IB12 are currently studying poetry by Carol Ann Duffy selected mainly from her wonderful anthology 'The World's Wife'.
My favourite lines come from the poem 'Anne Hathaway':
I hold him in the casket of my widow's head
as he held me upon the next best bed.
Why? Well, for all the reasons that we explored in lesson but mainly because of the way the tense shifts from the present 'hold' to the past 'held' which is a moving signal of how Shakespeare continues to live in the speaker's memory yet she will never be 'held' by him again.
So, IB12: What is/are your favourite line/s and why? Submit by posting your comment below by Friday 8th March 2013.
We are enjoying reading your poems in the style of Duffy and hope that this has helped you in showing an appreciation of the ways in
which language, structure, technique and style shape meaning.
Miss Akhtar :)
Best line? Might just be because I'm doing it as my prep IOC, but for me, it has to be line 10 of 'Mrs Lazarus' simply because it likens the voice to Judas adding a new insight into the poem.
ReplyDeleteFor me it's "Beloved sweetheart bastard". I really like the juxtaposition which show Miss.Havishams' confused feelings. It also cleverly tells the order of the events in Great expectations.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite lines are "The Midnight hour. The chattering stars shivered in a nervous sky" from Queen Herod because it sets the scene and creates a particular mood/tone. Also it uses personification and makes the stars and sky seem human because they are "nervous" and "chattering" which makes the lines more interesting.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is "The dress yellowing" from Havisham because here it shows the time passing but also the white wedding that dress that is supposed to represent love and unity now represents one of decay and decomposition.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is "My lover's words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses" because it suggests that they had an intense chemistry where a single word uttered was equal to seeing a shooting star fall to earth. Also because it suggests that Shakespeare was more than just a man who wrote plays and poems, there was more to him that we know and his wife, Anne Hathaway is the solely, the one who can express that to us.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line has to be "he's a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock" from Mrs Icarus, because it isn't subtle at all. It gets straight to the point and bluntly describes Icarus as the fool with no common sense that he turned out to be.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is from Anne Hathaway, and is 'My lovers words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses on these lips'. I like this because it just sounds beautiful, it makes their love sound so true and the image of shooting stars is associated with wishes, so its as if their love is like magic :)
ReplyDeleteMy favourite lines are...
ReplyDelete"The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas
where we would dive for pearls." - Anne Hathaway
Why?
I like how Duffy makes the bed seem like a fairy tale. Fairy tales are about "Happily Ever Afters". Her making the bed seem like a Fairy Tale shows the feelings Anne Hathaway has for Shakespeare. She might think of him as her "Knight in shining armour". Also, that their love is "true love".
My favourite line is the first line from Queen Herod:" Ice in the tree" because it foreshadows or hints that something awful will happen. Also it sets the tone of the poem- a cold and bitter tone. This emphasis something malicious and awful will happen.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line has to be Mrs Darwin
ReplyDelete'I said to Him -
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you. '
I like this because she looks up at her husband as a God since the capital letter 'h' in 'Him'. However she insults him by calling him an 'Chimpanzee', mocking him, perhaps undermining his 'genius'.
My favourite line is "My lover's words were shooting stars..." from Anne Hathaway,because she describes his words as 'shooting stars' which shows her true appreciation and adoration for her lovers words. Also,'shooting stars' are often linked to fate and wishes which implies that their love is dream-like.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line by Carol Ann Duffy has to be in Queen Kong on stanza 3 line 2, it quotes "rumbling an animal blues" the line uses the word blues to show the pain in the women's voice/music which jazz music is famously known to express. Also Jazz music was at its peak popularity in the 1950-60s which is when the original story of King Kong is based on
ReplyDeleteMy fave line out of Standing Female Nude is in stanza 1 line 7 'They call it Art.' because this shows that not everyone thinks that painting/different forms of art is art and it shows that art can be anything. If you're good enough in something, it too can become an art.
ReplyDeleteI must say, my favourite line from the anthology has to be "My living laughing love..."- which is a quotation from the poem written by Anne Hathaway. The reason in which I favouritise it is simply because of the use of alliteration and how each word compliments the next.
ReplyDeleteCareful, Selina - did Anne Hathaway write this poem? Or did Duffy?
