Sorting Through (Scottish Highers English): Revision Notes
Sorting Through
Overview
Sorting Through is a reflective poem that explores the experience of clearing out a mother's belongings after her death. The speaker engages in this task whilst simultaneously processing their grief and revisiting memories of their mother's life.
The poem presents this experience as a generational rite of passage. Through the physical act of sorting possessions, the speaker encounters a version of their mother they never knew: a young, carefree woman who existed before marriage and children. This discovery prompts reflection on how identity shifts throughout a lifetime and how absence continues to shape those left behind.
Whilst the poem may be rooted in Lochhead's personal experience, it speaks to universal experiences of loss, memory and the complex process of grieving. The speaker and the poet remain distinct, allowing the words to resonate beyond one individual story.
The poem explores three interconnected themes:
- Grief and loss: the emotional weight of bereavement
- Memory: how objects trigger recollection and imagination
- Identity: the multiple selves we embody across our lives
Form and structure
Lochhead writes Sorting Through in free verse, presenting the poem as a single stanza with no regular pattern of line length or rhyme. This structural choice reflects the nature of grief itself: memory does not follow a neat, linear path but instead moves unpredictably between past and present, jumping from one association to another.
The extensive use of enjambment throughout the poem creates a flowing, uninterrupted quality. Lines spill into one another without pause, mirroring the way thoughts tumble forward as the speaker works through belongings and emotions simultaneously. This technique gives the impression of spontaneous reflection, as though we are hearing the speaker's thoughts as they occur.
Lochhead employs both imagery and sound techniques to capture contrasting aspects of the mother's life. These techniques convey the vitality and energy she possessed as a young woman, whilst also acknowledging the finality of her death and the emotional impact on her daughter.
The poem follows a clear chronological structure across three movements:
The opening establishes the reality of death in direct, unadorned language. The speaker then moves backward in time, using their mother's possessions to imagine her youth and independence. The final section returns to the present moment, where the speaker confronts the ongoing nature of grief and how memories persist through objects long after a person dies.
Lines 1-8
The poem begins with stark directness in the phrase "The moment she died". This blunt opening immediately establishes the speaker's acceptance of death as a concrete event. There is no softening or euphemism; the mother's physical presence has ended.
As the speaker examines "dance dresses", they attempt to visualize how their mother would have appeared wearing them. However, they recognize an important distinction: they are not remembering their mother as she actually was, but rather constructing an imagined version of her:
"turned from the colours they really were/to the colours I imagine them to be"
This quotation reveals the speaker's awareness that memory involves imagination and reconstruction. The clothes may have faded over time, but more importantly, the speaker never witnessed their mother in her dancing days. They are creating a mental picture based on inference rather than direct recollection.
This establishes the poem's exploration of how we know our parents beyond the roles they inhabited in our own lives.
The following lines depict the mother as energetic and sociable:
"bumptoed silver shoes/ swinging from their ankle straps."
The use of sibilance in "silver shoes/ swinging" and "ankle straps" creates a light, musical quality that echoes the rhythm of dancing. The sound technique reinforces the content, making the mother seem alive and full of movement even as the speaker acknowledges her death.
The speaker imagines their mother returning home after a night out, where "her dad" (the speaker's grandfather) waits for her arrival. This detail suggests multiple things: the mother was cared for and her safety mattered to her family. However, it also hints at youthful independence and perhaps mild rebellion, as someone who stays out late enough to require waiting up for. The phrase captures both protection and freedom.
Another quotation emphasizes this carefree, somewhat rebellious quality:
"swaggered/light-headed from airman's kisses"
The verb "swaggered" suggests confidence and a lack of concern for propriety, whilst "light-headed" conveys excitement and romance. The reference to "airman's kisses" situates the memory historically (likely the 1940s, confirmed by later references) and suggests brief, thrilling encounters rather than settled relationships. This version of the mother contrasts sharply with the domestic, maternal role the speaker knew.
This imaginative reconstruction allows the speaker to connect with an aspect of their mother's identity that existed before their own birth. People inhabit different roles throughout their lives, and the poem considers how children rarely know their parents as young, independent individuals. The theme of identity emerges here as the speaker realizes their mother had a full, complex life beyond motherhood.
Lines 8-14
The poem shifts to the present moment as the speaker acknowledges the changed reality of the family home. The phrase "what I'll have to learn to call my father's house" reveals that the death is recent. The speaker must now adjust to thinking of the house differently, as it has become a place defined by absence rather than the mother's presence.
The proximity of "my father" to the earlier phrase "her dad" creates a deliberate parallel between the two women: the mother and the daughter. Both phrases appear in italics, drawing attention to their structural similarity. This suggests connection and continuity between generations, even as the words themselves differ. The speaker occupies the same position in relation to "my father" that her mother once held in relation to "her dad".
