Wintering Carol Ann Duffy

Objectives  To explore how the poem describes how love can be destructive  To be able to comment on the use language and structure in the poem

Glossary Pathetic fallacy = to attribute human emotions or characteristics to nature

Starter  Why is there more domestic violence aimed at women?  Why do many women return to violent partners?

Wintering Read the poem through twice. The poem explores how the speaker feels about the end of a love affair and how destructive it can be. However, in the end, it seems to start all over again.

Title 1. What is the connotation of winter? 2. Why is it called ‘wintering’ and not simply ‘winter’

Figurative language In a similar way to ‘Answer’, this poem uses a number of metaphors and personification throughout to explore love’s destructive nature

Stanza 1 1. The first line uses a caesura. How does this effect the pace and mood of the poem as a whole? 2. Pathetic fallacy is used to describe the rain. What image does this create? 3. What have they ‘done again’? What does this tell us about their past?

Stanza 2 1. What do we associate with the colour grey? 2. What do we associate with the colour black? 3. Why has the relationship faded from grey to black? 4. The stars are personified as being ‘liars’. Why? 5. What do we associate with the word ‘shroud’?

Stanza 3 1. The speaker goes through three emotions, anger, frustration and then desperation (clench, throw and clutch). What does this tell us about the speaker? 2. The moon is described as ‘a stone’? What is the effect of this metaphor? 3. Why is the phone a ‘stiff body’?

Stanza 4 1. Pick out one interesting language feature of image in this stanza and comment on its effectiveness

The garden The next four stanzas seem to focus on the speaker’s garden as a representation of her love. 1. Pick out two images/language features about the garden and explain what is being said about the relationship.

The final four The tone suddenly changes in the final four stanzas. 1. What season seems to start in the final stanzas? How do you know? 2. How does this affect the overall tone of the poem? 3. How does the speaker’s lover seem to make everything all better?

Structure All the lines have a similar length and rhythm. However, many of the rhymes are slightly off. What do these half rhymes tell us about the poet’s relationship with her lover?

Task How does the poet use language and imagery to explore the destructive nature of love?