My Grandmothers Houses Jackie Kay The title of

My Grandmother’s Houses Jackie Kay

The title of the poem which we are going to be studying is ‘My Grandmother’s Houses’. What ideas does the title give you about what the poem is going to be about? You are going to read the poem and then do some work on it.

1 She is on the second floor of a tenement. From her front room window you see the cemetery. Her bedroom is my favourite: newspapers dating back to the War covering every present 5 She’s ever got since the War. What’s the point in buying her anything my mother moans. Does she use it. Does she even look at it. I spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless tablecloths, napkins, perfume, bath salts, 10 stories of things I can’t understand, words like conscientious objector. At night I climb over all the newspaper parcels to get to bed, harder than the school’s obstacle course. High up in her bed all the print merges together.

15 When she gets the letter she is hopping mad. What does she want with anything modern, a shiny new pin? Here is home. The sideboard solid as a coffin. The newsagents next door which sells 20 hazelnut toffees and her Daily Record. Chewing for ages over the front page, her toffees sticking to her false teeth.

2 The new house is called a high rise. I play in the lift all the way up to 24. 25 Once I get stuck for a whole hour. From her window you see noisy kids playing hopscotch or home. She makes endless pots of vegetable soup, a bit of hoch floating inside like a fish.

30 Till finally she gets to like the hot running water in her own bathroom, the wall-to-wall foam-backed carpet, the parcels locked in her air-raid shelter. But she still doesn’t settle down; 35 even at 70 she cleans people’s houses for ten bob and goes to church on Sundays, dragging me along to the strange place where the air is trapped and ghosts sit at the altar. My parents do not believe. It is down to her. 40 A couple of prayers. A hymn or two. Threepenny bit in the collection hat. A flock of women in coats and fussy hats flapping over me like missionaires, and that is that, until the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran.

3 45 By the time I am seven we are almost the same height. She still walks faster, rushing me down the High Street till we get to her cleaning house. The hall is huge. Rooms lead off like an octopus’s arms. I sit in a room with a grand piano, top open – 50 a one-winged creature, whilst my gran polishes for hours. Finally bored I start to pick some notes, oh can you wash a sailor’s shirt oh can you wash and clean till my gran comes running, duster in hand. I told you don't touch anything. The woman comes too; 55 the posh one all smiles that make goosepimples run up my arms. Would you like to sing me a song?

Someone’s crying my Lord Kumbaya. Lovely, she says, beautiful child, skin the colour of café au lait. ‘Café oh what? Hope she’s not being any bother. ’ 60 Not at all. You just get back to your work. On the way to her high rise I see her like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Every time I crouch over a comic she slaps me. Sit up straight. She is on the ground floor of a high rise. 65 From her living-room you see ambulances, screaming their way to the Royal Infirmary.

My Grandmother’s Houses First Impressions In pairs, discuss these questions: • What are your initial thoughts on the poem? • What language techniques does the writer use? • What is she trying to say by using these techniques?

In groups of 4: • How many houses are referred to in the poem? • Identify the four houses.

Tenement High Rise Church Posh Woman’s Big House

In groups of 4: • Draw an outline of each of these houses on a sheet of A 3 paper. • You will be given a list of statements. Match each statement to the correct house and stick it on the appropriate picture. • Leave a gap after each statement.

The Tenement • The view from the window is of gravestones. • Things are hoarded in the bedroom. • The house is next to a shop. • The grandmother enjoys living there. • The house is full of history. • The furniture is large and solid.

The High Rise • Children play outside. • The house takes time to get used to. • The house has modern conveniences. • The name of the house sounds strange. • The building the house is in is enormous. • The grandmother feels uncomfortable. • The grandmother makes comforting food.

The Church • The grandmother doesn’t live here. • The grandmother meets her friends here. • The speaker doesn’t enjoy being in this house. • The house is claustrophobic. • The house contains memories of the past. • The grandmother has been going to this house for a long time.

The Posh Woman’s House • The house is large. • There is very little to entertain the speaker. • The house belongs to someone else. • The grandmother spends a lot of time here. • The house is not for playing in. • The house has imposing items in it.

• Each member of the group is now going to take one of the houses and provide evidence from the poem to support each statement. • Write these quotes on your pictures of the houses, next to the appropriate statements.

In pairs: • You are going to be given images of the figurative ‘objects’ from the poem. • Find the image connected to each picture in the poem and write it underneath the image. • Analyse the image and its significance in the poem.

