Home » The Choosing by Liz Lochhead - A Critical Essay

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This poem is a very well written poem which, was carefully and effectively assembled to give a technically brilliant poem. The poem concerns the writer and her friend, Mary. The poem takes the seemingly simple situation of a friend moving and elaborates on it to produce a poem with a deeper meaning. That is with regard to the choices that are make and the influences on them.

Let us start at the beginning and unravel this poem delving deep into its very construction. Then try to find and decipher the hidden messages and suggestions hidden within, stanza by stanza.

Stanza one tells of Mary and the writers' similarities and of their equality. The similarities mentioned are as follows: "same colored ribbons in mouse-colored hair"and"equal shyness".

The second stanza progresses to reinforce the idea of equality and their similarities once again. This is: "being cleverest (equal)". There are two things in this stanza which strike me as unusual. The first is that they are friends in what would normally be a bitter rivalry to be the cleverest in the year. However there is defiantly a rivalry between them. This is told in these two quotes "competition for top desk" and"read aloud the lesson at school service". The first line of stanza two tells that they are friends "Best friends too Mary and I". Conventionally the last quote and the two before that are a complete contradiction by terms. The second thing that strikes me as unusual is that in the last line of this stanza she uses the word "superiority" and the word "sums" in the same line, "superiority at sums". The word superiority is a very sophisticated word for a person of primary school age to be using. Conversely the word sums is, or is virtually colloquial and in my opinion childish. This shows that however intelligent or intellectual these girls are they still are only primary school age and are taught to refer to maths as sums.

Stanza three is where the first difference is mentioned. This stanza briefly talks about the houses that they live in and the different lives they lead there. The first difference mentioned is "The same house, different homes". This is the most thought provoking clause in the entire poem. From my comprehension of a house and a home is, a house is the physical bricks and mortar. Whereas a home is what you make it if you like. The home is made by the people that live there and the other people who live in their homes will have an affect on the personalities of the girls inhabiting them.

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The next stanza discusses the Mary moving and her father with his strong opinions. In this stanza she is on her way home on the school bus when she sees Mary's father standing at the corner. One is able to only speculate as to what he is doing at the corner. It seems highly conceivable that he is unemployed therefore giving him time to stand at the corner at such a time. It makes reference to this in the poem "among the others on the corner, Mary's father". It then discusses Mary's father's opinions. These are, "He didn't believe in high school education, especially for girls" and" forking out for uniforms". His opinions may be due to the fact that in his day it would not be compulsory for girls to receive a high school education.


Stanza five jumps forward by ten years, at this point I would assume the writer to be in her early twenties. In this stanza she sees Mary with her boyfriend on the bus returning from the library. The most interesting thing she uses in this stanza is a metaphor "full-shaped vase that is her body". This makes the powerful suggestion that Mary is pregnant. Also interestingly the writer adds in the last line "not that I envy her, really ".This for me, shows that she probably does envy her because the writer finds need to add that in.

The last stanza is essentially a summery of the poem. It talks about differences that have emerged between her and Mary and of what they have missed out on, as a result of the move. In the first two lines the writer tells of herself returning home from the library. The reason that I thing she is returning from the library is that a person like her would not be content with her current achievements and would strive to achieve more as a result of this. This is reinforced in proceeding lines: "think of the prizes that were ours for the taking". Finally she finishes with, "wonder when the choices got made we don't remember making". This is a very effective ending as it is a question with links directly with the deeper meaning mentioned in the introduction.

I conclude that the poem is very well constructed and thought out. However I am quite the traditionalist and like poetry to rhyme. Yes, it has its deeper meaning and wonderful figurative language but without rhyme does not make for good, enjoyable reading. 

Note: this essay is not been structured correctly so will not pass an exam. Do not copy for use in an exam - you will fail on the basis of incorrect structure.