Higher - Set Texts Poetry Carol Ann Duffy

Scottish-English poet Current Poet Laureate ( present) Writes in a contemporary style Often gives voice to those alienated or edited in history Writes from a personal perspective Use of language makes her work intriguing and accessible

Outline We will study 3poems – you must know all 3 of these for your exam. In the exam: One poem is chosen and you answer various questions on its ideas and language. You then write an extended answer on how the chosen poem relates to the other poems you have studied.

The 6 Poems We Will Study: 1.‘Valentine’ - explores the different stages of a modern relationship through the extended metaphor of an onion. 2.‘Havisham’ – re-examination of Dickens’ character Miss Havisham and her bitter heartbreak, as evoked through brutal imagery 3.‘Anne Hathaway’ – a sonnet that gives voice to Shakespeare’s neglected wife. Here she tells her romanticised version of their relationship.

Valentine 1.

Who Was St Valentine? We are going to watch a video clip about ‘Saint Valentine’. You are to take notes on the story in order to help you write a short summary of what happened to Saint Valentine. click for clip

Assumptions about ‘Valentine’ What sort of presents are commonly given on Valentine’s Day? What do you think this poem will be about? What kind of things do you think it might mention?

Initial thoughts Who is speaking? What is their opinion of Valentine’s Day? Are they addressing a certain person? Who? Why does the speaker think that an onion is an appropriate gift to give a loved one?

Connotations of Words Words with connotations of traditional/romanticised love Words with connotations of modern/realistic love Red rose Satin heart Onion Blind Moon Promises Light Undressing Photo Cute card Kissogram Kiss Lips Wedding ring Scent Tears Lover Wobbling Grief Fierce Possessive Lethal Cling Knife Task: identify words with these connotations. Fill in this table in your jotter.

Themes/Ideas Love (realistic view) and relationships Sex/Passion Violence/Anger Find quotations which link to these ideas.

Havisham 2.

Wedding Connotations Romance Happiness Love

Miss Havisham’s Wedding What do you think might have happened to Miss Havisham? How do you think this would make her feel? I don’t!

Who Is Miss Havisham? A significant character in Dickens’ Great Expectations. A wealthy spinster who lives in a ruined mansion. She inherited a lot of money and fell in love with a man named Compeyson who was only out to steal her riches. On the wedding day, while she was dressing, Miss Havisham received a letter from Compeyson and realised he had defrauded her and she had been left at the altar. Humiliated and heartbroken, she remained alone in her decaying mansion and never removed her wedding dress. She left the wedding breakfast and wedding cake uneaten on the table. She stopped all the clocks in the house at 8:40, the exact time when she had received the letter.

Who Is Miss Havisham? Havisham is an example of a common feature of poems by Duffy in which she gives a voice to a female character from whom we rarely hear. Havisham is Miss Havisham’s story in her own words. She reflects on her feelings for the man who left her, and the effect it has had on her. It explores how she could have come to be the woman she is. She remembers her ex in her dreams, and feels better until she wakes herself up trying to bite him. There is a sexual element to the dreams, and this is carried on into the violent end of the poem that wants him dead. The poem provides another insight into Miss Havisham, which gives the reader some empathy into her situation. It is also about obsessive love gone wrong. Looks at her mental and physical state many decades after being left standing at the altar when the bride-to-be is in her old age.

She was dressed in rich materials — satins, and lace, and silks — all of white. Her shoes were white. And she had a long white veil dependent from her hair, and she had bridal flowers in her hair, but her hair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on the table. Dresses, less splendid than the dress she wore, and half-packed trunks were scattered about. She had not quite finished dressing, for she had but one shoe on — the other was on the table near her hand — her veil was half arranged, her watch and chain were not put on. But, I saw that everything within my view which ought to be white, had been white long ago, and had lost its lustre, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the bridal dress had withered like the dress, and like the flowers, and had no brightness left but the brightness of her sunken eyes. I saw that the dress had been put upon the rounded figure of a young woman, and that the figure upon which it now hung loose, had shrunk to skin and bone. Some of this reads like a regular description of a beautiful bride – but there are many clues that suggest not all is as it seems. (extract from ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens)

Imagery ‘prayed for it So hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes, Ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with’

Themes/Ideas Love (negative view) Sex Passion Isolation Identity Uncertainty Find quotations which link to these ideas

Anne Hathaway 3.

