Today: Annotating the poem Havisham Today: Annotating the poem

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then She wishes her former I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it lover dead. She is stuck in so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes, time paralysed as a jilted ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with. bride.

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then She wishes her former I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it lover dead. She is stuck in so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes, time paralysed as a jilted ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with. bride. Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days She feels out of place in in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress her new persona as a yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe; spinster. She is irrational and the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this has a troubled state of mind.

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then She wishes her former I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it lover dead. She is stuck in so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes, time paralysed as a jilted ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with. bride. Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days She feels out of place in in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress her new persona as a yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe; spinster. She is irrational and the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this has a troubled state of mind. to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words. She cannot articulate Some nights better, the lost body over me, language through words but my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear she once used words to then down till suddenly bite awake. Love's seduce her lover.

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then She wishes her former I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it lover dead. She is stuck in so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes, time paralysed as a jilted ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with. bride. Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days She feels out of place in in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress her new persona as a yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe; spinster. She is irrational and the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this has a troubled state of mind. to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words. She cannot articulate Some nights better, the lost body over me, language through words but my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear she once used words to then down till suddenly bite awake. Love's seduce her lover. hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting Hate is the only emotion she in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding cake. can feel. The preservation Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon. of hatred gives her a Don't think it's only the heart that b-b-b-breaks. purpose.

Verse 1 Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes, ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with. Oxymoron – emphasises her contradictory feelings Heavy emphasis here perhaps indicating her negative/aggressive feelings are now the dominant ones. Highlights the intensity of her vengeful desires. Hardened emotions? Dark for her evil thoughts of revenge. Green link with jealousy? Lack of transparency – might highlight the way she conceals her true feelings. Accentuated veins - due to age, stress, murderous anger etc. Irony – we usually pray for something good.

Verse 1 Beloved sweetheart bastard The poem begins as if addressed to the jilting bridegroom.  It doesn't continue in this direct address - by the end of the poem the male figure will have become a male corpse - any male (generalised). The most striking thing about the first sentence is the combination of 'love' (beloved sweetheart) and hatred (bastard).  Duffy is interested in the unstable combination of desire and hatred.

Verse 2 Negative connotations Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe; the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this Emphasises primitive rawness of emotions Placed at start of stanza, one word sentence, bitter tone. Literally true? Or low self esteem? Doesn’t recognise herself – profoundly changed by rejection. Ambiguous – her or the dress? Perhaps she is frightened of looking in the mirror and seeing what she has become. Repetition emphasises intensity of anguish Avian terminology used to show how she feels demeaned or rejected by her lover who has flown the nest? Emphasises her isolation.

Miss Havisham is aware of her own stink - because she does not ever change her clothes nor wash. She stays in bed and screams in denial. At other times she looks and asks herself “who did this” to her? She sometimes dreams almost tenderly or erotically of her lost lover, but when she wakes the hatred and anger return. Thinking of how she “stabbed at the wedding cake” she now wants to work out her revenge on a “male corpse” - presumably that of her lover.

Verse 3 to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words. Some nights better, the lost body over me, my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s Enjambment – to convey the idea of run away emotions and a lack of control? To evoke a troubled, restless mind? Dried blood? Disease? Deep red – connotations of puce? Sexual fantasy/dream reveals she cannot rid herself of her desire/affection which now torments her in the living nightmare of her waking existence. When she wakes the hatred and anger return

Verse 4 Shows how fragile love can be. Alliteration . Might symbolise her broken heart, her life destroyed abruptly? hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake. Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon. Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks. One word sentence/onomatopoeia emphasises power/suddenness of above. Command. A morbid, macabre, erotic perverse request. Deeply disturbed, vengeful and malevolent. Long + slow – combination of enjoyment and torture Repetition highlights her emotional and psychological fragility. As well as her heart, her mind is now broken.