In “Before You Were Mine” and “Brothers,” Carol Ann Duffy uses descriptions of memory as a way of reliving past family life. Throughout “Before You Were Mine,” Duffy writes about her mother and imagines her life before motherhood. This poem is intended as Duffy's memory of her mother through her mother's own memories, and her recognition of all that she was before the responsibilities and commitment of having children entered her life. Duffy seeks to revive and capture what her mother was like when she was younger, by reliving her past by imagining what her mother's memories might have been like. It feels like these memories are evoked by looking at photographs, an idea particularly present in the first stanza, when Duffy describes her mother laughing with her friends, comparing her dress blowing around her legs to "Marilyn" . She even addresses her mother directly – “I am ten years from the corner where you laugh” – to create a more personal conversational atmosphere within the poem. The tone of the poem is one of admiration and affection; after all, she looks back on her mother's life with tenderness. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Throughout the four stanzas, Duffy jumps between different eras of the past, while writing in the present tense. This strategy feels like she's bringing her mother's past to life in a more vivid way, almost as if she's recounting her life as it happens. Duffy uses memory to convey the contrast between her mother's life before and after motherhood. In particular, she depicts the feeling of enthusiasm and optimism that reigned in her mother's life before her birth. Duffy knows that the idea of ​​having a child “doesn't yet occur to her” mother, who is absorbed in her own world of dances and her dreams for the future. The "sparkling tomorrows of cinema" suggest a joie de vivre, that Duffy's mother dreams of a future similar to that presented by the films. The “ballroom of a thousand eyes” could be a metaphor for her beauty and the heads she turned while dancing in the ballroom, or simply a reference to the glittering balls of an active imagination. The tone of the poem is tender and Duffy conveys a sense of admiration and tenderness as he reflects on his mother's life: "This glamorous love endures where you shine and waltz and laugh." This statement shows the affection Duffy has towards his mother; perhaps these words also suggest that she recognizes that her mother has not lost the "sparkle" of her youth, despite the responsibilities she assumed as a parent. Beyond the glamor and optimism of reliving her mother's past, Duffy projects a sense of the inevitability of aging. At the time when Duffy's mother was young, a woman's life was considered more traditional and the expected path in a woman's life was to marry and have children. We feel that these actions were inevitable; Eventually, some of the wonder and enthusiasm of youth is lost, as shown when Duffy recalls her mother saying that "the decade before her loud possessive cry was the best." A slight sadness is created by looking at the past in this poem. Duffy recognizes the sacrifices her mother made for her children and celebrates the optimism and hope in her life when she was younger. On the other hand, in "Brothers", Duffy alternates between past and present to relive his past memories. brothers. She describes her brothers when they were younger, remembering mundane snapshots of their youthful lives: “…an alter boy, a boy who.