BEFORE YOU WERE MINE/I CARRY YOUR HEART

Question 1

intro

4 points

Answer 1

Duffy’s “Before You Were Mine” and Cummings’ “i carry your heart” both explore deep, lasting love.

Duffy looks at the love between mother and daughter.

Cummings celebrates romantic love as eternal and unchanging.

both poems show how powerful devotion can live across time.

Question 2

“I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on”

Answer 2

Temporal shift

Duffy uses this line to position the speaker in the past, imagining a time before she was born, which helps explore her mother’s earlier life.

Question 3

“i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)”

Answer 3

Anaphora and repetition

Cummings repeats this line to show how intertwined the speaker’s heart is with their loved one’s, expressing an inseparable bond.

Question 4

“Before you were mine”

Answer 4

Possessive language

Duffy uses this phrase to show how the speaker feels a strong bond with her mother, while also hinting at guilt for the changes motherhood has brought.

Question 5

“i fear no fate… for you are my fate”

Answer 5

Tone and hyperbole

Cummings combines these techniques to convey a deep, sincere love. His gentle tone invites readers to share the speaker’s happiness, the flowing syntax makes the love feel unbroken and infinite, and the hyperbolic statement reveals a love so complete it overcomes all fear and fate.

Question 6

“with a hiding for the late one”

Answer 6

Colloquial language and imagery

Duffy uses this phrase to show how the mother’s life has changed from fun and freedom to a more controlled, routine existence, hinting at the strictness of family life.

Question 7

“and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart”

Answer 7

Cosmic metaphor

Cummings uses this metaphor to suggest that love is not just personal but cosmic—an extraordinary energy.

Question 8

conclusion

Answer 8

Both poets express deep devotion

Duffy explores how life transforms relationships

Cummings celebrates love as the one thing that never changes.

Question 9

“Marilyn,” “polka-dot dress”

Answer 9

cultural allusion

Duffy uses these images to highlight the mother’s past glamour and carefree spirit, contrasting it with the loss and sadness felt in the present.

Question 10

“the root of the root… the sky of the sky”

Answer 10

Cosmic imagery and metaphor

Cummings uses grand cosmic metaphors to show that his love is fundamental, everlasting, and more powerful than anything in life or death.