History --- Important Quotes Flashcards
What is the poem about?
Explores the female perspective on history, always being present but being ignored by the men who have written accounts of the past.
What is Duffy’s purpose with this poem?
Rally women together from different historical events so they cannot be forgotten or erased
Duffy goes against the notion of the quiet old lady, subverting the idea of beauty in order to firmly state the idea: women are here, they always have been, and they will not be forgotten or lost to age.
Connection between lines, connected nature of history
emblematic of the connection of women across history, a testament to their perspectives
Internal rhyme in the poem e.g. “her head. half dead”
degraded and diminishing, unpleasant
longing for death for her or the society that mistreats her
physical deterioration –> decay
semantic field of decay
“she woke up old at last”
“her head, half dead”
“smelling of pee”
Personified and capitalised
introduces female perspective
reiterates the importance of history for modern day society
“She was History”
Religious conflicts
lack of growth/ change in religion as crusades not capitalised, made less special
women passive as only witnessed, suffering and lack of power to do anything about it
“witnessed the wars, / the bloody crusades”
Men are responsible for the most destructive wars
“Bannockburn, Babi Yar, Vietnam”
Powerful (Knowledge)
- “She was history”
- “She’d heard the last words”
- “She was history”
- “She’d heard the last words”
Passive Verbs (Links to TMW)
“She’d seen them”, “Been there”, “watched”, “witnessed”, “Seen”, “heard”
“She’d seen them”, “Been there”, “watched”, “witnessed”, “Seen”, “heard”
Abuse
“fresh grafitti sprayed onto her door… s**t wrapped in a newspaper”
“fresh grafitti sprayed onto her door… s**t wrapped in a newspaper”
Isolation
“She woke up old at last, alone,”
“She woke again, / cold, in the dark,”
