Carol Ann Duffy Quotations Flashcards
VALENTINE: Duffy immediately states what Valentines Day should not represent.
“Not a red rose or a satin heart.”
VALENTINE: Duffy suggests that the basic gift of an onion holds much more meaning, an extended metaphor.
“It is a moon wrapped in brown paper. It promises light, like the careful undressing of love.”
VALENTINE: Continuing the extended metaphor, Duffy warns of the dangers of the onion - similar to a lover.
“It will blind you with tears, like a lover.”
VALENTINE: Duffy reminds us at the end, that the bitter feelings of a relationship, like an onion, can linger.
“Its scent will cling to your fingers, cling to your knife.”
HAVISHAM: To open the poem, an oxymoron shows Havisham’s conflicting views.
“Beloved sweetheart bastard.”
HAVISHAM: Metaphor emphasises the pain and deep hatred Havisham has for her fiance; envy, pain, rough.”
“Prayed for it so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes, ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.”
HAVISHAM: She wants to take out her frustration and torture on her lover, doing what she never had.
“Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.”
HAVISHAM: To conclude, she reminds us on the many ways she’s broken, looking for sympathy and a re-evaluation of her situation.
“Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.”
AH: Use of a list and reference to Shakespeare’s literary settings pays tribute to the encompassing, passionate lovemaking.
“The bed we loved in was a spinning world, of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas.”
AH: Anne Hathaway fantasises about being Shakespeare’s muse and inspiration, she views herself as a product of his imagination.
“Some nights, I dreamed he’d written me, the bed a page beneath his writer’s hands.”
AH: The guests contrast the passionate lovemaking of her and Shakespeare, for emphasis. Prose lacks form, control and structure compared to poetry.
“In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose.”
AH: Final rhyming couplet emphasises that what matters are the memories to preserve him, not physical remains. He is alive in her mind.
“I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head, as he held me upon that next best bed.”
MIDAS: The moment of realisation of the danger of this gift is captured, showing stages of transformation to gold. Suggests poison? Curse?
“He picked up the glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank.”
MIDAS: Mrs M adopts a reflective mood, contrasting imagery to emphasise her feelings of loss at no longer being intimate with her husband.
“We were passionate then, in those halcyon days, unwrapping each other, rapidly, like fast food. But now I fear his honeyed embrace.”
MIDAS: Mrs M adopts third person narrative, blames herself for her husband’s stupidity and condemning herself, reflecting on the gossipmongers.
“The woman who married the fool who wished for gold.”
MIDAS: Mrs M shows her sense of loss and pain at no longer being intimate with her husband, to conclude the poem. Sensual aspects, sensory details.
“I miss most, even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch.”
ORIGINALLY: Use of a list to convey how much has been lost, image of travelling and zooming back from where she is now to emphasise the distance between her now and her childhood.
“as the miles rushed back to the city, the street, the house, the vacant rooms where we didn’t live anymore.”
ORIGINALLY: Simile conveys idea of an irritation which cannot be ignored, her feelings of loss reflected from her parents and shown through a child’s view; wobbly teeth. Idea of change.
“My parents anxiety stirred like a loose tooth in my head.”
ORIGINALLY: Duffy lists everything she’s lost, question highlights her uncertainty about where she belongs. Highlights feelings of isolation and separation.
“I lost a river, culture, speech, sense of first space, and the right place?”
ORIGINALLY: Questions to conclude the poem. Duffy has been aiming to answer where she belongs this poem, but her hesitation at the end suggests she is no nearer to finding out.
“Now, where do you come from? Strangers ask. Originally? And I hesitate.”
WP: Metaphor in first stanza emphasises the importance of his job as he tries to bring order and brings to life the suffering he has witnessed.
“spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.”
WP: The after effects of the war is clear, as he now - in contrast to earlier - suffers PTSD. Ambiguity, are these photos the solutions to war?
“Solutions slop in trays beneath his hands which did not tremble then though seem to now.”
WP: The effects of war leaves a long lasting impact on not only the location, but his mind. Sense of nimbyism, people don’t care as it’s not happening near them.
“and how the blood stained into foreign dust.”
WP: To conclude the poem, we are reminded of how people will pay little proper attention to what’s happening. Cynical tone. Rhyme for emphasis.
“the reader’s eyeballs prick with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.”
