Salome

Biblical Figure:
Salome was the daughter of Herodias, who is married to King Herod. She danced before them before on Herod's birthday. He enjoyed her dancing so much that she was given one oath, that Herod would have to keep. Salome gave the oath to her mother, who asked for the head of John the Baptist. King Herod sent for John the Baptist to be imprisoned and beheaded.

Structure:
Salome is divided into four unequal stanzas, the first being 14 lines, then 9, then 9 again and finaly 4 lines long. There is no structural rhyme scheme although there are examples of internal rhyme throughout.

Closer Reading:
- "I'd done it before/ (and doubtless I'll do it again,/ sooner or later)" - here she is talking about being in a sexual relationship. The way she justifies the first sentence suggests she is unashamed of her nature. Brackets make the text conversational, as if the justification was added as an after thought for the reader's benefit.
- "woke up with a head on a pillow beside me - whose? - / what did it matter?" - Salome is careless and doesn't worry about what's happening to her. The way she only says "a head on a pillow" adds humour because she ends up with a head on a platter.
- "Good looking, of course," - that's what matttered to her; the looks of her partner.
- "a reddish beard..../with very deep lines around the eyes,/ from pain, I'd guess, maybe laughter," - the man's age is referenced. From Salome's frivilous attitude the reader suspects she is young (but certainly not naive.)
- "and a beautiful crimson mouth" - Crimson connotes danger and blood, perhaps foreshadowing the man's fate, but also sexual desire.
- "that obviously knew/ how to flatter..." - a man gives compliments to a lady in effort to get her into bed.
- "Strange. What was his name? Peter?" - the way she asks questions in the middle of a line suggests she is talking to herself, but talking directly to the audience as well.
- "Simon? Andrew? John?" In the Bible, Peter and Simon are the same people, depending on the version, a clever way to show Salome's confusion. Simon, Peter, Andrew and John are all names of Jesus's disciples.
- "for tea, dry toast, no butter," - a life without luxury.
- "so rang for the maid." - Salome is a well off woman.
- "And, indeed, her innocent clatter/ of cups and plates/ her clearing of clutter,/ her regional patter/ were just what needed - " - the maid's innocence contrasts with Salome's. Rhyming words of 'patter' and 'batter'.
- "hungover and wrecked as I was from a night on the batter"
- "Never again!" She wants to change. The exclamation point shows determination.
-  "I needed to clean up my act,/ get fitter" - Salome wants to better herself.
- "cut out the booze and the fags and the sex." - the sydentic list makes the list seem longer and more elaborate.
- "Yes." - she's reassuring herself that she's achieve her goal. "And as for the latter,/ it was time to turf out the blighter,/ the beater or biter,/" - Alliteration of 'b'
- "who's come like a lamb to the slaughter/ to Salome's bed." Simile, reference what happened to John the Baptist.
- "In the mirror, I saw my eyes glitter." - Internal rhyme.
- "I flung back the sticky red sheets" - Blood
- "and there, like I said," - conversational tone, "-and ain't life a bitch - " The taboo language fit well with Salome's promiscuous personality.
- "was his head on a platter"- Intertextuality between the poem and the Bible. Abrupt ending. Shocking.

Themes:
Salome is a poem that flips the gender roles of women and men. Salome is written as a very sexual woman, who can easily throw out of man. Unlike Mrs Faust, she is successful in becoming independant. She is like Little Red Cap in this way. Carol Ann Duffy is showing that woman are equal to men.

Pygmalion's Bride

Myth:
Pygmalion was a sculpture, that feel in love with a statue he carved. He made offerings to Venus, the Roman goddess of love, that he may have a live girl with similar likeliness to his statue. When he returned home, he kissed the statue and realised that it was soft. The ivory statue, was no longer ivory, but a real woman, who he then married and had children by.

Structure:
Pygmalion's Bride has seven stanzas of unequal length. The stanzas start of short, grow longer, then reduce in size at the end of the poem.

