Relevant Background

• Paula Meehan grew up in Dublin city centre and the suburb of Finglas.
• Her economic background is urban working class.
• She went to university in Trinity College Dublin and in America. Meehan was exceptional because the working class people did not normally go to Trinity.
• Meehan writes poetry and plays and teaches writers.
• She uses the colourful and energetic spoken English of inner Dublin.
  

Summary

In this poem, Paula Meehan expresses a desire to be in control of her love life. She issues an amusing warning. She feels she has to deal with a challenging situation. She uses a sarcastic saying of her granny as a way of making her point.

She seems to be speaking angrily to a rival woman.
Paula Meehan wrote this poem in one stanza.

Paula Meehan recalls a humorous saying of her granny. The granny was possessive about her fireside chair. She used to joke in a sarcastic way about those who sat in her chair. She mocked them by saying they would not be as quick to take her grave after she died.

The poet, her granddaughter, speaks viciously to a woman who is eyeing her man. She portrays her over dressed rival as a drunken bar room admirer:
‘done up to the nines, red lips a come on, your breath reeking of drink’.
Meehan warns her rival in a colourful way that she’ll bury her in a grave:
‘think first of the steep drop, the six dark feet’.

Themes

The poet warns a rival to keep her eyes off her man:
‘think first of the steep drop, the six dark feet’.

In this poem Paula Meehan humorously depicts the start of a bar room brawl over lust for a man:
‘your black eye on my man tonight’.

The poet portrays her various personality traits.
Paula Meehan is influenced by her grandmother’s ways:
‘Would you jump into my grave as quick?
my granny would ask’.
She has a sharp eye for the behaviour of others:
‘red lips a come on’.
She is possessive:
‘ my man’.

Tones

Sometimes the tone is humorous and sarcastic:
‘Would you jump into my grave as quick?’

Sometimes the tone is hostile:
‘You, woman’.

Sometimes the tone is disgusted:
‘your breath reeking of drink’.

Sometimes there is a warning tone:
‘think first of the steep drop’.

Imagery

The main image is a humorous image of a dispute between two women over a man in a pub.
The first image is of someone eagerly jumping in to someone’s grave to get there first. This is a humorous image.
This is linked to a funny image of a bossy grandmother.
There is a humorous image of a squabble over a fireside chair.
Then there is a humorous image of a squabble over a man in a pub,
Then there is an image of a cheaply overdressed woman. She tries to lure [tempt] a man from his partner in a pub.
There are images of colour: ‘red’, ‘black’ and ‘dark’.
There is a sharp image of an empty grave:
‘the steep drop, the six dark feet’.
The last line is also an image of an exaggerated threat.
Exaggeration is sometimes called ‘hyperbole’.


Sound effects

Alliteration [the repetition of first letters]:
‘think first of the steep drop, the six dark feet’.
The ‘f’, ‘s’ and ‘d’ sounds here show alliteration. This alliteration emphasises the warning tone.

Consonance [the repetition of a consonant sound]
Note the ‘k’ repeated here:
‘reeking of drink and your black’
Note also in the first, second and last lines of the poem that ‘k’ is repeated.
Note also the dominance of the ‘n’ sound throughout the poem.

Assonance [repetition of vowels]:
Note the ‘ee’ sound of
‘steep drop, the six dark feet’.

Rhyming:
There is a rhyming pattern. Note the ‘k’ at the end of lines one and two, ‘n’ at the end of lines three and four, ‘ink’ at the end of lines five and seven, ‘t’ at the end of lines six and eight.

Internal Rhyme [a word or sound rhyming within a line]
Note the ‘air’ and ‘ire’ sounds repeated in this quote: ‘chair by the fire’.

Rhythm:
The rhythm has a natural feeling with the run on lines and simple conversational words. The poem feels like an outburst, fiercely addressed to the rival. The last line is very clever because it contains six beats, known as ‘feet’:
‘first of the steep drop, the six dark feet’.
There is a word play or pun on the word ‘feet’.Overall, the voice in the poem is the real voice of the Dublin street, with its musical twangs. The words are mainly of one syllable.