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. Everytime 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?

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.

You are now going to colour code the annotations on your copy of the powerpoint.

My Grandmother’s Houses What is it about? 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 flat 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 Opening and closing stanzas The poem is framed by two short stanzas which locate where the grandmother lives. It opens on the “second floor of a tenement. ” The view of the “cemetery” suggests somewhere peaceful The final stanza is set on the “ground floor of a high rise” where the grandmother has been rehoused. There is a contrast of mood - the “screaming ambulances” suggest that modern society will do little to soothe elderly woman in her last days.

My Grandmother’s Houses - Structure Three sections - three houses The body of the poem is divided into three sections. Each one describes a different house(s) connected to the grandmother: • The FIRST SECTION describes the grandmother’s tenement flat, focusing on the child’s “favourite place” - the bedroom filled with the clutter and “newspaper parcels”. • The SECOND depicts the modern “high rise” flat the poet's grandmother moved to in the late 1960 s. We learn of the grandmother's attempts at “settling in” while maintaining her routine: her work and church visits. • The THIRD and final section is about the “cleaning house” where the grandmother works, and this introduces themes of class and the old versus the younger generation.

My Grandmother’s Houses - Form Free verse The poem is written in free verse with a strong colloquial style. This allows Kay to weave the different voices into her poem - child, mother, grandmother, the posh 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?

In ‘My Grandmother’s Houses, ’ Jackie Kay uses different settings (houses) to describe her grandmother’s personality and give an insight into her childhood experiences.

Kay gives us insight into her grandmother’s personality and life style through the eyes of her younger self, as well as reflecting from an adult perspective on her childhood. This gives details of her grandmother, but also of the world Kay grew up in, with its elements of class division and condescending authority. It is clear that Kay had a close connection with her grandmother.

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. The poem opens with a personal pronoun. This suggests a sense of detachment – the distance of memory or the distance between our modern lives and the postwar hoarding of the grandmother. Kay then uses another pronoun – she addresses the reader directly and continues to do so throughout the poem. It is as if she is opening the door of her grandmother’s house and showing us her home and her world.

The second stanza introduces a detailed description of a room laden with clutter. Alliteration focuses on the disgruntlement of the mother. 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. 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. The repetition suggests the sheer amount of stuff there is.

The mother is moaning. These seem to be questions but are not punctuated as such. The inevitability of the answers turns them into statements. Her attitude contrasts 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 (run on The number of items is emphasised, but line) forces a lack of also the time spent in the simple activity. pause before the list. To the child, these objects equal a game – there is a childlike sense of wonder as she unwraps and wraps the parcels, just as her grandmother once did.

The list suggests the number of items. They are all frivolous, gifts for gifts’ sake – not necessarily practical or useful. As a result, they have been put aside, yet not discarded. The grandmother seems like a hoarder. 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. Continues the sense of wonder at the quantity of parcels. Enjambment emphasises how high the child feels she is climbing. This stresses how little she is in comparison to the parcels – she is clearly remembering herself as a small child.

Further emphasises the sense of her smallness among the vast number of parcels and, again, there is an element of play. 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 to emphasise the dual reading: sense of awe and literal height of the bed to the child.

Definitive article officialdom. There is no ‘other’ letter. Suggests the energy of the grandmother. 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. Grandmother’s words – links back to the gifts that are unwanted. Just as there is a sense that the grandmother did not need or want the presents she has received, here we see the grandmother’s animosity towards a new flat. Metaphor – the ‘new pin’ = the new house; modernity.

Alliteration - emphasises her connection to the tenement. The short declarative statement conveys a degree of poignancy which makes the reader sympathise with the grandmother - she does not want to move and be wrenched away from familiar surroundings. 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. Simile – this gives the sense that this is the place she expected to live and die in. Links back to the first couplet – ‘tenement’ / ‘cemetery’.

Familiarity – it’s ‘her’ paper. This shows her ownership and position in the community. She is surrounded be 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.

