' Box Room ' - Liz Lochhead.

        He’ll make do tonight

In the lounge on the put –u –up. All right

For a night or two.

This phrase shows that the mother thinks the girl will only be staying for a night or two and then she will have left. The mother also tells the girl she is not the first girl he has brought home:

        Once or twice before

        He’s slept there.

This emphasises that the girlfriends he has brought home have not became serious or permanent.

During the conversation with the mother Lochhead inserts comments showing how confident she is:

( Oh with concern for my comfort )

( Lightweight,glossy, made of some synthetic

                             miracle)

These paenthical comments show that the girl thinks the mother is sad and pathetic but she can laugh at her due to her high confidence.The girl feels that her boyfriend has broken free and moved on from his mother. She then uses a metaphor to show that she feels the mothers ‘ pathetic shrine ’ which she keeps as a memory of the sons childhood. She uses a metaphor to show her confidence as she uses a mocking tone.

Despite her original confidence, when the girl is left alone in the room with all his old toys etc she begins to have doubts about her relationship with her boyfriend:

Peace to unpack – but I found none

This shows she can’t find peace to sleep from all his old discarded childhood possessions. She then becomes increasingly worried and doubtful about her relationship and how long it will last :

                       Persistent fear

        Elbows me ; embedded deeply here

        In an outgrown bed

Personification is used here to show the depth of the fear and gives the image that the fear is a living partner in bed with her. The girl then feels she is only temporary and won’t be his girlfriend for much longer:

        Your bookshelves

        Are crowded with previous prizes, a selection

        Of plots grown thin.

The books represent the boys previous girlfriends that his mother hinted about and she worries she will become discarded like the rest of them.  

In the first half of the poem her parenthetical comments were a sign of confidence and carried a little humour but towards the end they show that she is becoming more insecure:

                                                                   

Using a range of techniques – personification, parenthetical comments – Lochhead clearly shows how the girl laughs at the mother but then contradicts herself by taking her comments seriously and wondered if she is only temporary and how long it will be before she is discarded like the rest of his girlfriends.