The conversational tone of this section reflects the natural flow of the speaker's thoughts. As they handle each item, their mind moves freely between associations without formal structure or careful organization. This mirrors the actual experience of sorting possessions, where one object leads to another memory, which triggers another thought, creating an unpredictable chain of reflections.
Each item mentioned creates a vivid mental image. The speaker notes how these objects "prints her even more vivid" in their mind. Rather than fading with death, the mother's presence intensifies through these tangible reminders. The verb "prints" suggests both photography and permanence, as though each object creates a clearer picture.
The short, fragmented sentences "Old lipsticks. Liquid stockings." function as a running commentary. The speaker appears to be narrating aloud as they work, listing items without elaboration. These brief statements capture the rhythm of sorting: pick up an object, acknowledge it, move to the next. The items themselves carry hints of glamour and femininity, though the adjective "old" reminds us they belong to the past.
Liquid stockings refers to a specific product from the 1940s. During wartime fabric rationing, women painted their legs with makeup to create the appearance of stockings, sometimes even drawing a seam line up the back of the leg. This detail anchors the mother's youth in a particular historical moment and suggests resourcefulness alongside vanity.
The listing of vintage clothing brands "Harella, Gor-ray, Berketex" further establishes the 1940s setting. These names would have represented quality and style in that era. The speaker's ability to recognize these brands suggests either research or familiarity with their mother's stories about her youth. The specific names give weight and reality to the imagined version of the mother, grounding her in concrete historical details.
The section concludes with a stark contrast. Line 14 describes putting these once-cherished possessions in "binbags for Oxfam". The word choice moves from the elegance of vintage fashion brands to the harsh reality of "binbags" and charity shops. The verb "manhandle" suggests rough, ungraceful treatment, quite different from how the mother would have carefully worn and maintained these clothes.
This ending to the section acknowledges a difficult truth about death: material possessions lose their meaning when their owner dies. Whilst these items hold sentimental value and trigger powerful memories for the speaker, they ultimately serve no practical purpose. The act of donating them represents both letting go and ensuring they might have continued use, but the contrast between their former significance and current disposal creates poignancy.
Lines 15-22
The final section employs personification extensively, giving human qualities to the mother's clothing. This technique transforms inanimate objects into entities capable of emotion, making them seem almost alive and thereby intensifying the sense of loss.
The phrase "the sadness of dispossessed dresses" attributes human emotion to clothing that no longer has an owner to wear it. The word "dispossessed" typically applies to people who have lost their homes or belongings, making it particularly affecting when applied to dresses that have lost their wearer. Sibilance in "sadness" and "dispossessed" echoes the same technique used earlier in the poem when describing the mother's silver dancing shoes. This sonic echo connects the vibrant young woman of the past with the sombre present, suggesting continuity despite death.
"The decency of good coats" personifies formal outerwear. "Decency" implies proper behaviour and respectability, suggesting these coats were worn for important occasions when appearance mattered. The speaker feels an emotional connection through these items, as they represent the standards and values their mother upheld in formal contexts.
"The gravitas of lapels" continues this personification. "Gravitas" suggests seriousness and weight, literally the heavy fabric of formal coats but also metaphorically the serious occasions they were worn for. Lapels are associated with suits and formal wear, possibly funeral attire. This detail becomes particularly loaded given the context: the mother may have worn these very clothes to funerals, and now her own death is being mourned.
The word choice throughout these personifications suggests the clothes themselves are publicly grieving their owner. They mourn her absence in a way that parallels the speaker's own grief. The formal nature of "decency" and "gravitas" contrasts with the playful, carefree quality of the earlier dancing dresses, showing the different aspects of the mother's life across time.
The final lines contain the poem's most striking image:
"the invisible danders of skin fizzing off of them"
Rather than simply calling this dust, Lochhead uses the specific term "danders", referring to the tiny fragments of human skin that form a large component of household dust. This word choice creates direct connection to the mother's physical body. The dust is not just debris but contains actual particles of her skin, making her presence literal rather than purely metaphorical.
The verb "fizzing" is unexpected and powerful. "Fizzing" suggests energy, movement and life, quite opposite to the stillness of death. It creates a sense of something alive and active, as though the mother's essence continues to vibrate with vitality even now. This unusual description makes the mother seem present and animated, her energy still contained within these objects.
The speaker concludes with a reflection on the nature of grief. Despite death, life "will not neatly end" for those left behind. Memories persist, triggered by physical objects and sensory experiences. The phrase "neatly end" suggests the desire for closure, for grief to follow a clear progression toward resolution. However, the speaker recognizes that loss remains messy and ongoing.