As in the first stanza, the new house is immediately introduced through the child’s eyes. 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. Again, we get a sense of the house being linked to a child’s sense of play. The building seems an incredible height; almost unimaginably tall.

Despite the element of fun for the child, Kay notes the obvious difficulties her grandmother now faces – her view outside has changed from the peace of the cemetery to noisy 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, there is a sense of wonder from the child. The soup is made from scratch with stock made from a ‘hoch’ (a knuckle of meat, especially pork or ham) and for the girl this is like a remnant of another life. Simile – seems almost a magical production.

The high rise flat is described in purely functional terms. It is very different to her cluttered tenement. The comforts of modern life conflict with the grandmother’s sense of anti-asceticism (avoiding of all forms of indulgence). 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. The shelter must be in the tenement garden, not at the high rise, but she has not totally rejected the unwanted gifts. She finally comes to accept the trappings of a more comfortable life. They are kept locked away, but have not been thrown away, possibly suggesting that she clings on to the remnants of her old life?

This phrase could imply she never fully feels at home here. It also suggests that she refuses to stop her busy routine, even at the age of seventy. 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, Suggestions of other houses connected to the grandmother – those she cleans and her church. Work ethic - even in old age she works for a living.

Word choice - ‘dragging’ – suggests the child’s reluctance to go to church. ‘strange place’ – the girl does not feel at ease there. Word choice - ‘trapped’ suggests staleness/age. ‘ghosts’ – things past and lost but somehow still in the air (possible link to the grandmother’s old way of life? Her husband? ). 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. The girl seems as uncomfortable in the church as her grandmother is in her new house.

The speaker’s parents are not religious – another moving away from an older, more traditional way. This ambiguous statement suggests that there is a direct link between the girl and her grandmother - a relationship that her parents are not part of. The grandmother is the only link to this world. 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. But it also suggests a separation between the two. Does the girl not believe because of how she has been raised?

Despite the insistence of the ritual, it seems almost tokenistic. The minor sentences do not suggest real religious commitment. It seems the child is going through the motions – acting out a routine. Metaphor - their community but also a 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 missionaries, and that is that, until the next time God grabs me in Glasgow with Gran. Alliteration - focuses reader on their excitement about the girl. Simile – comparison to saving the souls of non-believers.

Alliteration – emphasises the sporadic (occurring at irregular intervals) nature of such events. But the last line signals the child making a connection between ‘God’ and ‘Gran’. 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. The capitalised ‘G’ and the use of alliteration hint at the impact these Sundays in church had on her.

The third section suggests time passing. The speaker growing up, and the grandmother seems smaller. Despite this, there is still a sense of her vigour and energy being undiminished: there are 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. Simile – again the child’s perception of the number of rooms and corridors. To the young girl, the cleaning house is a strange, surreal environment. The simile suggests the alien nature and scale of the house. Alliteration and long vowels emphasise the child’s sense of wonder at the size of the house.

Metaphor – the piano seems fantastic or mythical / exotic. This conveys the girl’s feelings of wonder on first seeing such an object, as well as her growing imagination. 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; Hyperbole (exaggeration) to demonstrate the work put in to clean the house. Contrast with the fantastical piano – the mundane vs. the exciting. Wry humour – you can only touch it if you are cleaning it. This is the only access to this kind of world for people like them.

The introduction of the ‘posh’ employer brings a new voice to the poem. Her tone is patronising. 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. It is interesting that the woman’s language is inaccessible to the grandmother. It suggests that the women are of different classes, with different ways of speaking. The class differences established in the cleaning of the house are made clearer. This is the grandmother’s role, the only reason she is in the house.

Simile – image of her bent over but also of the high rise like a bell tower. This hints at a character separate from the rest of society with her old ways in her high rise flat. 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. Despite her detachment, she insists on her standards, issuing simple commands. This takes us back to the idea of standards from another time and shows us the grandmother’s demanding perspective. Alliteration- ‘crouches. . . comic’ and ‘sit. . . straight’ emphasises the difference between the generations. Contrast between the ‘hunchback’ posture of the grandmother and her demands for the girl.

