My Grandmother by Elizabeth Jennings Prepared by Kaushal Desai

She kept an antique shop--or it kept her.
�Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glass,�
The faded silks, the heavy furniture,�......

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My Grandmother
~ Elizabeth Jennings (1926-2001)
Kaushal Desai
Assistant Professor of English Language &
Literature
[email protected]
http://desaikaushal1315.blogspot.com
http://www.slideshare.net/kaushal111

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Let us see…
Poem: My Grandmother
Title
Theme
Language
Structure
Form
Overall Synopsis
Conclusion

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My Grandmother
She kept an antique shop--or it kept her.
Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glass,
The faded silks, the heavy furniture,
She watched her won reflection in the brass
Salvers and silver bowls, as if to prove
Polish was all, there was no need of love.
And I remember how I once refused
To go out with her, since I was afraid.
It was perhaps a wish not to be used
Like antique objects. Though she never said
That she was hurt, I still could feel the guilt
Of that refusal, gussing how she felt.
Later, too frail to keep a shop, she put
All her best things in one long narrow room.
The place smelt old, of things too long kept shut.
The smell of absences where shadows come
That can't be polished. There was nothing then
To give her own reflection back again.
And when she died I felt no grief at all,
Only the guilt of what I once refused.
I walked into her room among the tall
Sideboards and cupboards--things she never used
But needed; and no finger-marks were there,
Only the new dust falling through the air.

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Title
It explores the relationship between the personae
and her grandmother.
It focuses on the remorse and guilt she felt after
her grandmother passed away.

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Theme
The poet explores her own feelings of inadequacy in
dealing with her memories of her relationship with her
grandmother.
In a broader sense, the poet seems to explore the
difficulties in relationships and with people’s feelings
as opposed to the inanimate objects her grandmother
collected around herself.

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Language
The language used appears simple and
straightforward, using ordinary words and
phrases.
This conceals the complexity of the feelings
it explores.
The image of dust is used in the final stanza
and carries connotations of death.
The language is descriptive, e.g. ‘faded
silks’, ‘brass salvers’, ‘silver bowls’.

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Structure
The poem is divided into four stanzas, each
of which develops the idea further:
Stanza 1: describes her grandmother
Stanza 2: describes the incident which causes her
guilt
Stanza 3: shows her grandmother in retirement
Stanza 4: after her grandmother has died, the
poet reflects on her grandmother’s life and her
own memories

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Form
The poem is written in one long stanza, in lines of
iambic pentameter.
Rhyme scheme of the poem is ABABCC
Although it is a first person narrative, this is also
partly an elegy, in that it remembers a dead person.

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Overall Synopsis
The first stanza begins by saying that Elizabeth’s
Grandmother owned an antique shop, which she
cherished more than anything or anyone. She kept
lots of antiques. She kept so many of them that they
became to dictate your life. She has a great
relationship and a passion with her possessions.
This can be found in Line 1.
‘She kept an antique shop – or it kept her.
Among Apostle spoons and Bristol glass,
The faded silks, the heavy furniture’

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Continue…
In the antique shop there was heavy furniture, which
had been faded over the years. There was a good
atmosphere in the shop. She polished the objects
and antiques very well. It was a well-run shop. When
she looks in the brass she sees her own reflection.
She has a better relationship with the shop than any
of her family, or friends. This can be found in Line 4.
‘She watched her own reflection in the brass
Slavers and silver bowls, as if to prove
Polish was all, there was no need for love.’

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2
nd
stanza
In the second stanza, Elizabeth is describing a
particular incident that happened in her childhood.
This can be found in Line 7.
‘And I remember how I once refused
To go out with her, since I was afraid.
It was perhaps a wish not to be used
Like antique objects…’

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Continue…
Her Grandmother asked her Granddaughter if she would go out
with her but she refused and thought her Grandmother would
own her but not love her. She felt abstinent, and felt she should
have gone with her, but also had to say what she felt. She did
not want to go with her, so she said 'no'. Line 10.
Though she never said
That she was hurt, I still could feel the guilt
Of that refusal, guessing how she felt.’
She was starting to feel guilty about refusing to go out with her
Grandmother. Elizabeth did not know what her Grandmother
was thinking or feeling when she refused to go out, but she
guessed she was not happy. Even though her Grandmother said
nothing she still felt guilty about what she had said.

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3
rd
Stanza
The third stanza is when her Grandmother gets more frail, and
is not able to keep the antique shop running. The third stanza is
what the Grandmother does in retirement. She has a sense of
loneliness because she spends more time with her shop than
with the people who care about her. She replaces her family
with her hobby and her passion for the antique shop. When she
excessively polishes she is trying to escape from reality. This
can be found in Line 13.
‘Later, too frail to keep a shop, she put
All her best things in one long, narrow room.’
In the next four lines of stanza three we can see that the place
she had gone to smelt old, and the smell of absence where the
shadows come that could not be polished. This meant that she
had gone to a place where she could not clean.

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Continue…
‘The place smelt old, of things too long kept shut,
The smell of absences where shadows come
That can’t be polished. There was nothing then
To give her own reflection back again.’
In stanza three the Grandmother has died. When it
says that the ‘shadows come’ it means that death has
arrived and has come for the Grandmother. She would
not be able to use polish to make her reflection return
or return her life back out of reality, and into her
dream world.

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4
th
Stanza
In the fourth and final stanza the Grandmother has died and
nobody is looking after her antique shop. The echoes of death
have been surrounding the shop, because it has lost its life, just
like her Grandmother. This can be found in line 19 to the end of
the poem.
‘And when she dies I felt no grief at all
Only the guilt of what I once refused.
I walked into her room among the tall
Sideboards and cupboards – things she never used
But needed: and no finger - marks were there,
Only the new dust falling through the air.’

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Continue…
In these lines of stanza four we can see that Elizabeth Jennings’s
felt no grief of her Grandmother, but she still felt the guilt about
her refusal in stanza two. She may not have felt any grief when
she dies because she was not that close and had nothing to do
with her. Most people expect to feel grief when a family member,
friend or pet dies but some people feel more grief for a friend or
pet than a distant or closer family member.
She walked into her Grandmothers room and saw all of her
belongings, which was in there, and realised that she needed
none of it. She never used any of it. It was just wasted. In her
room there was no dust or finger marks where the dust would be
collected over a day or two. It was beginning to show because
she was not there to clean it.

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Conclusion
♀ Poet describes the emotional part
of her life and how she faces her
guilt and after that her memories
with grandmother is core of the
poem that she elaborate it with a
massive feelings.

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