Anne Hathaway - Duffy Flashcards
“The bed we loved in was a spinning world”
~ we do transported to magical landscape filled with metaphor - appropriate as this was one of Shakespeare’s greatest techniques.
~ bed is a spinning world suggests their love making made anne dizzy and was all encompassing
“of forests, castles, cliff tops, seas.”
~ Setting of some of William Shakespeare is my famous works – suggests a link between these and the poem which together are echoes of the excitement that took place in their bed.
“Where we would dive for pearls”
~ couple finds something precious and valuable in their love making that shown by pearls.
~ connotations of luxury suggest in the lovemaking was luxury and was a cause of joy.
“my lovers words were shooting stars”
~ sibilant S reflects the fireworks.
~ Implies that she felt fireworks with him - there was an intense chemistry between them
“which fell to the Earth as kisses”
~ simile describes lovemaking making through metaphor.
~ she was seduced by her lovers language and poetry which seems to fall from heaven as though a gift from the gods before turning into a physical kiss.
“my body now a softer rhyme.”
~ Duffy extends language metaphor - Anne’s body is a softer rhyme to her husbands harder, more masculine body
“a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.”
~ erotic touch of his hand on her body is described as ‘a verb dancing in the centre of a noun’ - noun is an object and verb is a doing word, represents something being done to the noun
~ ‘dancing’ shows it’s sensual and gentle.
~ deliberate comparison turns love making into something for poetic - in doing so literary terms become sensual.
“some nights i’d dreamt he’d written me”
~ Anne imagines that - like the characters in his play - Shakespeare has ‘written’ her suggests that she only feels fully alive when she regards herself through his eyes and imagination.
“The bed a page beneath his writers hands”
~ reference to bed at end of line 8 links to the opening line of poem - and reinforces symbolic significance of the bed as a representation of their love.
~ enjambment from line 8 continues extended metaphor from previous quatrain as bed as compare to paper on which passion and excitement was written on.
~ all romance and drama in these plays was played out or begun in the bed - Duffy again implies his inspiration for his plot came from their lovemaking.
“Romance and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.”
~ Romance placed at end of line nine to emphasise that this is what she associates most with their relationship .
~ senses reinforced how vividly she can still recall their lovemaking.
“Our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose”
~ in contras, she compares poetry and sensuality of lovemaking with those who slept in the other bed.
~ they are only capable of dribbling their prose.
~ implication is clear - poetry symbolises most skillful and creative use of language while prose is ordinary and unexceptionable.
“my living laughing love -“
~ alliteration shows her their love was great and passionate and was not existing, he was living for their love.
~ suggests her lover still in someway exists and survives and her memory
~ dash makes pause - allows us to reflect on idea and prepare for resolution and final couplet.
“I hold him in the casket of my widows head”
~ casket is a small box for storing valuables.
~ metaphor - it holds him, their love which is very valuable to her.
~ their love and relationship was special and precious.
