The Map woman Flashcards
C-Carol Ann Duffy
First female, Scottish and lesbian poet Laurette.
How does Carol Ann Duffy’s poet position relate to this poem?
Depicts the struggles of a woman, like Duffy herself, trying to
adapt to a lifestyle very different to the one she finds herself in as
an adult.
How many stanzas?
13
What is the form of the poem?
Regular
What does the form of the poem suggest?
Reflect the content of a map relying on structure and logic.
Rhyme scheme?
Not continuous but moments of rhyme.
What does the internal rhyme do?
Propels meter of the poem onwards to reach the climax within the narrative
What is the rhyming couplet?
Bone and home
What does the rhyming couplet show?
Displays the inescapable nature of identity.
‘A woman’s’ Technique
Metaphor
‘A woman’s’ Meaning
Lacks specificity allows Duffy to metaphorically represent all woman and their experiences.
‘Dress, with a shawl, with a hat’ Technique
Asyndeton
‘Dress, with a shawl, with a hat’ Meaning
Demonstrates the woman’s desire to hide her map and identity with clothes and superficial items.
‘Over her breast was the heart of the town’ meaning
Duffy connects place and body.
Keeps her hometown close to her as it inevitably shaped her into who she is.
Breast centres it again to a female perspective
‘Nearby, waiting for time to start’ Technique
Caesura
‘Nearby, waiting for time to start’ Meaning
Pauses represent Duffy’s desperation, waiting to start her life outside her hometown
‘In the rain’ Technique
Pathetic Fallacy
‘In the rain’ meaning
Setting a gloomy scene for the end of a temporary relationship.
‘Sponged, soaped, scrubbed’ Technique
Sibilance
‘Sponged, soaped, scrubbed’ Meaning
Repeated sounds are unnerving soft ‘s’ contrasted with plosives.
Demonstrates woman’s efforts to get rid of the map .
Emblematic of fusion of map and body.
‘Bleaching steam’ Meaning
unpleasant image reveals the hollowness of her excitement. The Map-Woman can never really escape her identity, stuck with where she was born forever.
‘Under’ Technique
Triple repetition
‘Under’ Meaning
Repetition of under linked too a piece of clothing shows the lengths she will go too to hide her identity out of fear of being connected to her past.
‘Motorway was flowing away a roaring river of metal’ Technique
Metaphor
‘Motorway was flowing away a roaring river of metal’ Meaning
Unstoppable progression of time which continues forever, there is nowhere she can go to change who she is.
‘Fuzz of woodland under each arm’ Meaning
Representing armpit hair, embracing the custom of other cultures where it is not traditional to shave.
Rejection of shaving ties in with 21st century feminist ideas.
‘The map perspired under her clothes’ ‘Seethed on her flesh’ Technique
Violent imagery
‘The map perspired under her clothes’ ‘Seethed on her flesh’ Meaning
demonstrates the harsh reality of identity, it remains static and cannot change simply by having more money.
‘What was familiar was only a façade’ Technique
Enjambment
‘What was familiar was only a façade’ Meaning
emblematic of change one flowing unstopping to the next.
‘Stripped’, ‘Stockings’ ‘Lifted a honeymoon thong from her groin’ Technique
Sexual imagery
‘Stripped’, ‘Stockings’ ‘Lifted a honeymoon thong from her groin’ Meaning
to present the shedding of the map. This moment of change is climactic, Duffy uses sexual language to reveal how happy this change makes the woman.
‘Was she looking for’ Technique
Rhetorical question
‘Was she looking for’ Meaning
signal how the woman is still unsure of her own identity.
’ Sun glitter’ Literary link
Shakespeare’s Measure for measure ‘All that glisters is not gold’
Meaning of Shakespeare’s Literary link
Happiness is a false promise
Imagery of ‘Tunnelled and burrowed’ Meaning
furthers the seething nature of the city, the memories still locked inside her. She will never truly be able to forget the past and reform herself.
