Carol Ann Duffy: The World's Wife
Little Red Cap
At childhood’s end, the houses petered out
into playing fields, the factory, allotments
kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men,
the silent railway line, the hermit’s caravan,
till you came at last to the edge of the woods.
It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf.
He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud
in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw,
red wine staining his bearded jaw. What big ears
he had! What big eyes he had! What teeth!
In the interval, I made quite sure he spotted me,
sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink,
my first. You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.
The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,
away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place
lit by the eyes of owls. I crawled in his wake,
my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer
snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both shoes
but got there, wolf’s lair, better beware. Lesson one that night,
breath of the wolf in my ear, was the love poem.
I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur, for
what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf?1
Then I slid from between his heavy matted paws
and went in search of a living bird – white dove –
which flew, straight, from my hands to his hope mouth.
One bite, dead. How nice, breakfast in bed, he said,
licking his chops. As soon as he slept, I crept to the back
of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books.
Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head,
warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.
But then I was young – and it took ten years
in the woods to tell that a mushroom
stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse, that birds
are the uttered thought of trees, that a greying wolf
howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out,
season after season, same rhyme, same reason. I took an axe
to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axe to a salmon
to see how it leapt. I took an axe to the wolf
as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw
the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother’s bones.
I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up.
Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone.
into playing fields, the factory, allotments
kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men,
the silent railway line, the hermit’s caravan,
till you came at last to the edge of the woods.
It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf.
He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud
in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw,
red wine staining his bearded jaw. What big ears
he had! What big eyes he had! What teeth!
In the interval, I made quite sure he spotted me,
sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink,
my first. You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.
The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,
away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place
lit by the eyes of owls. I crawled in his wake,
my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer
snagged on twig and branch, murder clues. I lost both shoes
but got there, wolf’s lair, better beware. Lesson one that night,
breath of the wolf in my ear, was the love poem.
I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur, for
what little girl doesn’t dearly love a wolf?1
Then I slid from between his heavy matted paws
and went in search of a living bird – white dove –
which flew, straight, from my hands to his hope mouth.
One bite, dead. How nice, breakfast in bed, he said,
licking his chops. As soon as he slept, I crept to the back
of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with books.
Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head,
warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.
But then I was young – and it took ten years
in the woods to tell that a mushroom
stoppers the mouth of a buried corpse, that birds
are the uttered thought of trees, that a greying wolf
howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out,
season after season, same rhyme, same reason. I took an axe
to a willow to see how it wept. I took an axe to a salmon
to see how it leapt. I took an axe to the wolf
as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat, and saw
the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother’s bones.
I filled his old belly with stones. I stitched him up.
Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone.
Carol Ann Duffy was married to Adrian Henri, a poet, for ten years and 'Little Red Cap' is semi-autobiographical. This poem is based on the fairy tale 'Little Red Riding Hood'. The poem focuses on the transition between innocence and experience.
'At childhood's end' names the transition between childhood and adolescence as almost a physical place, marking the loss of innocence an purity carried by youth. The narrator 'clapped eyes on the wolf', this harsh sighting brings the end of innocence in an onomatopoeic aggressive abrupt way.'
'At the edge of the woods' implies the inevitability of the spoiling of innocence, the temptation to enter was overwhelming.
The use of rhyme in such simple words such as 'paw' and 'jaw' emphasises this sense of innocence and echoes the rhymes used in nursery rhymes, holding connotations of people as young as babies.
'I made quite sure he spotted me' demonstrates the narrator's lust for excitement and danger, her need to step out of innocence and experience the darker sides of life.
'He stood in clearing' demonstrates his individuality. He was the first person to symbolise danger in a very individual manner.
The 'red wine staining his bearded jaw' gives imagery of blood and dander. Additionally, red wine symbolises the sophistication and maturity of taste that the narrator was fascinated by and looked up to.
The 'my first' which begins the third stanza symbolises not only her first drink but her first everything; love, dangerous experience, man. This heightened her innocence and exposure to an extreme threat.
Carol Anne Duffy was attracted to 'his poetry' this is what pushed her from the edge, into the woods.
This third stanza contrasts with the second as whilst the second demonstrates her innocence and naivety, the third shows her knowledge of his danger 'The wolf, I knew would lead me deep into the woods' and she embraces it.
The 'lost shoes' symbolise the loss of her ability to run away once she had committed so fully.
His 'heavy matted paws' demonstrate the firm hold he had on her and his suppression of her and her poetry.
'what little girl doesn't dearly love a wolf?' could be interpreted as a comment on society with the fact that all women are attracted to men who bring danger and do not necessarily treat them very well. This also vilifies both sexes but also distances them.
The 'search' for a white dove is symbolising her wanting to retrieve her innocence and hope. Yet it 'flew, straight, from my hands into his open mouth'. Every attempt to gain her purity is crushed by him. He consumes her whole personality and demines her achievements.
'One bite dead'- the monosyllabic nature gives a finality of it. A loss that she can never get back. It was quick and easy for him to consume a part of her.
The '10 years' furthers the autobiographical nature of the poem as Duffy's marriage to Henry lasted 10 years. The narrator's empowerment in the sixth stanza is brought with her realisation that she can brutally destroy him.
The end being 'I took an axe' also is monosyllabic, giving a fast pace and finality.
Thee are no rhymes in the last stanza, showing her final loss of innocence, yet this is brought upon by herself and not forced upon by him.
'One chop' mirrors the 'one bite dead', giving an equality between the sexes and the gain of the narrators power.
Duffy concludes with the line 'Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone'. This empowering statement, marks her regain of her voice in poetry within 'singing', the 'flowers' demonstrating the innocence and purity and 'alone', typically thought to be a negative state, is positive a freeing for the narrator, regaining herself.
