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7.
What does the speaker mean in the lines: “Cha cha cha! You’d teach me the steps
on the way home from Mass, stamping stars from the wrong pavement.” What
may “the wrong pavement” refer to?
The speaker recalls in the quoted lines an incident in her childhood, where her
mother would teach her the “cha cha cha” dance on the way home from church.
“Stamping the stars from the wrong pavement” has multiple possible meanings.
“Stamping” provides a stark contrast with the “clattering” of red high-heeled shoes in
the ballroom, showing a change in lifestyle from the glamorous social life to a
practical and humble domestic life. Her mother is not dancing with her pals in her
high-heels in the glittering ballroom, but going to church probably with plain
comfortable shoes with the child.
“The wrong pavement” may suggest the pavement is not the right place for a sensual
Cuban dance, nor a platform for realising the mother’s teenage dreams, implying that
parental responsibilities has confined the mother’s freedom and suppressed her
vibrancy. The stars further allude to The Street of Stars in Hollywood Boulevard,
which echoes the reference to the actress Marilyn Monroe in Stanza 1. The speaker
longs to see the mother’s younger self, who is imagined as a sparkling bold girl like
Marilyn Monroe, with all her glamour and carefree liveliness.
C.
Follow-up Activities:
1.
Reviewing a short clip on the poem
Teachers may play the clip once in class and ask the students to view it again at
home. It is important that students read the poem first to formulate their
independent views and interpretation before showing the clip, as the visual
presentation may limit students’ imagination.
For weaker students, teachers may vary the length of the writing and adapt the task
from a critical review/commentary of the clip to a personal response/reflection.
Students may simply talk about:
Whether they like the clip
Whether the visual representation enhances their understanding of the poem
The most striking scene and reasons why the scene is powerful
Any thoughts on mother-daughter relationships after watching the clip