Return to the structure of the opening couplet but with key shifts. Again, the view from her window is described, but the view is now of ambulances from the ground floor and not the cemetery from the second floor. Does this suggest 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. Personification immediately makes us think of the urgency of modern living. The sounds are also different – rather than the peaceful, fuss-free silence of the cemetery there is now the noisy, jarring, modern ‘ambulances, screaming’ to the hospital.

Personification - immediately makes us think of the urgency of modern living. By moving home, the grandmother has been forced to experience this world. 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 reference to ambulances / the hospital also anticipates her death, bringing an image of sadness to the end of the poem.

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.

Exploring ‘My Grandmother’s Houses’ 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 house has modern conveniences. The grandmother The furniture is doesn’t live here. large and solid. The grandmother The name of the The house is feels house sounds claustrophobic. uncomfortable. strange The grandmother has been going to this house for a long time. There is very little to entertain the speaker. The house takes time to get used to. The grandmother The house is next The house makes comforting to a shop. contains food. memories of the past. The house is full The grandmother of history. meets her friends spends a lot of here. time here. The house is large. Things are hoarded in the bedroom. The view from The speaker the window is of doesn’t enjoy gravestones. being in this house. The house belongs to someone else. Children play outside. The house has The building the imposing items in house is in is it. enormous. The grandmother The house is not enjoys living for playing in. there.

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 the quotes on the sheet next to the relevant statement.

The Tenement The view from the window is of gravestones: ‘She is on the second floor of a tenement. From her front room window you see the cemetery’ Things are hoarded in the bedroom: ‘Newspapers / dating back to the War covering every present she’s ever got since the War. ’ ‘I spend hours unwrapping and wrapping endless tablecloths, napkins, perfume, bath salts’ The house is next to a shop: ‘The newsagents next door which sells hazelnut toffees and her Daily Record. ’

The Tenement The grandmother enjoys living there: ‘When she gets the letter she is hopping mad. What does she want with anything modern, a shiny new pin? Here is home. ’ The house is full of history: ‘Newspapers / dating back to the War covering every present she’s ever got since the War. ’ ‘stories of things I can’t understand, words like conscientious objector. ’ The furniture is large and solid: ‘The sideboard solid as a coffin. ’

The High Rise Children play outside: ‘From her window you see noisy kids playing hopscotch or home. ’ The house takes time to get used to: ‘She makes endless pots of vegetable soup, a bit of hoch floating inside like a fish. Till finally she gets to like the hot running water in her own bathroom’ The house has modern conveniences: ‘I play in the lift all the way up to 24. ’ ‘Hot / running water in her own bathroom, the wall-to-wall foam-backed carpet’

The High Rise The name of the house sounds strange: ‘The new house is called a high rise. ’ The building the house is in is enormous: ‘I play in the lift all the way up to 24. ’ The grandmother feels uncomfortable: ‘She makes endless pots of vegetable soup, a bit of hoch floating inside like a fish. Till finally she gets to like the hot running water in her own bathroom’ The grandmother makes comforting food: ‘She makes endless pots of vegetable soup, a bit of hoch floating inside like a fish. ’

The Church The grandmother doesn’t live here: ‘goes to church on Sundays, ’ The grandmother meets her friends here: ‘A flock of women in coats and fussy hats flapping over me like missionaires’ The speaker doesn’t enjoy being in this house: ‘dragging me along to the strange place where the air is trapped and ghosts sit at the altar. ’

The Church The house is claustrophobic: ‘the strange place where the air / is trapped’ The house contains memories of the past: ‘ghosts sit at the altar. ’ The grandmother has been going to this house for a long time: ‘goes to church on Sundays’