‘The sideboard solid as a coffin’ (line 18)

‘She makes endless pots of vegetable soup, a bit of hoch floating inside like a fish. ’ (lines 28 -29)

‘A flock of women in coats and fussy hats’ (line 42)

‘flapping over me like missionaires’ (line 43)

‘I sit in a room with a grand piano, top open – a one-winged creature’ (lines 49 -50)

‘The hall is huge. Rooms lead off like an octopus’s arms. ’ (lines 47 -8)

‘On the way to her high rise I see her like the hunchback of Notre Dame. ’ (lines 61 -62)

My Grandmother’s Houses What’s it about? The poem is a monologue told by a female persona describing the time she spends with her grandmother, both at her grandmother’s homes (initially a tenement and then a high rise block of flats) and the house her grandmother cleans for a living. It explores ideas about the passage of time and intergenerational / family relationships.

My Grandmother’s Houses What’s it about? The narrator seems to have a positive relationship with her grandmother and fond memories. The poem makes some references to social class and several references to death or words associated with this suggest perhaps the grandmother has now passed away.

Presentations You are now going to work in small groups. Each of the 7 groups will be given an aspect of the poem to investigate: Structure Word choice Symbolism The grandmother Alliteration Imagery The speaker

Presentations You must prepare a presentation to deliver to your peers on your given aspect. You will be given instructions to guide your discussion and the content of the presentation.

My Grandmother’s Houses What is it about?

My Grandmother’s Houses In this poem, the poet simultaneously recreates her childhood experiences and voices her adult perceptions of her grandmother. Each section of the poem describes a different house, each one reflecting different aspects of her life, work and personality. This structure enables Jackie Kay to create a vivid, memorable portrait of her grandmother.

My Grandmother’s Houses - Structure The first section describes her tenement flat with her bedroom’s idiosyncratic clutter. In the second section the poet creates a picture of her life in her new high-rise flat. We learn that she is always busy, still cleaning people’s houses at the age of seventy and taking her reluctant grandchild to church with her on Sundays.

My Grandmother’s Houses - Structure The third section describes the child’s perceptions of her grandmother’s “cleaning house” and uses snatches of remembered conversations to portray the somewhat patronising “posh one”. The final three lines suggest that her grandmother had moved to a ground floor flat, where she is disturbed by screaming ambulances. It is a sombre ending to a poem which pays tribute to the life of this spirited, hardworking and devout woman.

My Grandmother’s Houses - Themes • Sense of the ‘standards’ of the older generation – work ethic, religious sensibilities, asceticism. • Sense of the child’s awe at the grandmother’s life /possessions. • Explores ideas about displacement – physical and temporal. • Also looks at notions of traditional versus modern ways of life – is embracing the new a rejection of the past?

You are now going to annotate your copy of the poem.

Rhythm / internal rhyme links ‘tenement’ to ‘cemetery’. Suggestion that these are the two destinations in life. 1 She is on the second floor of a tenement. From her front room window you see the cemetery.

Repetition of ‘War’ and ‘every’ / ‘ever’ – sense of the child’s perception of the length of time that has passed and the mystery of such a hoarding. Sense of awe conveyed. Her bedroom is my favourite: newspapers dating back to the War covering every present 5 She’s ever got since the War. What’s the point in buying her anything my mother moans. Alliteration focuses on the disgruntlement of the mother.

Seem to be questions but not punctuated as such. Inevitability of the answers turns them into statements. Contrast with the wonder of the child. Does she use it. Does she even look at it. I spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless tablecloths, napkins, perfume, bath salts, Enjambment forces a lack of ‘unwrapping. . . wrapping’ the number of pause before the items emphasised but also the time list. spent in the simple activity.

List suggests the number of items. They are all frivolous. Gifts for gifts’ sake – not necessarily practical or useful. So put aside. Yet not discarded. Hoarding? Does she use it. Does she even look at it. I spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless tablecloths, napkins, perfume, bath salts,

Ambiguous link back to the newspapers that contain the gifts: are they more of a gift to the child? stories of things I can’t understand, words like conscientious objector. At night I climb over all the newspaper parcels to get to bed, harder than the school’s obstacle course. High up in her bed all the print merges together. Enjambment emphasises how high the child feels she is climbing.

Sense of her smallness among the vast number of parcels. like conscientious objector. At night I climb over all the newspaper parcels to get to bed, harder than the school’s obstacle course. High up in her bed all the print merges together. Enjambment to emphasise dual reading: sense of awe and literal height of the bed to the child.

‘the letter’ – definitive article, officialdom. There is no ‘other’ letter. Grandmother’s words – links back to the gifts that are unwanted. 15 When she gets the letter she is hopping mad. What does she want with anything modern, a shiny new pin? Here is home. The sideboard solid as a coffin. Metaphor – the new pin, the new house; modernity. Alliteration emphasises her connection to the tenement. Short declarative statement.