Main themes: Obedience, Rebellion, Power of words, Relationships, Power, Adolescence, Independence, Growing up, Being a woman.
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'One bite dead'- the monosyllabic nature gives a finality of it. A loss that she can never get back. It was quick and easy for him to consume a part of her.
The '10 years' furthers the autobiographical nature of the poem as Duffy's marriage to Henry lasted 10 years. The narrator's empowerment in the sixth stanza is brought with her realisation that she can brutally destroy him.
The end being 'I took an axe' also is monosyllabic, giving a fast pace and finality.
Thee are no rhymes in the last stanza, showing her final loss of innocence, yet this is brought upon by herself and not forced upon by him.
'One chop' mirrors the 'one bite dead', giving an equality between the sexes and the gain of the narrators power.
Duffy concludes with the line 'Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone'. This empowering statement, marks her regain of her voice in poetry within 'singing', the 'flowers' demonstrating the innocence and purity and 'alone', typically thought to be a negative state, is positive a freeing for the narrator, regaining herself.
Main themes: Obedience, Rebellion, Power of words, Relationships, Power, Adolescence, Independence, Growing up, Being a woman.
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Anne Hathaway
'Item I gyve unto my wife my second best bed ...'(from Shakespeare's will)
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed
a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love -
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed.
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words
were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed
a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance
and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.
In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on,
dribbling their prose. My living laughing love -
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon that next best bed.
Carol Ann Duffy uses the form of a Shakespearian sonnet for this poem, with three quatrains and ending with one rhyming couplet. This form is typically associated with love. The fact that Shakespeare only left his wife his second best bed gives Duffy the perfect opportunity to victimise the women in the situation. However, she subverts expectation and romanticises the passionate acts that occurred in the bed.
Duffy presents an alternative interpretation of being immortalised in literature than in Little Red Cap. Anne Hathaway is thrilled by her sexual encounters with Shakespeare and Duffy romanticises their relationship on a personal and intimate level. She creates a fantasy landscape in which love making and Shakespeare's writing are intertwined.
The 'clifftops, seas' demonstrate the all-encompassing nature of the feeling he gave her in this intimate sexual moment. Duffy refers to all of the senses making it an overwhelming, vivid experience that she thrived in.
The best bed and the love making in it is condemned and is seen to be worthless in compared the couples love. It was also fairly typical of the time for couples to save their best bed for guests so everybody else's love did not compare to theirs.
The repetition of 'l' creates a very soft, gentle and fluid nature which could represent the continuing memory she carries of him which gives her the identity and comfort she longs for.
Struggle for identity:
-Anne Hathaway has no identity without him as she is defined by Shakespeare's words as he controls the situation.
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Mrs Rip Van Winkle
I sank like a stone
into the still, deep waters of the late middle age,
aching from head to foot.
I took up food
and gave up exercise.
It did me good.
And while he slept
I found some hobbies for myself.
Painting. Seeing the sights I’d always dreamed about:
The Leaning Tower.
The Pyramids. The Taj Mahal.
I made a little watercolour of them all.
But what was best,
what hands-down beat the rest,
was saying a none-too-fond farewell to sex.
Until the day
I came home with this pastel of Niagara
and he was sitting up in bed rattling Viagra.
Background:
Rip Van Winkle is a classic European faerie tale written by Washington Irvin in 1907.
The story of Rip Van Winkle is a 'be careful what you wish for' fable/moral tale about a man who has a great life (children love him as he tells them stories and gives them toys), but he is lazy. He despises his nagging wife and one day he goes up into the mountains with his dog wolf, to escape her. He comes across a man struggling with a keg and Rip Van Winkle helps him to transport it. They come across a 'group of ornately dressed, silent, bearded men who are playing nine-pins'. Rip Van Winkle drinks some of their moonshine and soon falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later, his children are all grown up and his wife is dead and he struggles fitting into his new life. Rip learns that the man he met in the mountains are rumoured to be the ghosts of Hendrick (Henry) Hudson's crew.
Carol Ann Duffy's poem follows Mrs.Winkle in her life with her husband gone and in Duffy's interpretation, she is still alive when he awakens.
Analysis:
-'late middle ages' gives ambiguity, referring to the era or her age.
-'it did me good' the pressures of trying to impress her husband have been lifted and she is free to act any way she chooses.
-The beginning of the poem has sibilance: 'sunk' 'stone' 'waters' 'exercise', which gives a slow soft pace, which echoes Rip's sleeping.
-There is repetition of the first person pronoun 'I', which shows that she can be self indulgent for the first time and she thrives in it.
-'took up' 'gave up', the repetition of the word 'up' contrasts with her husbands sleeping. Additionally, it suggests her progression in life and foreshadows the humorous ending.
-This is furthered with the mention of tall sights: 'Leaning Tower', 'Taj Mahal', 'Pyramids'. These exotic, exciting locations contrast with 'home' in the last stanza, emphasising the thump back to reality.
-'niagra' and 'viagra' rhyme. Niagra falls highlights the fall back to reality and contrasts with the Viagra a light hearted pun. However, this image is very creepy, meeting her husband with the immediate thought of the act she was so happy to give up.
-She has found meaning in her life during Rip Van Winkle's sleep.
-Each stanza starts with a short sentence which gradually get longer, mimicking her growth as a person.
-'Water colour pastels' are delicate, soft pure colours, taking him out of the equation makes her life brighter and more exciting. This contrasts with the beginning 'deep waters' and 'stone' which show darkness and a sense of loss. This also demonstrates her progression upward.
Struggle for identity:
-Struggle for identity within a marriage:
-the only time she felt wanted was for sex.
-Life beginning late- in her 'middle ages'
-'Watercolour'- The way she perceives things and her accomplishments.
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