Medusa

The Myth: 
Medusa was the lover of Poseidon. They were caught together in one of Athena's temples. Athena was enraged, so cursed Medusa to become a Gorgon, a woman with hair made of snakes and the power to turn anything she looks at into stone. Medusa was killed by her own reflection, a tactic used by Perseus, Poseidon's son.

The Structure: 
The poem is made up of eight stanzas. The first here stanzas tell the reader what's happened to her, the next two stanzas show Medusa using her powers to turn various things to stone. The final three stanzas are indented, showing a change in tone, as Medusa grieves for herself and her lost love. The eight stanza is only one line.

Closer Reading: 
- "A suspicion, a doubt, a jealously" - Medusa starts by listing what she believed turned her hair to "filthy snakes." Carol Ann Duffy has changed the original myth so that the reason for her Gorgon transformation is that her lover cheated on her. The use of a triplet emphasises Medusa's paranoid state of mind.
- "My bride's breath soured, stank" - In the second stanza, Medusa describes herself as she is now. She puts a lot of stress on the 's' sound, called sibilance. This clever device is used as a reference to the snake's hiss.
- "There are bullet tears in my eyes." - the metaphor suggests danger and her power to turn things to stone. It also shows that Medusa feels lonely and conscious of her appearance.
- "Are you terrified?" - the interrogative is directed at the reader, but also a specific audience who Medusa wishes to read her poem: the "Greek God", who was once her lover.
- "Be terrified." - Medusa believes that no one can love her, that we should all be terrified of how she looks and of her abilities. Simple sentence adds impact.
- "perfect man, Greek God, my own;/but I know you'll go, betray me, stray/from home." - More detail of her lover, a man who was once her own. The fact that she knows he'll leave her suggest he's done so before. Another example of tripling (my theory is that Carol Ann Duffy uses tripling so much because there were three Gorgons in Greek mythology.)
- As the stanzas go on, Medusa tests her powers on bigger animals. First it is a "buzzing bee" (alliteration) that "fell to the ground." Then a "singing bird" that "spattered down.", "a ginger cat" that "shattered a bowl of milk" and a "snuffling pig". The verbs grow more and more violent as the animals increase in size. Another example of sibilance, that runs throughout the poem.
Medusa also gets more and more intense with how she looks upon the animals. First she "glanced" then she "looked" and then she "stared". She's really testing how far her powers can go and what she's capable of.
- As previously stated the next stanzas have a different tone. The reader is meant to feel more sympathetic towards Medusa, and be more understanding of the pain she's been through.
She "stared in the mirror" like the real myth and states "Love gone bad" She is the epitome of bad relationships.
- "Fire spewed from the mouth of a mountain." - the metaphor suggests just how angry Medusa is, and how she let in bubble under the surface before finally erupting. She is simply a broken woman, looking for sympathy, yet does the reader respond sympathetically towards her after she's been so terrifying before?
- "here you come/with a shield for a heart/and a sword for a tongue/and your girls, your girls." - Medusa starts to taunt her lover for all his flaws. The metaphors suggest that he was guarded and knew exactly what to say, but his words hurt like a knife. The repetition of "your girls, your girls" suggests that he's left women before in favour of younger and more attractive girls.
- "Wasn't I beautiful?/Wasn't I fragrant and young?" - Medusa is questioning the Greek God's motives for leaving her, stating that she was once as beautiful and as young as the girls he now prefers.
- "Look at me now" is the last stanza and sentence in the poem. It's a simple, short sentence with an ambitious meaning. It could mean that Medusa wants her lover to realise how much she's changed, but also that she wants him to look at her, so he may turn to stone; she'd previously mentioned it would be "better by far" for her if he was stone.

Themes:
Medusa is about ageing and how beauty can be valued above anything else. Carol Ann Duffy is using Medusa as a critique of men and their fickle opinions on what counts as beautiful. Ageing is something that none of us can escape.
The poem is also talking about how lost love can cause bitterness. Perhaps love isn't worth the risk of getting hurt like Medusa did? Jealousy is also key; snakes are green, like the colour linked to the emotion.