The Map woman

Question 1

C-Carol Ann Duffy

Answer 1

First female, Scottish and lesbian poet Laurette.

Question 2

How does Carol Ann Duffy’s poet position relate to this poem?

Answer 2

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.

Question 3

How many stanzas?

Answer 3

13

Question 4

What is the form of the poem?

Answer 4

Regular

Question 5

What does the form of the poem suggest?

Answer 5

Reflect the content of a map relying on structure and logic.

Question 6

Rhyme scheme?

Answer 6

Not continuous but moments of rhyme.

Question 7

What does the internal rhyme do?

Answer 7

Propels meter of the poem onwards to reach the climax within the narrative

Question 8

What is the rhyming couplet?

Answer 8

Bone and home

Question 9

What does the rhyming couplet show?

Answer 9

Displays the inescapable nature of identity.

Question 10

‘A woman’s’ Technique

Answer 10

Metaphor

Question 11

‘A woman’s’ Meaning

Answer 11

Lacks specificity allows Duffy to metaphorically represent all woman and their experiences.

Question 12

‘Dress, with a shawl, with a hat’ Technique

Answer 12

Asyndeton

Question 13

‘Dress, with a shawl, with a hat’ Meaning

Answer 13

Demonstrates the woman’s desire to hide her map and identity with clothes and superficial items.

Question 14

‘Over her breast was the heart of the town’ meaning

Answer 14

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

Question 15

‘Nearby, waiting for time to start’ Technique

Answer 15

Caesura

Question 16

‘Nearby, waiting for time to start’ Meaning

Answer 16

Pauses represent Duffy’s desperation, waiting to start her life outside her hometown

Question 17

‘In the rain’ Technique

Answer 17

Pathetic Fallacy

Question 18

‘In the rain’ meaning

Answer 18

Setting a gloomy scene for the end of a temporary relationship.

Question 19

‘Sponged, soaped, scrubbed’ Technique

Answer 19

Sibilance

Question 20

‘Sponged, soaped, scrubbed’ Meaning

Answer 20

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.

Question 21

‘Bleaching steam’ Meaning

Answer 21

unpleasant image reveals the hollowness of her excitement. The Map-Woman can never really escape her identity, stuck with where she was born forever.

Question 22

‘Under’ Technique

Answer 22

Triple repetition

Question 23

‘Under’ Meaning

Answer 23

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.

Question 24

‘Motorway was flowing away a roaring river of metal’ Technique

Answer 24

Metaphor

Question 25

‘Motorway was flowing away a roaring river of metal’ Meaning

Answer 25

Unstoppable progression of time which continues forever, there is nowhere she can go to change who she is.

Question 26

‘Fuzz of woodland under each arm’ Meaning

Answer 26

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.

Question 27

‘The map perspired under her clothes’ ‘Seethed on her flesh’ Technique

Answer 27

Violent imagery

Question 28

‘The map perspired under her clothes’ ‘Seethed on her flesh’ Meaning

Answer 28

demonstrates the harsh reality of identity, it remains static and cannot change simply by having more money.

Question 29

‘What was familiar was only a façade’ Technique

Answer 29

Enjambment

Question 30

‘What was familiar was only a façade’ Meaning

Answer 30

emblematic of change one flowing unstopping to the next.

Question 31

‘Stripped’, ‘Stockings’ ‘Lifted a honeymoon thong from her groin’ Technique

Answer 31

Sexual imagery

Question 32

‘Stripped’, ‘Stockings’ ‘Lifted a honeymoon thong from her groin’ Meaning

Answer 32

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.

Question 33

‘Was she looking for’ Technique

Answer 33

Rhetorical question

Question 34

‘Was she looking for’ Meaning

Answer 34

signal how the woman is still unsure of her own identity.

Question 35

’ Sun glitter’ Literary link

Answer 35

Shakespeare’s Measure for measure ‘All that glisters is not gold’

Question 36

Meaning of Shakespeare’s Literary link

Answer 36

Happiness is a false promise

Question 37

Imagery of ‘Tunnelled and burrowed’ Meaning

Answer 37

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.