Simile - ‘solid as a coffin’ – sense this is the place she expected to live and die in. Link to the first couplet – tenement/cemetery. 15 When she gets the letter she is hopping mad. What does she want with anything modern, a shiny new pin? Here is home. The sideboard solid as a coffin.

Familiarity – it’s ‘her’ paper. Ownership and position in community. The known and the familiar. The newsagents next door which sells 20 hazelnut toffees and her Daily Record. Chewing for ages over the front page, her toffees sticking to her false teeth.

Exoticism; sounds alien and modern 2 The new house is called a high rise. I play in the lift all the way up to 24. 25 Once I get stuck for a whole hour. An incredible height; almost unimaginable.

View has changed from the (peace? ) of the cemetery to the noise of children playing. From her window you see noisy kids playing hopscotch or home. She makes endless pots of vegetable soup, a bit of hoch floating inside like a fish. Ambiguous – could be about the noisy intrusion of the young and new, or the arrival of life and vibrancy. Again, the sense of wonder from the child. Soup made from scratch – a remnant of another life. Simile - ‘like a fish’ – seems almost a magical production.

The comforts of modern life – anti-asceticism. But finally accepts the trappings of a more comfortable life. 30 Till finally she gets to like the hot running water in her own bathroom, the wall-to-wall foam-backed carpet, the parcels locked in her air-raid shelter. Strange image of the parcels locked in the shelter. Shelter must be in the tenement garden, not at the high rise. But not a total rejection of them. Kept locked away and not thrown away. Remnants of that old life?

Suggestions of other houses connected to the grandmother – those she cleans and her church. Work ethic: ‘for ten bob’. Even in old age she works for a living. But she still doesn’t settle down; 35 even at 70 she cleans people’s houses for ten bob and goes to church on Sundays, dragging me along to the strange place where the air is trapped and ghosts sit at the altar. My parents do not believe. It is down to her.

Word choice - ‘dragging’ – suggests the child’s reluctance to go to church. The strangeness of the church - ‘trapped’ has connotations of staleness/age. ‘ghosts’ – things past and lost but somehow still in the air (link to her way of life? Her husband? ). But she still doesn’t settle down; 35 even at 70 she cleans people’s houses for ten bob and goes to church on Sundays, dragging me along to the strange place where the air is trapped and ghosts sit at the altar. My parents do not believe. It is down to her. Speaker’s parents are not religious – another moving away from an older, more traditional way.

Despite the insistence of the ritual, seems almost tokenistic. Metaphor - ‘flock of women’ – their community but also link to the good shepherd. 40 A couple of prayers. A hymn or two. Threepenny bit in the collection hat. A flock of women in coats and fussy hats flapping over me like missionaires, and that is that, until the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran. Alliteration - ‘fussy. . . Flapping’ focuses reader on their excitement about the girl. Simile - ‘Missionaires’ – comparison to saving the souls of the heathen.

Alliteration – emphasises the sporadic nature of such events. Child’s connection of Gran to God. 40 A couple of prayers. A hymn or two. Threepenny bit in the collection hat. A flock of women in coats and fussy hats flapping over me like missionaires, and that is that, until the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran.

Speaker growing up, grandmother seems smaller. Despite this, still a sense of her energy being undiminished: standards and responsibilities to be met. 3 45 By the time I am seven we are almost the same height. She still walks faster, rushing me down the High Street till we get to her cleaning house. The hall is huge. Rooms lead off like an octopus’s arms. Alliteration and long vowels emphasise the child’s sense of wonder at the size of the house. Simile - ‘octopus’s arms’ – again the child’s perception of the number of rooms and corridors.

Metaphor -‘a one-winged creature’ – seems fantastic or mythical. Exotic. Enjambment – break to emphasise the length of time cleaning. I sit in a room with a grand piano, top open – 50 a one-winged creature, whilst my gran polishes for hours. Finally bored I start to pick some notes, oh can you wash a sailor’s shirt oh can you wash and clean till my gran comes running, duster in hand. I told you don't touch anything. The woman comes too; ‘for hours’ – hyperbole to Wry humour – you can only demonstrate the work put in to touch it if you are cleaning it. clean the house. Contrast with The only access to this kind the fantastical piano – the of world. mundane vs. the exciting.

Class differences established in the cleaning of the house made clearer. I told you don't touch anything. The woman comes too; 55 the posh one all smiles that make goosepimples run up my arms. Would you like to sing me a song? Someone’s crying my Lord Kumbaya. Lovely, she says, beautiful child, skin the colour of café au lait. ‘Café oh what? Hope she’s not being any bother. ’ 60 Not at all. You just get back to your work.

