Reciprocities – Cathal Lagan

for my mother

She gave me skeins of wool  The speaker draws us straight into the memory that started his thinking.
 He remembers that his mother gave him a big circle of wool to hold for her to wind up.
 The enjambment here, in line 3 and from line 5 to 10, emphasises the continuous
routine of a son holding out his hands for his mother to untangle and roll up the wool
in order to knit something new with it.
To hold out (like a priest at Mass),  Line 2 To hold the wool, he has to hold up his hands front of his body, some
distance from each other, so that the loop of wool is caught tightly around
each hand/arm.
 Simile: ‘like a priest at Mass’ the memory of holding up his hands for his
mother to roll the wool into a ball, triggered another memory. That of the time
he spent working as a priest.
 The boy compares his arms holding the wool to a priest giving
blessings to the church
 ‘Mass’ is the central act of worship of the Roman Catholic Church

With stern rubrics not to fidget, while she  ‘stern’ – his mother gave him strict instructions (‘rubrics’) on how to hold his hands
and what to do and not to do while she was winding up the wool. (guidance)
 Although ‘stern’is used to describe his mother, one does not get the impression that
she was anything but loving and caring.
 Rubric - In this line the word refers to the clear instructions she gave him,
reminding him to stay focused
 Not to fidget - his mother instructed him not to move or twitch his hands while
she was busy rolling up the wool. (responsibility)
Wound it into a ball, unwinding me,  Wound’ is meant literally, it refers to her action of winding the wool into a ball.
 ‘it’ - refers to the wool.
 ‘unwinding’ and ‘Unravelling’(line 5)can be understood both literally and figuratively.
She is literally removing the wool from his hands and arms as she rolls it into a ball,
but as she does so, he starts relaxing.
 The bond between mother and child is connected and always together, as
they work together, they are knitting a concrete, lasting relationship.
 The mother is getting the ball of wool she needs to knit, while the speaker is giving it
to her – a give and take situation (‘reciprocities’).
Unravelling my hands and arms, checking 5  ‘Unravelling my hands and arms’ – Literally the speaker’s mother is taking the wool off
his (the poet) hands and arms, rolling it into a ball to knit with.

My lapses with a gentle tug  The mother is teaching him when and how to stay focused when necessary.
 ‘gentle’ emphasises her style of parenting.
 She would check his concentration by pulling the string harder, but she does
so gently
 ‘My lapses’ refers to the boy’s loss of attention; breaks in his concentration, when his
arms drop down for instance, making his mother’s task very difficult.
When I wandered off through the images  ‘When I wandered off’’ – He loses concentration and wanders off in his
imagination – he would start daydreaming and gets lost in his own thoughts.
 His mother used to talk to him all the time while he was holding the wool for
her up.
Her chat had made, for though  His mother’s conversations (‘chat’) put him at ease and made his thoughts
wander off.
 The use of the word ‘chat’ emphasises the friendly, informal nature of his
mother’s conversations.
She kept the line between us taut  The wool has to be kept tight (‘taut’) so that it can be correct to be useful.
 Metaphor: The ‘line between us taut’ refers to the line of wool, but it is also a
metaphor for their relationship. She kept him close; she did not let him stray too far,
she kept their lines of communication and their bond strong. He compares the
relationship with the poet to the line of wool.
She kept my heart at ease with her talk. 10 The line explains that his mother always had a reason for what she did, and she did
everything out of love.
The length of stanza 1, the longest of the three stanzas, reflects the length of their chats and time spent together. Reflecting tone as the speaker
looks back at the past and memories that were created.
And when her ball compacted grew,  The conjunction ‘And’ links stanza 2 with stanza 1, completing the idea and
the final purpose of rolling the wool into a tight ball.
 Most of the wool has now been wound into a big, tight, ‘compacted’ ball.
 The word ‘grew’, it refers to the ball of wool that has grown bigger as his
mother rolls more and more wool onto the ball, it indicates that his mother
now has enough to knit him something new.
And my few strands fell limp away,  There is only a little bit of wool left to wind up.
 fell limp away ‘refers to the last few stands of wool that leave his hands as his
mother finishes the winding.
I knew there was no loss, for she  He knew that he did not suffer a loss by investing his time in helping his
Would knit it back again to fit me perfectly. mother, she would give her time right back to him by knitting him a jersey.
 ‘fit me perfectly’ literally refers to the jersey she is going to knit for him, but it
also refers to the lessons she taught him. It highlights the bond between the
two of them It shows how well she knows him; not just his size but also his
heart.
This is a perfect example of reciprocity; the wool is given, taken and then returned as a jersey.
  ‘But’ – the final stanza begins with yet another conjunction and to show the
transition from his childhood to adulthood. The conjunctions are the threads
that join all the stanzas together, creating perfect unity. Just like the wool, the
But richer still, 15 thread that runs through the poem is unbroken.
 Line 15 is the shortest line in the poem and successfully emphasises the words
‘richer’ and ‘still’. The memory becomes deeper
 ‘Still’ emphasises the fact that his mother’s ‘chats’ to him continuously.
 The speaker moves to the present tense, acknowledging the role his mother
I see today these lines are drawn out from me played and is still playing, in shaping him as a man, just as carefully and
perfectly as she knitted the jerseys.
 She has knitted strength into his heart. The speaker sees the poem as a way to knit
the memories back together.
To knit through this faltering verse  Metaphor: He compares his writing to his mother’s knitting, and he is trying to do it as
well as his mother did her knitting. It is as if she is still there to correct his lapses in life
through ‘a thread of memory’.
‘Thread of memory’- the wool bring back all these inspirational/encouraging/uplifting
A thread of memory memories.
 ‘Consciousness’ refers to the quality or state of being aware of something within
oneself.
 The wool has reminded him of the quality time he and his mother spent together. As
Time has pulled away from consciousness
an adult, he still enjoys the memory of this time and it enriches his thinking, leaving
him content/satisfied.

The poem is a symbol of love (his version of the jersey) that he can give to his mother in return for everything she has given him.
Compiled by Wilson S