Pluto

Question 1

ao5

Answer 1

’ Duffy presents both herself and her personae as dissapointed figures in need of comfort in a dark and potentially comfortless world’
‘I like to use simple words in a complicated way’

Question 2

ao3

Answer 2

Discovered in 1930 and became known as a ‘dwarf planet’ most isolated planet.

Question 3

ao4

Question 4

1. ‘When i awoke (enjab) a brand new planet’

Answer 4

1. A new day + thrill, childlike naviety, instill pride.

Question 5

1. ‘this Home I’m in’
2. ‘same soap suddenly (enjab) so’
   3.’Pluto, Pluto, Pluto, (enjab) thrilled, (enjab) beside myself.

Answer 5

1. The structure of the stanza mimicks the fragmented memory of the persona as they dip from past to present, ‘Home’ could represent a carehome or their childlike home. Shift.
2. sibilance, the lucidity of the memory whist reciting minor details, the soap could represent the persona’s ability to slip between different life experiences. 3. Repetition reflects the mannerisms of a giddy child, physically older but mentally a child. They have regressed to immature behaviour.

Question 6

1. ‘And then I notice things;’
2. ‘brown coins of age on my face the size of ha’ pennies’
3. ’ An hourglass weeping the future into the past’

Answer 6

1. Shift, transported back to reality demonstrated through the caesura, end of the warped vision.
2. Miserable realisation demonstrated through the metaphor depiciting the aging process, the deepening of features as the persona grows older.
3. Metaphor, uncontrollable passage of time.

Question 7

1. ’ I cry out now in my bath,’
2. ‘without the help and support of the woman I love’

Answer 7

1. Contrast to the theraputic tone throughout the prior stanzas, the penultimate stanza is in the present. The ambiguity causes the persona to rely on their senses, they are alone, isolated, solitary.
2. Regressed back into infancy, he is vulnerable, perhaps Duffy crafted this persona to expose the neglet the older generation face.

Question 8

1. ‘To think of another world out there (enjab) in the dark (enjab) unreachable,’

Answer 8

1. Sense of isolation, disconnection in the vast space. He has no sense of belonging. The repetition of the fragmented structure represents the persona’s memory as he relies on warm sentiments.