Question

My father’s hands

are beautiful, they can

fix this moth’s wing and make

machines

they can mend the fuse when the

world

goes dark

can make light swim and walls jump

in around me again

I can see my mother’s face again.

You must take good care of them with

your finest creams

never let the nails break or

skin go dry, only those wise fingers

know how to fix the thing

that makes my doll cry and they make

small animals out of clay.

Never let blades or anything sharp

and hurtful near them

don’t let bees or nettles

sting them don’t let fire or burning oil

try them

My father’s hands are beautiful, take

good care of them.

By Jeni Cowzyn

(i) Pick out the verbs that describe what the father’s hand do.

(ii) What do you usually fix? What is fixed in line 3? What does this tell us about the

father?

(iii) What usually ‘goes dark’ (line 6)? What do you think the speaker means when she

says ‘the world goes dark’? How can the father ‘mend the fuse’?

(iv) ‘can make light swim and walls jump in around me again’ (lines 7-8). What do

you think this sentence means? What does it tell us about the father in the poem?



(v )What does the speaker mean when she says ‘I can see my mother’s face again’

(line 9)? What do you think has happened to the mother?

(vi) Many capital letters and full stops have not been used. What is the effect of

leaving them out the poem?

(vii) What kind of a person is the father in the poem? Write a short passage on him.

How does his daughter feel about him? ​

Answer 1

first answer is

the verbs that describe the father's hands to are

*goes dark

*walls jump around me again

*makes my doll cry

*make small animals out of clay