Anne Hathaway Carol Ann Duffy, The World’s Wife (1999)

Ted Hughes & Sylvia Plath, 1950s

Simone de Beauvoir & Jean-Paul Sartre 1940’s

F. Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, 1930s

Vivienne Eliot, 1921

James Joyce & Nora Barnacle, 1931

Leo & Sonya Tolstoy, 1890’s

Anne Hathaway The bed we loved in was a spinning world ‘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.

Drawing of Anne Hathaway by Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 1708 1555/56 – 6 August 1623 ? Drawing of Anne Hathaway by Sir Nathaniel Curzon, 1708

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. Markup key: prosodic devices enjambment euphemism asyndeton enumeration metaphor juxtaposition allusion language references

Form: English / Shakespearean sonnet 14 lines iambic pentameter (increasingly less regular as the poem progresses) ABABCDCDEFEFGG rhyme scheme is only very loosely followed masculine vs. feminine rhyme: the former is blunt, strong, obvious, at words’ end (“head” / “bed”); the latter is soft, complex, delicate, sometimes assonance (“body” / “now”) Volta occurs in the rhyming couplet Enjambment in nearly every line

Literal meaning: Figurative meaning: Shakespeare’s widow, Anne Hathaway, describes the unique, amazing and deeply poetic sex life that she and Shakespeare enjoyed in their second-best bed. Hathaway counters the assumption that Shakespeare slighted her by leaving her his second-best bed in his will, using literary devices to demonstrate how passionate and out-of-the-ordinary their romance was, and also to blur the line between life and art. Figurative meaning:

Symbolism: The bed shared by Shakespeare and Hathaway here becomes a potent symbol for love, passion and loss.

Allusion: “forests”: As You Like It, A Midsummer Night’s Dream “castles”: Macbeth, Hamlet “torchlight”: Romeo and Juliet “clifftops”: Hamlet “seas”: The Tempest “dive for pearls”: The Tempest “the second-best bed”: Shakespeare’s will

Euphemism: “The bed we loved in” “we would dive for pearls”

Metaphor [1]: “The bed we loved in was a spinning world / of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas” My lover's words / were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses / on these lips”

Metaphor [2]: “my body now a softer rhyme / to his, now echo, assonance” “his touch / a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.”

Metaphor [3]: “Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me” “the bed a page beneath his writer's hands.” “our guests dozed on, / dribbling their prose.” “the casket of my widow's head”

Juxtaposition: “In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on, / dribbling their prose.” “I hold him / he held me”

Prosodic devices: W: “where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words / were” S: “shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses / on these lips” O: “body now a softer rhyme / . . . echo, assonance; his touch” D: “dozed on, / dribbling their prose.” L: “My living laughing love”

Language references: “My lover's words” “my body now a softer rhyme / to his, now echo, assonance;” “his touch / a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.” “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.” “dribbling their prose.”

Discussion questions: Based on what you know of his plays and sonnets, do you imagine William Shakespeare to have been a passionate and alluring man? How does this poem relate to “Little Red Cap” in terms of its association of language with love / sensuality? Do you believe that a writer’s sensitivity to love and other emotions in his or her work is likely to be indicative of personal sensitivity?

Websites consulted http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:AnneHathaway_CUL_Page4DetailB.jpg http://www.bardweb.net/content/ac/hathaway.html http://absoluteshakespeare.com/trivia/facts/facts.htm http://www.topix.com/album/detail/oak-forest-il/LDUNN24R6H2F2FQ9 http://vi.sualize.us/193_365_this_is_just_to_say_cakeys_words_pography_body_plums_picture_28k8.html http://inkpression.blogspot.com/2011/04/bed-book.html http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/stothard-shakespearean-characters-n01830 http://blogs.setonhill.edu/DennisJerz/EL267/014367.php http://www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/gcse/carol-ann-duffy/michael-woods-on-carol-ann-duffy/anne-hathaway http://www.thetutorpages.com/tutor-article/gcse-english/studying-anne-hathaway-by-carol-ann-duffy/2692 http://shakespearesolved.blogspot.com/2013_01_01_archive.html http://www.jewelsdujour.com/2013/06/the-rising-star-of-natural-pearls/ http://www.bedsexplorer.com/2010/08/09/fantasy-tree-bed/ http://shugarlove.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/craig-and-rain-love.jpg http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2013/03/26/new-books-highlight-the-mystery-of-zelda-fitzgerald/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vivienne_Haigh-Wood_Eliot http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jun/15/joyces-dublin-city-of-dreamers http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=24572 http://www.moonmentum.com/blog/codex/multimedia/simone-ernestine-lucie-marie-bertrand-de-beauvoir