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Presented by Elysia Cheung
- the transition between childhood and adulthood
- the contrast between her parenting and her mother's parenting, "I raised neglected-looking kids..." vs "tucked in the wrist of every cardi"
- family legacy
- nostalgia
Barber was born in America but raised in England, and is a renowned scholar of Marlowe who some believe, including Barber, to be the true writer of Shakespeare’s work. The collection ‘Material’ and the poem itself were her response to the death of her mother in 2002.
A sentimental tone is also established through the abbreviation of words, such as cardigan being shortened to “cardi” in the second stanza. This brings a more natural speech and rhythm to the poem, making it sound more personal, helping to make useful long term possessions seem significant in comparison to a more materialistic world today. Similarly, there is heavy use of personal pronouns to further emphasise the personal connections and ideas.
One of the more obvious poetic devices used in ‘Material’ is the symbolism of the handkerchief. While it can be interpreted literally, it can also be understood to represent many ideas and features of a past time in the poet’s childhood with their mother.
Contrast between hanky and tissues show the change in the role of the mother to the poetic voice. A hanky used to be made od durable material (relating to the title), were given as gifts which often had a lot of thought put into them – embroidered with personal initials. However now, people tend to use paper tissues which are disposable and weak. They are often a rushed thought and can be bought anywhere. This juxtaposes how the mother’s role has changed and that now, the poetic voice is not as present as she perhaps should be to her children.
Line 1: "hanky" - abbreviation of handkerchief, abbreviation makes it more personal, sentimental. Also the 'hanky' is the MATERIAL (immediately links to the title) that the handerchief is made off showing the physical aspect of it.
Line 2-3: 'hanky meant a thing of cloth' vs 'paper tissues bouht in packs' - immediate contrast between something that lasts and something that's disposible; could be representing how modern society is quick to throw things away, once meaningful objects such as handkerchiefs have lost their meaning over time - theme? past vs present
Line 4: 'late-night garages and shops' where you buy the disposible tissues - image of garages and shops gives the impression that these tissues are cheap, easily accessible without much thought.
Line 5-8: you get the images of cinema-esque scenes where people would wave goodbye to their loved ones on the train, images of people weeping 'corners of your grief' - these are the old ideas of what a handkerchief was about; it had a permanence (emphasised by 'always') and a romance about it.
Line 10: "embarrassment" of "lace" - could suggest an 'excess' for the modest woman as 'lace' is an expensive material
Line 11: "embroidered with a V for Viv" serves as a permanent memory and identity
Line 12: "spittled" and "scrubbed" - verbs help reinforce image of what a hanky can do to clean and prepare your children for the outside world
Line 10 and 13: "lace" and "face" rhyme - this connects the material to the face and emphasises how it is normally used around the face area.
Line 15-16: metaphysical suggestion that hankies have life, love and children themselves - suggests a vitality and a 'being' to this material that isn't in the disposible tissues.
Metaphysical: Philosophical sense -
concerned with abstract thought or subjects, as existence, causality, or truth and/or concerned with first principles and ultimate grounds, as being, time, or substance.
- "naffest Christmas gift"; symbolic representation of the hanky as a gift, and how they're dainty, practically useless and how you can also get the more 'masculine' ones that are "serious" and "grey". Barber also describes the physicality of what the hanky is used for which is cleaning "snot"
Theme; hankies are to be cleaned and cared for - represent time when they were used in department stores that were the opposite of malls that you'd "never find today" emphasising the loss of the small meaningful things in today's materialistic world. As the generation moves on, so does its tastes for the small, meaningful things albiet useless they carry a certain nostalgia about them.
Theme; as the 'older' generation of 'hankies' dies it takes with it old business' too - the "fishmonger", "butcher" and "greengrocer" are all made "history". Therefore what's 'dying' isn't just an object, this object (the hanky) symbolises a time, an economy and a culture that's been destroyed and the extensive detail used shows the how the voice of the poet is reminiscent of the past
Along with this comes the loss of a community - losing the fishmonger that's opposite the danceshcool and although not a good dance school is filled with memory and evocative language such as "fencing tears".
This could possibly represent the feelings of the voice of the poet as she could be 'fencing tears' as she is filled with the pride and the joy of a lost time.
"Nostalgia makes me old" the poet expresses bittersweet remembrance of the past. "Ten-bob notes" (ten shilling notes) are also gone which was an old English way to count your money which was killed by TV. Her own children are losing innocence and connections to past culture when they watch TV, the poet's guilt then shines through "and it was me that turned it on"
The poet uses 'TV' and "bought biscuits" as opposed to spending time with her children so she can write and work. Feminist narrative to what it means to be a woman in this world and she's losing this past as she wants to be a writer but worries that she's neglecting her children though this - "if I'd commit to being home"
"I raised neglected-looking kids" - hybrid adjective is important as althought they are not neglected they don't 'look' right as they haven't been cleaned up with a hanky. "The kind whose noses strangers clean" - she lets other people take care of her children.
"what awkwardness in me forbids..." - earlier she said she was "embarrassed" of the expense of a hanky however as they are so cheap now "when hanky packs are 50p", she can't bring herself to keep these disposible tissues in her bag. Why? Possibly because she remembers how much hankies used to mean or she's guilty as she knows she should be carrying round a lace hanky but she isn't
"I miss material handkerchiefs..." Barber misses the past and misses the materiality of the past its "soft and hidden history"
"But it isn't mine. I'll let it go" - before this stanza she is longing for the past but the tone in the last stanza changes to acceptance of the loss of the hanky and its history.
"should I complain of the scratchy and disposible" - saying if I (voice of poet) said to my mother what I have said to you (reader), that disposible tissues are scratchy, don't last, have no beauty or culture behind them, the mother would say "this is your material to do with, daughter, what you will." - this translates to 'this is your life' the material being what makes up your life' and 'take responsibility for your life'.