Reciprocities

for my mother

1 She gave me skeins of wool

2 to hold out (like a priest at Mass),
3 with stern rubrics not to fidget, while she
4 wound it into a ball, unwinding me,
5 unravelling my hands and arms, checking
6 my lapses with a gentle tug
7 when I wandered off through images
8 her chat had made, for though
9 she kept the line between us taut
10 she kept my heart at ease with all her talk.

11 And when her ball compacted grew,

12 and my few strands fell limp away,
13 I knew there was no loss, for she
14 would knit it back again to fit me perfectly.

15 But richer still,

16 I see today these lines are drawn out from me
17 to knit through this faltering verse
18 a thread of memory
19 time has pulled from consciousness.
Cathal Lagan
Contextual Questions A:

Contextual questions B:
Title
1.1 Using your own words, explain the meaning of ‘reciprocities’. (2)
1.2 To whom is the poem dedicated? (1)
Stanza 1
2.1 Who is the ‘She’ in line 1? (1)
2.2 Draw what you think a skein of wool would look like. (1)
2.3 Why does the poet have to hold out his hands? (1)
2.4 Look at line 2: (a) Identify and explain the figure of speech in this line. (3)
(b) Why do you think part of the line is written in brackets? (2)
2.5 The mother is described as “stern”. Find one word in the poem to show that she
is also friendly. (1)
2.6 A rubric is a set of instructions. Using the word “fidget”, write an instruction that
the mother may give her son. (1)
2.7 Refer to lines 4 and 5. This is a metaphor comparing the boy to a ball of wool
being wound. The mother cannot literally “unwind” or “unravel” the boy. What do
you think the mother is really doing? (2)
2.8 Write down the word in line 6 that means a loss of attention. (1)
2.9 How do you know the young boy was already thinking like a poet? (2)
2.10 The mother ”chats” to her son. Imagine one thing she may be telling him. (1)
2.11 The word ‘line” in line 9 is a metaphor. Write down the two things that are being
compared. (2)
2.12 Give a synonym for “taut”. (1)
2.13 What is it that keeps the poet’s heart “at ease”? (2)

Stanza 2
3.1 Identify and explain the importance of the conjunction in line 11. (2)
3.2 This stanza describes how as the mother’s ball of wool is growing, the wool that
the boy is holding comes to an end.
(a) What does the poet know will never be lost? (1)
(b) How well does the mother know her son? Use line 14 to support your answer.
(2)
Stanza 3
4.1 The poet starts this stanza with the conjunction “But”. You wouldn’t normally start
a sentence with a conjunction. Why has he done this? (2)
4.2 What is “richer”(more valuable) than the memory of winding the skein of wool as
a boy? (2)
4.3 In your own words, explain what the mother has been able to ”knit through” her
son. The poem depends on the extended metaphor of the mother and son
winding the skein of wool. Underline all the words that build this metaphor. (2)

Contextual questions A: Memo

1. The speaker and his mother are busy winding up the wool(time/action) in their
home(place)
2. (a) oxymoron (1)
(b) The word gentle implies a kind/loving manner (√) and a “tug”, in contrast
implies the a deliberate/calculated/pulling back to reality. (√) (2)
3. (3 marker. When answering, consider the following steps.)
1. Voice your opinion: The enjambment enhances the meaning of the text.
2. Provide evidence from the text, i.e. example(s): Enjambment and the image of
the winding of the wool complement each other.
3. Explain how your example helps to substantiate your opinion: Both
enjambment and the winding of the wool imply an ongoing, consistent
process. (3)
4. Literal meaning: The mother is pulling the strand of wool tightly.
Figurative meaning: the mother is communicating respectfully, yet firmly with
her child. (label your answer) (2)
5. The speaker says that time has passed (√) and as a result he has forgotten
certain memories. (√) (2)

6. The speaker is nostalgically (thinking back sadly, yet fondly) reminiscing

about a childhood memory when she helped her mother to wind the strand of
wool. She appreciates the care and love her mother has provided. (Answer
must be grounded in the text. Accept alternatives.) (3)

7. To reciprocate means that one returns someone’s love. Reciprocities implies

that there is more than one person in this mother-child relationship. The poem
itself is the speaker’s way of reciprocating his mother’s love and support
which he experienced during his childhood. (Answer must be grounded in the
text. Accept alternatives) (3)

Contextual Questions B:
1.1 To return something to someone in equal measure. One good turn deserves
Another.

1.2 The poet’s mother.

Stanza 1
2.1 The poet’s mother.
2.2 It is a wide loop or wool; sometimes twisted into a knot to stop it from
tangling.
2.3 The mother will loop the wool around his outstretched hands.
2.4 (a) Simile. The young boy with his outstretched hands is like a priest that he
becomes as adult. He will stretch out his hands in blessing.
(b)The brackets separate the boy from the man he is yet to become.
2.5 gentle/ chat/ at ease
2.6 “Sit still and stop fidgeting or we will tangle the wool.” (Anything to show that
to fidget is to move restlessly.)
2.7 She is teaching him life lessons. When she unwinds him, she is correcting
him. When she winds him in, she draws him closer to her heart. She is
learning to know him “perfectly”.
2.8 “lapses”
2.9 He wanders off through “images”- he is creating poems in his head as the
mother talks.
2.10 Use your discretion – anything that would be good advice a mother may
give to her son. “Always be patient”/”Always be kind”
2.11 The “line” is the wool that is being wound into a ball. It’s like a fishing line,
reeling him in.
2.12 Tight, tensioned.
2.13 The mother’s gentle conversation, her chatting, keeps him relaxed.

Stanza 2
3.1 And- the word joins thoughts from stanza 1 to stanza 2. It holds the threads
together.
3.2 (a)His mother’s love and influence on him.
(b) She knows him very well. See the words ”perfect fit”- this is not just the
jersey but her son too.

Stanza 3
4.1 It changes the direction of the poem as it moves from memory into his
present thoughts.
4.2 The knowledge of the “lines” of love and character that the mother has
“knitted” into her son. She made him who he is.
4.3 He grows up to be a priest, a poet, and a man who remembers and reveres
his mother. She has given him all of his good qualities.