Material by Ros Barber: AS Level
Material by Ros Barber Read Ros Barber's blog post about the reason she wrote Material here. You will need to refer to this poem in your Poems of the Decade book p.10-12 because it is not available in full on the internet. Content Although the poem is written by the poet as a way to cope with her mother's death, it is also an exploration of nostalgia and the loss of the ways of the past. Barber considers the difference between a fabric 'material' handkerchief and the paper tissues more common today. Main Themes The relationship between parents and children - Barber and her mother, Barber and her children Materialism - Community and local life has been abandoned for the TV Nostalgia and the passing of time - a fifties/sixties high street culture The changing role of women in society - from motherhood as a valued role to motherhood on the fly Structure and Form The poem is presented in eight stanzas, seven of which are eight lines long. The sixth s