1. Havisham Carol Ann Duffy

2. Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
Lack of ‘Miss’ in her name highlights lack of any status.
Powerful opening sentence. Oxymoron of affectionate and insulting language.
Havisham
Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then
I haven’t wished him dead.
Use of pronoun rather than real name.

3. so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
Metaphor showing how much she has been crying. Green also represents envy.
Prayed for it
so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could
strangle with.
Metaphor showing how withered she has become; her veins stick out like ropes.

4. Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
Play on word ‘think’. Shows how inactive she has been since he left.
Effective one word sentence. Summarises her whole identity.
Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days
in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall;
Loss of language. Losing the ability to express herself.
Word normally associated with an animal. Highlights her lack of femininity.

5. yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
‘slewed’ = turned or twisted
Pronouns highlight how she barely recognises herself.
Nervous – her or the dress itself?
As the wedding dress decays, so does she.
the dress
yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself,
who did this
to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.
Questioning how she became like this. Use of enjambment highlights this confusion.
Puce = purplish brown

6. Some nights better, the lost body over me,
She becomes able to express herself again physically in her dreams.
Again the male is not referred to by name. He is simply a body that she misses.
Some nights better, the lost body over me,
my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear
then down till I suddenly bite awake.
Imagery becomes more sexually suggestive and then violent as she awakens to the reality of her loss and hatred.

7. hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
Connotations of colour:
White = purity, virginity, pale, death
Red = Love, passion, anger, blood
Oxymoron used again like in opening sentence. Emotional confusion further highlighted by use of enjambment.
Love’s
hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake.
Violent verbs highlight her anger, reinforce how abruptly her happy dream of wedded bliss came to an end.

8. Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Grotesque image emphasising her desire for revenge.
Romantic idea yet when juxtaposed with previous image it becomes sick and twisted.
Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.
Repeated theme of loss of language. Emotions are so confused that she cannot express herself clearly.