Objects continue to evoke the deceased person's presence, keeping them alive in the minds of those who remember them. This ending acknowledges that sorting through possessions is not simply a practical task to be completed and finished. Instead, it represents an ongoing relationship with memory and absence that will continue long after the physical sorting is complete.
Themes
Grief and loss
The act of clearing a parent's belongings after death represents a symbolic moment that many people experience. This task forms part of the grieving process, though it is often overlooked in favour of more formal rituals like funerals. As the speaker opens wardrobes and drawers, they simultaneously navigate complex emotions and encounter vivid memories of their mother "in a white cardigan and that exact frock."
The poem captures the quiet intimacy of personal loss through this ordinary domestic task. There are no grand gestures or public displays of mourning. Instead, grief manifests in the private act of handling possessions, making decisions about what to keep or discard, and confronting the reality of absence through material objects. The mundane nature of the task makes the emotion more affecting rather than less, as it shows how loss permeates everyday activities.
Memory
The items the speaker discovers create a reflective mood as they confront the absence that now defines their relationship with their mother. However, alongside sadness, there is also respect and love for the life their mother lived beyond her role as a parent. The memories are not purely sorrowful but instead celebrate a vibrant, independent woman.
Interestingly, the memories presented in the poem are indirect and imagined. The speaker invents them, possibly based on stories they have heard from or about their mother. The images date from a time before the speaker's birth, showing their mother as a carefree young girl rather than as they knew her.
This choice is deeply poignant. It demonstrates the varied life their mother lived before motherhood, acknowledging her as a complete person with experiences beyond the familial role. The actual memories the speaker has of their mother might be too raw and difficult to confront in this stage of grief.
By imagining:
"to the colours I imagine them to be"
the speaker finds some comfort in constructing a happier, less painful version of their mother's past. The colour and vibrancy of the dance dresses allow emotional distance whilst still maintaining connection.
Identity
As the speaker handles seemingly insignificant objects like clothes and cosmetics, these items take on enormous meaning. They reveal aspects of the mother's identity that the speaker never witnessed firsthand, such as being "light-headed from airman's kisses". This highlights how people embody different identities throughout their lives, often quite separate from how their children perceive them.
The poem suggests constant discovery occurs when we lose a loved one. Their lives do not "neatly end" but instead continue to reveal new facets. We learn more about deceased loved ones after death, as we encounter objects and stories that were part of their lives in different eras or contexts.
A mother is also a daughter, a young woman, a romantic partner, a friend, an individual with dreams and experiences separate from her family role. The speaker realizes they are connecting with a version of their mother that existed before they were born. This recognition involves both loss (they never knew this person) and gain (they now understand their mother more fully).
Identity emerges as layered and complex, with each person containing multiple selves across time and circumstance.
Comparing Sorting Through to other Liz Lochhead poems
Box Room
Both Sorting Through and Box Room explore themes of memory and identity through possessions. In Sorting Through, the speaker's memories emerge whilst clearing their mother's belongings after death. The objects trigger both actual memories and imagined reconstructions of times they never witnessed.
In Box Room, the speaker examines her boyfriend's bedroom, confronting the question of whether she will fit into his life. The objects preserved from his childhood by his mother create a sense of his past and the family dynamics she must navigate. Both poems use physical spaces and possessions to explore relationships and the traces people leave through material objects.
The Spaces Between
The Spaces Between connects to Sorting Through through its treatment of connection and loss. The 2020 coronavirus lockdown forces family separation, conveying how devastating it can be when connection is severed. Similarly, the speaker in Sorting Through confronts both physical and emotional loss of connection after their mother's death.
Both poems embrace the idea that human actions and emotions persist beyond death and across distance and time. Absence becomes a tangible presence in both works, shaping the experiences and emotions of those who remain.
For my Grandmother Knitting
Both Sorting Through and For my Grandmother Knitting involve the poet reflecting on relatives' lives. In Sorting Through, clothes and belongings bring the mother's life and youth into focus, allowing the speaker to imagine her in different contexts and times.
In For my Grandmother Knitting, the woman's old but busy hands suggest her past life and the activities those hands engaged in throughout the years. Both poems use physical details (clothing, hands) to access deeper truths about identity and the passage of time, recognizing how much of a person's life remains unknown to younger generations.
Remember!
Key Points to Remember:
- Sorting Through uses free verse and enjambment to mirror the disjointed, non-linear nature of grief and memory
- The speaker imagines rather than remembers their mother's youth, reconstructing a version of her they never knew through her belongings
- Personification of clothes in the final section makes them seem alive and grieving, intensifying the emotional impact
- The phrase "will not neatly end" captures how grief continues beyond the practical task of sorting, as memories persist through objects
- The poem explores three key themes: grief and loss (through the intimate task of clearing belongings), memory (indirect and imagined), and identity (multiple selves across a lifetime)