Genetics

Question 1

How does ‘Genetics’ present parent and child relationships?

Answer 1

• Cyclical structure - implying that these relationships are a cycle and perhaps inescapable element of fate to it?
• Mostly iambic pentameter - reflects heartbeat which connects families - inherited from parents = life is created from parents
• The rhyming is irregular - whilst genetics is a coded variation - they are not exact copies of their parents are are their own unique individual.

Question 2

Summarise ‘Genetics’

Answer 2

• Explores how physical inheritance bonds children to parents, even after separation. The speaker maps her parents’ fractured marriage onto her own hands - her father in the fingers, mother in the palms - symbolizing that she acts as their “marriage” and a living, enduring connection.

Question 3

How are bonds between parents are children presented in ‘Genetics’?

Answer 3

• The poem opens with the assertion, “I know my parents made me by my hands,” establishing the body as a physical manifestation of parental love, even if that love has ended.
• Although the parents are separated (“repelled” and “apart”), the speaker finds comfort in the fact that they are “both together” within her - Her hands act as a “marriage” of their traits.
• The poem turns a broken marriage into a “marriage” of body parts, suggesting the child becomes a new, solid bond that persists.
• In the final stanza, the speaker addresses her partner to create a new generation, looking to pass down her “hands” to “bodies of the future,” thereby extending the familial link.
• The repeating, cyclical form of the poem mirrors the repeating nature of genetic inheritance and the inescapable, lasting link between parent and child.
• Ultimately, Genetics portrays the parent-child bond as a permanent, physical reality that survives emotional distance, with the child serving as a bridge between the past (parents) and the future.

Question 4

What poetic/techniques are used in ‘Genetics’?

Answer 4

• Villanelle - strict adherence to a pattern - can’t escape genes - strict
• Cyclical structure - implying that these relationships are a cycle and perhaps inescapable element of fate to it?
• Mostly iambic pentameter - reflects heartbeat which connects families - inherited from parents = life is created from parents
• The rhyming is irregular - whilst genetics is a coded variation - they are not exact copies of their parents are are their own unique individual.