 Hello and welcome to a summary of all you need to know about the poem at 39 by Alice Walker. I'll explain the meaning related to this poem as it appears in part 3 of the Pearson-Edexcel International GCSE anthology. Now do bear in mind that in contrast to part 1 of the anthology which featured only nonfiction texts, and part 2 which was a mix of fiction short stories and poems, part 3 of this anthology exclusively features poems alone so in this video I'll highlight key language and literary devices used in the poem and you'll learn how to analyse it. So let's get started. Now what I'll do is I'll read through parts of the poem, pause every so often, and then point out important language and literary techniques. Let's first start with these two stanzas. How I Miss My Father I wish he had not been so tired when I was born. Write in deposit slips and checks, I think of him. He taught me how. This is the form he must have said. The way it's done. I learned to see bits of paper as a way to escape the life he knew and even in high school had a savings account. Now this poem is really really powerful because it essentially seems to be almost a eulogy of somebody's parent who's passed away more specifically. This poet, this speaker's parent and the father has passed away and they really miss them and seem to be reminiscing on all the good things that the father did and how positively the father impacted their life. Now the title itself, Poem at 39. Now do bear in mind that this poem is written in free verse and it's an autobiographical poem of Alice Walker's own parent, her father, as it celebrates her father and the influence that he had on her life. However you can also interpret it a bit more broadly in terms of how this narrator, the anonymous speaker, however we can presume is Alice Walker. We can interpret it as somebody referring to how important the role the parent has played in their lives and the role particularly the father has played in their lives. Now in the title, the mention of 39, essentially this means that it was very written likely when Alice Walker herself was 39 years old. Now the first line of the first stanza, How I Miss My Father, this line is actually repeated in line 25 as you'll see when we go further on in the poem. Now what this does, this repetition, is it emphasises Alice Walker's intense grief at losing her father and the significance it's had on her life but of course you can also interpret it as it just shows the intense grief of the narrator and losing their father. Moreover in line 2 they state, I wish he had not been and the monosyllabic language here is really simple showing that the speaker misses all aspects of her father and we learn that he was so tired and this intensifier shows just how difficult life likely was for the person's father as they were raising them, probably in poverty and however in spite of all of that the father tried their best to give this narrator a really good life. Moreover there's a lot of Anjom Mont used here and what this shows of course it adds to this dramatic monologue but it shows that this poem is almost a constant stream of thought by the speaker and of course do remember that Anjom Mont does also speed up the pace of the poem. Now in line 5 there's a single word born and what this shows is that this stanza starts with the recollection of the speaker of her father from her birth so do remember that autobiographically speaking in context she's speaking Alice Walker is the youngest of all children so she's remembering how she was like when she was born but equally how perhaps her father must have been really tired by the time she was born but he still wanted to be a good dad to her he wasn't disillusioned he wasn't tired from having his previous children he wanted to still be the best father to her. Now in the following verse we learn that he was right in deposit slips, checks then there's a mention in line 16 of savings account and of course in line 17 too. This belongs to the semantic field of business and money and what this does is it emphasises the her father's frugality it also to some degree emphasises the lack of money that they must have had but also the father's focus on handling finances so even if they didn't have that much her father was really really focused on not being crippled by bad debt and not being crippled by bad finances and he passed on this message to his daughter the narrator then the narrator states, I think of him and the repetition of the first person pronoun I this is an unauthoric reference back to the speaker it places the speaker this narrator centre point in our focus now in line 8 we learn he taught me how now what this shows and especially the alliteration he and how it shows that despite being tired her father set time aside to teach and empower her to teach her about money but also to teach her about how to survive and even thrive in what can be a fairly difficult and challenging environment moreover in line 9 this is the form now the alliteration this and the echoes and emphasises her father's direction when he's teaching her okay this is the form this how you fill in a deposit slip this how you fill in a check and so on so he really took time to teach her about finances which in many poor households is not really well taught moreover in line 11 the way it has done what this declarative sentence does is it emphasises the importance of education that her father placed both on education at home but also an education both in school and in other aspects of life furthermore we learn that the narrator learned to see bits of paper now this is quite informal very conversational and this is echoing the idea that this is a constant stream of thought the narrator is telling us this as they just casually recall all of these different incidences from her past with her father now in line 14 she saw these bits of paper as a way to escape and the mention of escape highlights the importance of saving and looking at money as a tool to secure financial freedom and this is what her father taught her which is a vital life lesson that she feels she really really felt imparted upon now she then mentions to escape the life he knew and what this shows is the narrator's wistfulness her sense of regret that her father had to live such a difficult life so let's carry on he taught me that telling the truth did not always mean a beating though many of my truths