Carol Ann Duffy - Anne Hathaway Flashcards
“the bed we loved in was a spinning world”
- The bed is a Symbol of love.
- It might be the second best but what is important is what happened there.
- Wild romantic image Shakespeare brings things to life
“forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
-Famous settings from Shakespeare’s plays, compares these epic settings to the bed
“where we would dive for pearls”
-Oral sex, romantic connotations, searching for treasure = the joy and pleasure they found in each other.
“My lovers words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses”
- William Shakespeare was a great wordsmith, Duffy compares his use of words to his skill as a lover.
- Romantic image
“My body now a softer rhyme to his”
-Metaphor = the pleasure she felt
“a verb dancing in the centre of a noun”
-Metaphor = for the moment of sexual climax that she felt because of William Shakespeare
“I dreamed he’d written me, the bed a page beneath his writer’s hands”
-Metaphor = Emphasise the pleasure they both felt, comparison with his skill as a writer
“Romance and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste”
- Types of Shakespeare’s plays
- Range of physical passion they enjoyed
“our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose”
- Word choice suggests dull and boring
- Direct comparison with passion sounds completely different
“My living laughing love”
-Highlights central concern, even though he is dead, she keeps him and their passion alive in her memory
“I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head as he held me upon that next best bed”
- Sums up the poem
- The 2nd best bed helps keep the memories alive
- Love never dies