DeleteMy favourite line of Duffy's poems from The World's Wife is probably the line "The will was read. See, he was vanishing" from Mrs Lazarus. It's almost as if the speaker has to justify her sense of loss to the reader and she does this by directly speaking to the reader. The second part seems to be something said to reassure her more than anyone else.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is "Little man, you've not the money for the arts I sell" from Standing Female Nude because by calling him a "Little man" she is undermining the power he had over her at the start of the poem when he was telling her what to do. It also suggests that he can't afford to have her so it's as if she is sneering at him and realising that he is not actually that different from her - they are both poor and do what they can for money.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line I think is from Mrs Midas which is 'He was below, turning the spare room into the tomb of Tutankhamun'. For me it gives me an image of Midas laying out his death before him as he can no longer eat or drink anything, and it also shows that his wife views him as someone of great importance to everyone else as he can turn anything into gold, rather than her husband who she cherishes.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite line would be " his touch a verb dancing in the centre of a noun " because it is a great play on words
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletemy favorite line is "They call it art", the reasons this is my fave line is that it tells you that not everyone see`s it to be art, as art can be shown is a range of ways
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is "My lover's words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses on these lips" because i like Duffy's use of metaphor to show how much love Shakespeares wife had for him, Also the capital letter for 'My' shows how important he was to her and how his writting made an effect on her. Duffy really did admire Shakespear's work so, this poem was dedicated to Shakespeare to show people how she viewed the relationship between the two.
ReplyDelete"I'd done it before
ReplyDelete(and doubtless i'll do it again,
sooner or later)"
Definitely the most intriguing lines from the poem Salome. Instantly creating curiosity about what the poem might consist of. I think that the reckless tone is exciting and resembles Duffy herself in a sense. While the enjambment furthermore emphasizes the unstable state of the voice.
Hey its charlotte
DeleteMy fav line is... it was time to turf out the blighter, the beater or biter, whod came like a lamb to the slaughter.
I like this line because I think it shows that women can be just as careless and a sterotypical man.
I made quite sure he spotted me,
ReplyDeletesweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and bought me a drink,
my first. You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.
From Little Red Cap.
I like the fact that the line is separated with commas and full stops because it makes the whole action brief. It shows that little red riding cap is making her move to adulthood but it seems less important and almost blunt, she makes it seem effortless to impress a man, or in her case a wolf. Duffy shows true innocence in a girl with how she describes her, an untouched and unclaimed girl and makes her alluring and interesting at the same time. And she also suggests that becoming an adult is poetic.
My favourite line has to be the end of Salome "with his head on a platter". This is because its quite significant in the play as it refers back to biblical reference from where Duffy got the name "Salome". I also like it because it finally reveals the true meaning of the poem.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is the first line 'Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then.' from Havisham. This sentence is the only structured sentence in the poem which is in iambic hexameter.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is "Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you."
ReplyDeleteDarwin is considered one of smartest figures known to humanity because of his theories. Duffy mocks Darwin by saying as though his wife thought of one of his theories. This was my favourite line because it made me consider another quote said by Napoleon "History is lies agreed upon". This made me think did Darwin really make his own theories, or is anything we are taught about History true.
My Favorite line would have to be 'beloved sweetheart bastard' merely because it's such a beautiful oxymoron. It, in my opinion, expresses a typical marriage despite the fact Ms Havisham was not. i think this because; you married him because you think he/she is the one, sweet, caring etc but at the same time you're going to fight and not get along. It just shows despite the fact you love him/her unconditionally no one is perfect and at some times they will be in fact a 'bastard'
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is "And there, like I said - ain't life a bitch - was his head on a platter" from Salome because this line confirms all the thoughts and feelings the reader has towards Salome, she's powerful, callous and remorseless. She treats the head as a trophy to signify her power.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite line is "so hard I've dark green pebbles for eys " from Havisham because its actually deeper than the obvious.
ReplyDeleteMiss havisham wishes her her fiance death and Duffy uses the word green which is associated with greed and jealousy. Also the tone of the poem sound so sad and depressing.
My favourite line is in Mrs. Lazarus, 'Gone home. Gutted the place. Slept in a single cot.' I've chosen this because I feel that it captures the innevitable loneliness faced when a spouse or loved one dies really well.
ReplyDelete