Class differences established in the cleaning of the house made clearer. I told you don't touch anything. The woman comes too; 55 the posh one all smiles that make goosepimples run up my arms. Would you like to sing me a song? Someone’s crying my Lord Kumbaya. Lovely, she says, beautiful child, skin the colour of café au lait. ‘Café oh what? Hope she’s not being any bother. ’ 60 Not at all. You just get back to your work. ‘cafe oh what’ – lacking access even to the language the ‘posh one’ uses. ‘back to your work’ – the grandmother’s role.

Simile - ‘like the hunchback of Notre Dame’ – image of her bent over but also of the high rise like a bell tower. Is there a suggestion of someone who lives outside ‘society’? On the way to her high rise I see her like the hunchback of Notre Dame. Everytime I crouch over a comic she slaps me. Sit up straight. Back to the ideas of standards from another time. The grandmother’s demanding perspective. Alliteration – ‘crouches. . . comic’ and ‘sit. . . straight’ emphasise the difference between the generations.

Return to the structure of the opening couplet but with key shifts. The view is now from the ground floor and not the second floor – a drop in status? She is on the ground floor of a high rise. 65 From her living-room you see ambulances, screaming their way to the Royal Infirmary. The room is a ‘living room’ and not a ‘front room’ – change of function from the room for good to the room to live in. View is also different – now of the noisy, jarring, modern ambulances ‘screaming’ to the hospital – rather than the peaceful, fuss-free silence of the cemetery.

Overview notes • Written in three sections – each seems to focus on a different house: (1) the tenement, (2) the high rise (and the church), (3) the house she cleans. • Deals with standards of behaviour, ideas about credos followed by generations (specifically the post-war generation). • Ideas about work ethic, manners, class and religious adherence also touched upon. The grandmother seems somewhat austere and Calvinist in her perspective.

Overview notes • The physical displacement of the grandmother from tenement to high rise mirrors her temporal displacement – she becomes ‘out of her time’ as ties to the past are eroded by modern life; speaker/poem recognises the importance of those ties, embodied by the grandmother. • Poem replicates – in an appropriately episodic, disjointed manner – the formative memories of being a young child.

Some important phrases / techniques from the poem and why they are successful

• “From her front room window you see the cemetery. ” This early reference to the cemetery provides a hint/clue that perhaps her grandmother has died when linked to various other references later in the poem. • “Her bedroom is my favourite: newspapers dating back to the War” The word choice of ‘favourite’ suggests the narrator enjoys visiting her gran and looking at all of the interesting items she has.

• “I spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless tablecloths, napkins, perfume, bath salts, stories of things I can’t understand” The use of the word ‘hours’ shows how much the narrator was interested and intrigued by the items. The LIST shows how many things there were and with ‘endless’ it also supports the idea that there were very many items of interest. • “When she gets the letter she is hopping mad” This humorous metaphor makes us picture her gran jumping up and down with anger at the news she is moving to a new high rise flat.

• “Here is home” Alliteration – phrase emphasises how much she was attached to her tenement flat. • “The sideboard solid as a coffin” This simile makes hints that perhaps the gran felt she would live in her tenement flat until she died – links to mention of cemetery earlier.

• “She makes endless pots of vegetable soup, bit of hoch floating inside like a fish” The gran settles into her high rise flat by making comforting food. The simile of the meat bone (hoch) compared to a fish is successful. • “finally she gets to like the hot running water in her own bathroom, the wall-to-wall foam-backed carpet” The gran has changed her mind and now likes the high rise flat. a

• “even at 70 she cleans people’s houses” Shows the narrator’s admiration for her gran who still works despite her age. • “A flock of women in coats and fussy hats, flapping over me like missionaries” This metaphor creates a successful image comparing her gran’s church friends to birds – flock & flapping. The reference to missionaries suggests a religious link as if they were helping the narrator.

• “until the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran. ” A successful example of alliteration. Is this ‘next time God grabs me’ when the narrator attends her gran’s funeral? • “The hall is huge” Alliteration – emphasises the large, expensive cleaning house.

• “Rooms lead off like an octopus’s arms” Simile – a successful image showing a large number of rooms – about eight spreading through the house. • “a grand piano, top open – one-winged creature” Metaphor – creates an image of a mysterious beast or animal that the narrator – as a child – is fascinated by. a

• “my gran polishes for hours” Emphasises her hard work. • “I told you don’t touch anything” • “Hope she’s not being any bother” • “Everytime I crouch over a comic she slaps me. Sit up straight. ” These three phrases emphasise the gran’s desire to teach the narrator good manners and behaviour.

• “She is on the ground floor of a high rise. From her living-room you see ambulances, screaming their way to the Royal Infirmary. ” The closing section of the poem has a sad, sombre tone perhaps suggesting the grandmother has died. The reference to ‘ground floor’ may suggest that she has been taken down for the ‘ambulances’ which are mentioned. The word choice of ‘screaming’ suggests upset and pain.