 Studying, before you will mind, by Caroline Duffy. Here's how you can analyse this poem. In terms of structure, this poem is written in 1, 2, 3, 4 stanzas. The first line begins with a time reference. The speaker is saying that this is 10 years before her mum gave birth to her. They use colloquial language here to show that the mum was much younger at this stage and she used to hang out and have fun with her friends. This onomatopoeia shows just how joyful her mother used to be. Also, this is zero, as well as the minor sentence, Marilyn, shows that she believed her mother was really beautiful. The enjambment after the words dance and close show her mother had a rebellious streak and she often got into trouble for it. The word hiding means beating, however, her mum was a real rebel as she always felt it was worth the beat. The rhetorical question in line 11 shows that the speaker knows she disrupted her mother's life once she gave birth to her. Yet the onomatopoeia here shows they had a really close relationship and they used to dance a lot. And the rule of three here shows she really misses her mother.