Duffy poems close analysis

Question 1

Little Red Cap
6 lit techniques

Answer 1

Sound:
* “Hairy paw” and “Bearded jaw” this playful rhyme compared with later sophisticated rhyme
* Lyrical epizeuxis and alliteration “Words, Words were… warm… winged”
* Enjambed “aglow with books”

Visual:
* Metaphorical imagery of “The forest”
* Symbolism of “White dove”
* Placement of the bookshelf at the back of the lair

Question 2

Queen Herod
2 sound
3 visual

Answer 2

Sound:
* Alliteration “blatant, brazen, buoyant”, “Him. The husband. Hero. Hunk.”, “The Rip. The Rake… Mr Right”
* Chiasmus “we Queens, We mothers, mother of Queens”

Visual:
* anachronistic allusions to “The boy next door”, “Mr Right” and “Chief of staff”
* “Peacock” that “screamed outside”, symbolic of eternity
* Metaphor “my little child, silver ‘and gold.”

Question 3

Mrs Midas
3 sound
2 visual

Answer 3

sound:
* Asyndeton and alliterative list “glass, goblet, golden chalice, drank”
* Mrs Midas’s relaxed tone in “poured a glass of wine, begun to unwind” is transformed into a dissatisfied longing for her marriage in the repetitive “his hands, his warm hands”.
* Humour

visual:
* The “pear tree” is symbolic of the life that Mrs Midas has grown with her husband.
* Golden imagery

Question 4

3 lit techniques Mrs Aesop

Answer 4

sound:
* drawn-out liquid sounds “appalling evening stroll”, to emphasise their “slow”, “creeping” marriage.
* meta “-he stopped and made a note-”,

visual:
* allusions “Christ” and “ purgatory” and classical allusions to Aesop.

Question 5

Mrs Faust
2 sound
3 visual

Answer 5

• Repetition of “up’ signifying constact progress
• Faust’s character symbol of the epitome of a patriarchal man
• Separation of “We” into “I” and “he” and then “he” before “I”
• Hyperbolic “lit a fat havana on the sun”
• Plosive alliterative asyndeton “clever, cunning, callous”

Question 6

Brainstorm 3 ways the concept of perception is endorsed/challenged/marginalised

Answer 6

Atwood expostulates the possibility of a unifying perspective

Atwood espouses external perception as a building block of identity.

Atwood upholds public perception as an inescapable force influenced by societal values and ideals.