, emphasising the continuance and influence of maternal lineage.

Delivery of Emotions

• The use of phrases ‘I say’ and ‘as if’ allow Duffy to play around with illogical time and space reflecting not only the intensity of the narrator’s feelings but also how deeply-rooted her mother’s influence is.

• The speaker’s tone turns nostalgic towards the end of this stanza, as she imagines her own hands morphing into her mother’s hands, portraying the strong bond and longing for the connection she has with her mother.

The Role of Memory

• By reiterating her mother’s phrases, the speaker reflects on the powerful hold that memories and training from the past have over her.

• She attempts to emotionally reconnect with her mother and her past by mimicking these phrases, which serve as linguistic mementos of her mother’s influence.

Students should remember to refer to these points, using specific lines from the poem, when writing essays or responses on this topic. Understanding stanza three in “The Way My Mother Speaks” will help bring depth to literary analysis.