Advice to a Teenage Daughter by Isobel Thrilling Poem Analysis

The Poem ‘Advice to a Teenage Daughter’ by Isobel Thrilling was published in the year 2014. Isobel Thrilling’s influence to write her poem ‘Advice to a Teenage Daughter’ was to familiarise her daughter will the complications of the heart and the power it can have as Thrilling is concerned about adolescent love. 

Within this poem, Thrilling explores the theme of love by comparing it to war. This shows that the author thinks of love as dangerous and that they think of love the same way that she thinks of battle. An example of this is when she describes love as a ‘war-game’. This poem is also written in the 3rd person as Thrilling is trying to tell her daughter her perspective of love and how she views it. Thrilling has given the poem an authoritative mood and tone to show her powerful passion to explain and influence her daughter's love choices and for her to have some self-worth. This is authoritative tone is implemented within the poem when Thrilling uses words such as ‘behold’ and ‘beware’ 

Throughout the poem Thrilling also has a change of tone in the line “Beware my sweet;” while she is trying to warn her daughter about boys. A language technique that Thrilling uses within her poem are personification. This technique is used numerous times throughout the poem, for example in the line “brave ranks of lipsticks”. This line incorporates the war term rank, which is usually associated with soldiers, with the inanimate object of lipsticks to describe it as ‘brave’ and give the daughter courage when wearing it. This gives the idea that to experience adolescent love you need to have courage and her mother is concerned for that courage to be crushed by love. Another language technique that Thrilling used within her poem was contrasting and using metaphors. A good example is in the line “dynamite of flowers”. 

This line compares the elegant, pure, and delicate flowers to the destructive overbearing power of dynamite. The use of this comparison shows how destructive men and their love can be, destroying lovestruck women who are as delicate and elegant as a flower. One of the other language techniques that Thrilling used within her poem was alliteration which can be seen in lines such as “football, motorcycles, cars, cricket, computer games or a plate of chips.”. This line emphasises typical objects that men love and is said by the mother to explain to her daughter she would never be able to compare and compete with these imitate objects. By producing this poem, Thrilling is trying to convey the idea to her daughter that love is not to meddled with and can be compared to war. It is also used to advise her daughter to be wearing and understand her mother's dislike towards men and the trouble that they bring. 

Thrilling uses an authoritative mood and tone as well as language techniques such as personification, metaphors, and alliterations to express her worry and warning about adolescent love towards her daughter.