Sub

Question 1

What is the main conceit of the poem?

Answer 1

A series of stories of a woman being inserted into male-dominated environments where she receives praise and worship as the historically male legends are reshaped to recognise female achivements and agency

Question 2

What are the main language methods that we see in Sub?

Answer 2

• semantics of supporting success
• semantics of menstruation
• semantics of motherhood
• sexual language
• title

Question 3

What are the key structural methods used in the poem?

Answer 3

• 7 stanzas, 10 lines
• caesura literally separates the woman from the men- implied that she is weaker because of her menstruation
• internal rhyme of ‘agreed on a whim to slim’ shows the pressure for women to return to male-desired bodies

Question 4

What quotes support the method of:* semantics of supporting success?

Answer 4

‘shoulder high by the boys’
steal(ing) the fifth set at Wimbledon from under… McEnroe’s nose’.

Question 5

What quotes support the method of: * semantics of menstruation?

Answer 5

‘tampon’
‘sipped my champagne in the solitary shower as the blood and soap suds mingled to pink’

Question 6

What quotes support the method of: * semantics of motherhood?

Answer 6

‘nursing the precious egg of the ball’

Question 7

What quotes support the method of: * sexual language?

Answer 7

‘screams, hot as sex’

Question 8

What quotes support the method of: title?

Answer 8

‘Sub’ is diminutive form of substitute- replacement who isn’t as valued in androcentric society but also shows how feminism saves the day