Anne Hathaway Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare’s wife. They were married in 1582 when she was 26 years old and he was only 18. Little is known about her beyond a few legal references, but her personality and relationship with Shakespeare have been the subject of much speculation.

Anne Hathaway They were married and then 6 months later she gave birth to their first son. Some believe that Shakespeare was forced into marriage with Anne, having gotten her pregnant. They suggest he was bitter about the marriage. In his will he left her their ‘second- best bed’. Historians suggest that this was a slight, implying that Anne was in some sense ‘second-best’ also.

Anne Hathaway However, beds in Elizabethan times were very expensive (sometimes costing the equivalent to a small house). The best beds in an Elizabethan house were to be reserved for guests, implying that Shakespeare’s ‘second-best’ bed was actually their marital bed. Bequeathing this to her may have been an act of love rather than an insult. This is the view that Duffy takes.

Voice Duffy is well known for giving a voice to a lesser- known female character (think about how she gave a voice to Miss Havisham). Here, she takes a story focused on a man (Shakespeare) and gives a voice to the woman who he was married to – who has been largely forgotten by society. Rather than conform to the idea that Shakespeare had been forcibly tied to Anne Hathaway, Duffy puts forward the idea that Shakespeare was truly in love with her and that his will was his last act of love/romance.

Form Written loosely in sonnet form – which was Shakespeare’s favourite. Often associated with love poems – appropriate for the subject matter. Top 12 lines (3 quatrains) explore main ideas dealt with in poem and the final 2 lines (couplet) provide a volta (resolution/turn). ABABCDCDEFEFGG

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.

Themes Love (positive view) Sex/Passion Identity Remembrance/Loss Find quotations which link to these ideas

Comparisons Highlight the similarities and differences of the three poems about love using a Venn diagram. Anne Hathaway Valentine Havisham

Anne Hathaway Valentine Havisham Looks at positive aspects of love Looks at negative aspects of love Passion. Character. Loss. Love Bitterness and vengefulness. Hatred of love that has ended sourly. Pragmatic views on love. Honest account Portrays a happy, passionate and fulfilling relationship.

Comparison Common idea in all three poems: passion. “spinning world”; “shooting stars”; “Romance/and drama”. (Love and sensual passion in Anne Hathaway) “Prayed for it / so hard”; “Puce curses”; “Love’s/hate”. (Passionate hatred in Havisham.) “Fierce kiss”; “possessive”; “Its scent will cling”. (Intense, dangerously possessive passion in Valentine.)

Comparison Common idea in all three poems: sex. “his touch/a verb dancing in the centre of a noun”; “the bed/a page beneath his writer’s hands”; “by touch, by scent, by taste” (Imaginative, sensual sex in Anne Hathaway) “the lost body over me, /my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear then down” (Jilted bride’s erotic dreams in Havisham) “the careful undressing of love”; “fierce kiss” (Removal of onion skin compared with undressing a lover and intensity of physical relationship in Valentine.)

Comparison Common idea in two of three poems: love brings unhappiness. “It will blind you with tears”; “make your reflection / a wobbling photo of grief”; “possessive”; “Lethal” (Lovers make us weep or can become dangerously possessive which destroys love – Valentine) “wished him dead”; “Whole days / in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall”; “Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.” (Desire for vengeance and deep depression – Havisham) “Romance / and drama”; “My living laughing love” CONTRAST with the happiness love brings - Anne Hathaway