must have grieved him before the end how I miss my father he cooked like a person dancing in a yoga meditation and carved the voluptuous sharing of good food now here we learn again that her father carried on teaching her important lessons now this is a repetition of line 8 which emphasises how critical education is for her father in line 19 she learns that telling the truth does not always mean a beating now the alliteration telling the truth emphasises the importance that her father taught her of being morally upstanding and of course being morally upstanding being honest, being direct didn't always lead to corporal punishment the reference to a beating refers to in some households where you're physically beaten for doing something wrong for wrongdoing and even especially for admitting truthfully that you did something wrong however she's showing actually as opposed to this approach her father would also reward her without a beating if she was honest and so of course this shows that her father was actually very tender towards her now we learn that she states many of my truths now this possessive pronoun shows she takes ownership of her own learning and her own empowerment but also she emphasises that as she grew older she started diverging in some of her views from her father and she really respects how he respected that now her reference to the abstract noun truths is mysterious because we're not entirely sure what did she learn as she was growing older that maybe might have diverged from her father however even if we don't learn that that's not the important thing, the important thing for her is that her father accepted her views, her truths in spite of maybe not always agreeing with it now we learn that her truths must have grieved him and what this is showing us is that as she grew up she became independent with her own thoughts which probably must have clashed with her father's views he must have felt sad at some of these thoughts he still respected it and the euphemism before the end, what this is is a euphemism for death and so she's reflecting that her father even if they didn't necessarily agree on certain things he still respected it although he did probably hold in his heart a sadness that they were becoming so different as she was growing older then of course as I mentioned line 25 is a repetition of line 1 which shows the emphatic and emotional state that the narrator is in as they're really really regretting not having had enough time with their father how I miss my father and this is also an exclamatory sentence then we learn that her father cooked like a person dancing now the simile here shows her father was really joyous in an effortless way and she really really admired that and we learn that he cooked like a person dancing in a yoga meditation also this shows that a really interesting kind of image in our minds of someone who's quite peaceful but also quite joyous in an effortless way now he craved the he carved or rather he craved the voluptuous sharing of good food now what this shows is that he used to cook copious amounts and share it with everybody so he was really really generous carry on now I look and cook just like him my brain light tossing this and that into the pot seasoning none of my life the same way twice happy to feed whoever strives my way he would have grown to admire the woman I've become cooking, writing, chopping wood and staring into the fire now this final part of the poem shows that actually her father was successful in imparting and teaching her the important life lessons as I look and cook and the rhyme here look and cook shows she takes pride in having learned so avidly from her father and now imitating him, moreover the semantic field of cooking is used cook, pot, seasoning and cooking and what the semantic field of cooking and food does is it shows that food was very likely a way that she connected with her father moreover in line 34 she mentions tossing this and that and the alliteration tossing this, that shows that just like her father she too is really effortlessly joyous moreover she says seasoning none of my life the same way twice and what this shows is that she inherited her father's creative flair both in the kitchen when it came to cooking but even in her life she always looked for excitement she never got or settled into boredom or did the same thing twice too often then she mentions happy to feed whoever strays my way and she inherited his generosity very likely of course when it came to cooking and sharing her food but also this is a metaphor for how she inherited his generosity when it came to sharing happiness with others sharing the good side of herself with other people as her father did now in line 40 she mentions she would have grown to admire now what this shows is that the speaker is really proud of the person she's become thanks to the influence that her father has had on her and the reference to the woman this actually contrasts with the reference to born in stanza 1 in verse 1 because this shows that her journey is now coming full circle and also if you think about the title it's coming full circle because she's now 39 she's reflecting on all the 39 years that she's lived but also reflecting on how her father impacted the way she's lived her lifestyle for those 39 years moreover there's the ascendotin that's used cooking, writing, chopping wood and what this does is it shows she's become just as fastidious and hardworking as her father now she's staring into the fire and this present continuous verb shows she's been quite meditative and reflective as she thinks about the life of her father and finally the reference to fire of life and vitality she still has life within her however she is reflecting on how she can make the life within her even better for the remainder of her life as she thinks of the life that her father has lived so that's all if you found this video useful do note that we have an in depth extensive course covering all the texts and poems in parts 1, 2 and 3 of the Pearson, Edexcel International GCSE anthologies please sign up for the course for explanations on all the texts as well as model answers but also check out our website www.firstreadsheeters.com where you can find plenty of English revision worksheets, model answers and online courses covering all the major English syllabuses including Edexcel, AQA and IGCSE thank you so much for watching