N5 Scottish Text: Jackie Kay Revision Table
Poem Title
Main Ideas
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‘Bed’
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‘Divorce’
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‘Gap Year’
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Main Themes
Mother – old/ill: isolated & stuck in bed
Daughter carer – embarrassing role reversal:
struggle to communicate, destruction of
relationship
Feels like burden: frustrated, unattractive &
useless
Sad at what is lost with time – looks
positively at young life
Resentment – sense of lack of
care/inattention
Philosophical at end – considering death &
wants to be remembered
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Child complaining about parents – wants
divorce
High formal, melodramatic tone/register =
humorous – blown out of proportion
Unrealistic expectations of parents &
misunderstanding of behaviour suggests
childish perspective
Over the top nature of ‘divorce’ & waiting
until morning suggests phases children go
through with parents
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Closeness mother/son – anticipation before
birth; bond/unity
Speed of time passing – suddenness of child
growing up
Mother’s struggle when child leaves –
exploring/freedom own independent life
Parent left with ‘gap’ = longing, worry – loss
of control but not loss of strength of
bond/feelings
Pride, joy, acceptance at end – love, relearn
life
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Overview of Techniques
Relationships – distance
between generations;
complexities
Difficulty of communication
across generations
(importance) – role reversal
Consequences of old
age/illness – isolation &
loneliness
Brevity of life/Passage of
time (destructiveness)
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Distance between
generations – exaggerated
child’s perspective =
misunderstanding
Complexities of
relationships
Relationships = value those
around us
Think before voicing
frustrations (time to calm
down = no issue)
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Relationships (changing) –
parents having to let go
Time (treachery) – willing it
to go quickly & longing for
what is past (nostalgia) –
perspective changing
Youth = freedom,
independence; Older =
anxiety/responsibility
(trapped)
Absence/loss
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Areas of Comparison
Chatty, open narrative voice (dialect) =
sympathise – confessional/honest tone
Title: narrow focus – restrictive, reductive,
blunt, end/death/inactivity,
Irony = able to communicate with us not
daughter (trapped)
Repetition, short sentences: time passing
slowly & finality
Imagery & word choice: role
reversal/burden/trapped
Tone: sadness/despair – philosophical at
end about predicament
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Tone & Register: Formal/superior
contrasted with childlike, simple language
= humour & undermines seriousness of
complaint
Structure: 2 stanzas/1 break = splitting
up/divorce; Dramatic Monologue (feelings
of speaker contrast with reality revealed)
Melodramatic language – absolutes,
poetic, exaggerated imagery for
expectations of parents (contrast)
Putting off at end = tantrum/a phase
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Structure: regular stanzas = inevitability of
growing older/time passing; 2 parts – 1st =
short/peaceful, excitement before child
born, childhood short – 2nd = jump 18
years, longer/time dragging in absence =
pain & worry
Tones mixed = longing, sadness, humour,
nostalgia, pride
Contrast: son = freedom, adventure;
mother = static, distant, onlooker, worry
Imagery & pride at end – reassess role &
relationship
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‘Divorce’ - communication
between generations
‘Keeping Orchids’ –
relationship mother &
daughter; communication
‘Lucozade’ – death/illness of
mother, daughter caring
(different perspective)
‘My Grandmother’s Houses’
– changing relationships:
generations
‘Bed’ – relationships
between generations
(Difficulty of communication,
misunderstanding)
‘Keeping Orchids’ –
mother/daughter
communication
‘Gap Year’ – mother coping
with absence of son
(alternative perspective)
‘Lucozade’ – nostalgia for
what is passed
‘Bed’ – changing roles:
parent/child; time;
generations
‘My Grandmother’s Houses’
– changing perceptions over
time; roles/relationships
‘Keeping Orchids’ –
separation of lives;
child/parent; absence
N5 Scottish Text: Jackie Kay Revision Table
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‘Keeping
Orchids’
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‘Lucozade’
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1st meeting with birth mother –
understanding reasons for adoption
Orchids given as present – difficult to keep =
special conditions V extra effort
Emotional moment/topic but about
emptiness – stripped back – no connection –
distance
Lots left unsaid – brings greater distance,
emptiness, detachment
After meeting, nothing will change – little
effect on her (pain of meeting but nothing
achieved), only orchids = reminder
Visiting ill mother – scared going to die (only
16 – difficulty coping/understanding)
Illness – mother annoyed by symbols of
illness/death; wants indulgence/luxury to
enjoy time left – daughter helps remove
associations with victim/invalid = positive
influence
Daughter’s changing attitude to mother’s
death: initial fear of loss/death; but is able to
help mother in facing death & enjoy time
left; lightens load
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Adoption = difficult
communication; distance
Relationships – challenges =
effort required to overcome,
can’t give up; end = possible
understanding of need to do
painful things for greater
good in some situations
Communication
Absence
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Confronting illness & death
(individual &
outsiders/relations)
Inevitability of death
Acceptance of death
Embracing life can be best
response to death – death
coloured by how we view it
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‘My
Grandmother’s
Houses’
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3 sections = different houses associated with
grandmother
Standards of behaviour (different
generations) – work ethic, religion, manners
Tenement: child’s intrigue in hoard of
items/memory; GM’s practicality; difference
in generations: attitudes & approaches
High Rise Flat: change – place not practical
but begins to accept modern comforts/adapt
(church = religion – child finds tiresome)
House she cleans: change in focus of child,
grandmother diminishes
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Differences in generations =
attitudes, beliefs, values
Time & Change – sadness of
loss: Grandmother start =
certain, solid, respectable;
end = desperate, urgent,
emptiness of standards,
clinging on (society moves
on)
Child’s changing perspective
= wonder & awe – focus
changes
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Orchids: symbolic = rare flower, difficult to
raise, need special conditions; extended
metaphor for adoption = mother: child
needed special growing conditions; Kay:
need effort to overcome challenges
Title: ‘Keeping’ – parallels adoption
Structure: 14 couplets = formal, precise cold voice, detached – wants facts
Focus on objects & appearance not
emotions
Imagery of mother’s past = closed, secret –
feels tricked, no connection
‘Lucozade’ – literal bottle & symbolic of
illness; daughter’s actions in visiting =
revitalising boost
Tone – opens: simple/confessional reflects
age of speaker/fear; end: optimistic, light,
positive – able to help, cleansing ritual
Structure – balanced around colon =
turning point: negatives v positives;
passivity v action
Imagery – start: fading, loss; end: heaven,
optimistic, true character of mother
Nostalgia = positive/negative (lucozade &
memories)
Title: Houses (multiple) – no sense of
place, doesn’t fit with society = moving on
Preoccupation with time & height (pastpresent, big-small): history/memory –
significance; child’s perception of time
Changes in descriptions/activities in
houses: reflects GM’s changing place in
society & child’s perception of GM
(awe/position in society)
Displacement/out of way/difference view
of religion
Dwindling stature: working hard but drops
in status/significance
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Complexities in relationships:
‘Bed’ – (mother/daughter:
role reversal & care);
‘Divorce’ (parents &
daughter – misunderstanding
& challenges)
Absence & Distance: ‘Gap
Year’ – parent with child
absent
‘Bed’ – illness & death;
changing roles &
relationships
‘Gap Year’- major milestones
= distance caused & having
to confront loss
‘Gap Year’ – change &
preoccupation with time;
changing perspective of close
relations
‘Bed’ – change & time;
changing roles/perceptions
of close relations; position in
society