The Posh Woman’s House The house is large: ‘The hall is huge. Rooms lead off like an octopus’s arms. ’ There is very little to entertain the speaker: ‘my gran polishes for hours. Finally bored I start to pick some notes’ The house belongs to someone else: ‘till we get to her cleaning house…’ ‘The woman comes too; the posh one all smiles that make goosepimples run up my arms. ’

The Posh Woman’s House The grandmother spends a lot of time here: ‘whilst my gran polishes for hours. ’ The house is not for playing in: ‘I told you don’t touch anything. ’ The house has imposing items in it: ‘I sit in a room with a grand piano, top open – a one-winged creature’

Themes Family relationships The bond between grandmother and granddaughter is vividly portrayed. The poem begins with a child’s wonder at the grandmother’s hoarding and develops to explore visits to church and to accompany her grandmother to work. There is obvious affection between the two. The girl seems to experience her grandmother’s world with real intensity: • ‘unwrapping and wrapping’ the collected parcels • watching her grandmother making soup • going with her to church • taking in the strange environment of the ‘cleaning house’ These are poignant moments from childhood. They act as reminders of the bond between generations and the differences between the young and the old.

Themes Family relationships There is a suggestion that the girl and her grandmother have a closer relationship than the mother and grandmother. The mother seems exasperated with the grandmother's refusal to use any of the presents she has been given. In contrast the child accepts that these parcels are part of the grandmother's personality.

Themes Old Age The grandmother’s strength and energy are obvious in this poem. But there is still a degree of vulnerability about her. We are told about the grandmother's ‘false teeth’, that the girl and grandmother are ‘almost the same height’ and later she is like ‘the hunchback of Notre Dame’. Although the grandmother stays as busy as ever, her body is aging. There are images of death throughout the poem: • ‘the cemetery’ • ‘the sideboard solid as a coffin’ • ‘ghosts sit at the altar’ • ‘ambulances, screaming’ The grandmother seems unworried about reminders of death in the place she calls home. Perhaps she accepts death as part of her existence.

Themes Old Age Kay makes it clear there are other factors bound up with this concept of home: the daily routine, the familiar newsagent next door. All contribute to the woman’s security. As with many older people, she is comforted by her routine and what she knows. So it is no wonder that she is ‘hopping mad’ when she, aged 70, is forced to move. The line ‘But she still doesn’t settle down’ suggest that she never really fits in to her new ‘high rise’ despite the hot running water and mod cons. She is resilient and continues to work, but we feel sympathy for her as she tries to preserve standards and traditions which have no meaning for the next generation.

Themes Childhood Many children spend time with grandparents and will share similar experiences to those in the poem. Kay portrays a mix of the alien and the mundane, of wonder and boredom that suggests a loving relationship but recognises the differences between different generations. The tenement filled with ‘tablecloths, napkins, perfumes, bath salts’ intrigues the child, and she recalls climbing over the parcels to get into bed as if she is in a fairy tale. There are moments of play in the poem (going up in the lift to floor 24) and moments where the grandmother’s world is a mystery – a ‘strange place where the air is trapped’. The young child also gets bored at having to accompany her grandmother to church and wait for her as she cleans the house. She recalls instructions from her grandmother ‘I told you don’t touch anything’ and ‘Sit up straight’ and an image of her stooped over ‘like the hunchback of Notre Dame’, which again brings in an element of fantasy, so familiar in childhood.

Areas of comparison ‘Lucozade’ • ‘My Grandmother’s Houses’ portrays a spirited woman who takes on the challenges of life wholeheartedly. We see a similar strength of will in the mother figure in ‘Lucozade’ who refuses to be surrounded by the trappings of an invalid. • The grandmother is also particular about gifts and maintains her routine and standards despite her age. Both are determined and unconventional in their behaviour. ‘Bed’ • The vigorous grandmother contrasts with the elderly woman in ‘Bed’. She lacks the strength to do things for herself. Her routine is not one of her choice - it is a mundane, passive existence. • However both women are linked by their separation from the rest of life. The woman in bed has lost track of what goes on in her neighbourhood. And the grandmother seems out of place in her new flat in the high rise.