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Morrissey’s use of verbs such as "repelled", emphasises the conflict between her parents now - highlighting how our identity is often shaped early and remains linked to our parents regardless of whether their relationship survives.

This is also emphasised by the repetition of the word “separate”, highlighting the distance between them - both physically and metaphorically - now that they have separated.

Through these methods Morrissey explores the idea of distance and togetherness, showing that our identity can overcome separation or distance.

The visual detail in Morrissey’s allusion to the childhood rhyme Here is the Church - which uses hand actions - links the poem both to childhood memories and to her parents’ marriage.

Using the “fingers” and “palms” in these hand actions, she describes how “I re-enact their wedding with my hands.” This childish image perhaps also shows how the speaker’s identity was formed in some part in childhood – the formative years of development.

The religious imagery used in the reference to this childhood rhyme reminds us again of the marriage that created the speaker. The “chapel where a steeple stands” becomes the setting for this union where her mother is “demure before a priest reciting psalms".

The marriage ceremony may remind us of wedding rings and the circularity of life, which is then reflected in the cyclical structure of the villanelle.

The shift in address to the future partner moves the poem from looking at the past as the influence on identity, to looking towards the future and how the identities of the next generation are formed.

This idea that separate identities combine to pass on many different physical and personality traits, but create something new instead of a carbon copy of previous generations, could also be suggested by Morrissey’s use of half-rhymes - for example “palms/hands”.