Sinéad Morrissey's "Genetics" meditates on the way that inherited traits connect people to their past. The poem's speaker notes that their hands contain features inherited from both their mother and father, linking the now-separated couple within the speaker's body. The speaker's hands provide a deep sense of belonging to a family lineage, which the speaker hopes to continue by having a child of their own. "Genetics" was published in Morrissey's 2005 collection, The State of the Prisons.

• Read the full text of “Genetics”

• “Genetics” Summary

• “Genetics” Themes

  • 

    Family and Inheritance

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-19
  • 

    Marriage and Relationships

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-15
  • 

    Identity and New Beginnings

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 16-19

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Genetics”

  • Lines 1-3

    My father's in ...
    ... by my hands.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-6

    They may have ...
    ... link to palms.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-9

    With nothing left ...
    ... by my hands.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 10-14

    I shape a ...
    ... their marriage register.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-15

    My body is ...
    ... with my hands.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 16-17

    So take me ...
    ... of the future.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 18-19

    I'll bequeath my ...
    ... by our hands.

    

    

    

    

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• “Genetics” Symbols

  • 

    Hands

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “My father's in my fingers, but my mother's in my palms.”
    • Line 3: “I know my parents made me by my hands.”
    • Line 6: “but in me they touch where fingers link to palms.”
    • Line 9: “at least I know their marriage by my hands.”
    • Line 12: “my father's by my fingers, my mother's by my palms”
    • Line 15: “I re-enact their wedding with my hands.”
    • Lines 18-19: “I'll bequeath my fingers, if you bequeath your palms. / We know our parents make us by our hands.”

• “Genetics” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “father's,” “fingers,” “my mother's,” “my palms”
    • Line 2: “lift,” “look,” “pleasure”
    • Line 4: “repelled,” “separate,” “lands”
    • Line 5: “separate hemispheres,” “sleep”
    • Line 10: “shape,” “chapel,” “steeple stands”
    • Line 11: “turn”
    • Line 12: “father's,” “fingers,” “my mother's,” “my palms”
    • Line 13: “demure,” “priest reciting psalms”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “My father's in my fingers, but my mother's in my palms.”
    • Line 6: “but in me they touch where fingers link to palms.”
    • Lines 7-8: “With nothing left of their togetherness but friends / who quarry for their image by a river,”
    • Lines 10-15: “I shape a chapel where a steeple stands. / And when I turn it over, / my father's by my fingers, my mother's by my palms / demure before a priest reciting psalms. / My body is their marriage register. / I re-enact their wedding with my hands.”

  • Parallelism

    

    

    

    

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    Where parallelism appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “My father's in my fingers, but my mother's in my palms.”
    • Line 12: “my father's by my fingers, my mother's by my palms”
    • Line 18: “I'll bequeath my fingers, if you bequeath your palms.”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “My father's in my fingers, but my mother's in my palms.”
    • Line 3: “I know my parents made me by my hands.”
    • Line 4: “to separate”
    • Line 5: “to separate”
    • Line 6: “but in me they touch where fingers link to palms.”
    • Line 9: “at least I know their marriage by my hands.”
    • Line 12: “my father's by my fingers, my mother's by my palms”
    • Line 15: “I re-enact their wedding with my hands.”
    • Line 16: “take,” “take”
    • Line 18: “I'll bequeath my fingers, if you bequeath your palms.”
    • Line 19: “We know our parents make us by our hands.”

• “Genetics” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Quarry
  • Steeple
  • Demure
  • Psalms
  • Bequeath
  • (Location in poem: Line 8: “who quarry for their image by a river,”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Genetics”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Genetics” Speaker

• “Genetics” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Genetics”

• More “Genetics” Resources

  • External Resources

    • "A Maker of Intricate Poem Machines" — An interview in which Morrissey talks about the use of strict poetic forms in her writing.

    • History of the Troubles — An introduction to the history of the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

    • Carcanet Interview With Morrissey — An interview with Morrissey around the time of writing "Genetics."

    • Morrissey's Life and Work — A biography of Morrissey and introduction to her work via the British Council.

    • Morrissey on Her Childhood — Read an interview in which Morrissey discusses her "very different upbringing."

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