Closer Reading:
- "Cold, I was, like snow, like ivory." - A simile relating to the original myth, that the 'bride' is made out of ivory. "Like snow" relates to the colour white, suggesting innocence and naivety.
- "I thought He will not touch me,/ but he did" - The man only cares about what he wants and doesn't give any thought to how the woman would feel.
- "He kissed my stone-cool lips" - metaphor for her statue nature.
- "I stay still/ as though I'd died." - the man is in control.
- "He stayed." - again, the man doesn't seem to care that the woman feels uncomfortable. The short sentence suggests power because of it's abruptness.
- "He thumbed my marble eyes" - a metaphor, but also literal.
- "He spoke - /blunt endearments, what he'd do and how." - man dominance. The woman doesn't have a voice that can be heard.
- "My eyes were sculpture,/ stone-deaf, shells,/ I heard the sea." - a play on word to 'tone-deaf'. The woman doesn't understand the man. "I heard the sea" could also be humourous because when a shell is held to an ear, one is supposed to hear the sea. All the bride is hearing is white noise.
- "I drowned him out./ I heard him shout." - the man gets violent when he doesn't get his way. 'Drowned' him in the sea she previously mentioned.
- "He brought me presents, polished pebbles,/ little bells." - the man thinks that by trying to win the woman over with materialistic things, she will fall for him. Critical of how men act around women nowadays. Alliteration of 'p'.
- "I didn't blink,/ was dumb" - Carol Ann Duffy making the point that that's how men prefer their women to do. The statue was also literally dumb because she couldn't speak.
- "He brought me peals and necklaces and rings." - Syndetic listing suggested the elaborateness of his advances. "He called them girly things." -stereotypical of what women like - the man also doesn't understand the woman.
- "He ran his clammy hands along my limbs. / I didn't shrink,/ played statue, shtum." 'Shtum' is an idiom for silent. The woman feels like she can't escape.
-  "he squeezed, he pressed. / I would not bruise." - the woman is made of marble and will show "no scratch, no scrape, no scar." The alliteration reinforces this idea.
- "He looked for marks,/ for purple hearts,/ for inky stars, for smudgy clues" - he is trying to find evidence that this woman is human, or that perhaps she loves someone else and has already been 'claimed'.
- "My heart was ice, was glass." - a metaphor. She feels no warmth towards this man. Ice and glass are also breakable, which could suggest that with the right amount of effort, the man could break this woman.
- "His voice was gravel, hoarse." - a contrast to her own delicate features. They are mismatched.
- "So I changed tack/ grew warm, like candle wax,/ kissed back," - half rhymes and internal rhymes. She needs to change herself to become what the man wants. "candle wax" is malliable and can be easily shaped.
- "was soft, was pliable/ began to moan,/ got hot, got wild,/ arched, coiled, writhed." - sexual connotations. She is finally giving the man what he wanted, but took no pleasure in it herself.
- "begged for his child...all an act" - she's realised that if she becomes too attached to the man he will want less of her.
- "And haven't seen him since." - the man has left her because of her clingyness.
- "Simple as that." A short and minor sentence to end with. Impactual. The woman accomplished her goal in the end;  to be rid of the man.

Themes:
Carol Ann Duffy is showing a woman that feels she needs to change to fit the ideals of a man. She is highlighting that men must feel wanted but will get scared when women become committed; another critical opinion. Pygmalion's Bride is first and foremost a lover in the eyes of the man, but not appreciated for anything but her looks, much like Medusa at the start of her relationship.

Little Red Cap

Story:
Little Red Riding Hood is a fairy tale story about a girl who's going to deliver something to her grandmother. She takes the path through the woods and encounters a wolf, who tries to obstruct her way. When she finally gets to her grandmother's house, the wolf is disguised as the grandmother, having eaten her, and wishes to also eat Red. The ending of the story varies but most commonly, a woodcutter comes to the rescue and saves both Red and the grandmother, who is still alive inside the wolf's stomach. The wolf is killed, and they all live happily ever after.

Structure:
Little Red Cap has seven stanzas, all with about six lines each. As the poem progresses, Red matures.

Closer Reading:
-  "At childhood's end, the houses petered out" - the age of Red is referenced. She is no longer a child, and on the brink of adulthood.
 - "into playing fields, the factory, allotments," - symbolises a journey. As she moves further and further out of her town, the landscape becomes more abandoned.
 - "kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men" - simile, shows how women dote on men. This is also contextual as the poem is written with Adrian Henri in mind, a man that Carol Ann Duffy loved, and who she claims "he was never faithful".
- "the silent railway line, the hermit's caravan" - adding imagery to her journey. Things are becoming more isolated and separate. Things aren't staying together.
- "till you came at last to the end of the woods" - this is a metaphor for reaching adulthood. The woods are an unknown place to Red, both literally and metaphorically.
- "It was there that I first clapped eyes on the wolf." - intertextuality with the original story.
- "He stood in a clearing, reading his verse out loud/ in his wolfy drawl, a paperback in his hairy paw" - the wolf is educated, and poetic, much like Henri. He is also animalistic, with his "wolfy drawl" and "hairy paw".
- "red wine stainging his bearded jaw." - Red, the colour, is the colour that both she and he are wearing. Red can connote blood, danger and death, but also heightened sexuality.
- "What big ears/ he had! What big eyes he had! What teeth!" - the exclamation points suggest that she is excited and impressed by this new figure and also links to the original story. The repetition suggests age and experience.
- "I made quite sure he spotted me" - she initiated the romance, not the other way round, showing female dominance.
- "sweet sixteen, never been, babe, waif, and brought me a drink," - an idiom, representative of her naivety and innocence. "Waif" could also suggest her age, and how fragile she is.
- "my first." - enjambment. Impactual.
- "The wolf, I knew, would lead me deep into the woods,/ away from home, to a dark tangled thorny place, lit by the eyes of owls." - she was well aware of the world she was about to enter; adulthood. She was led away from saftety and security.
- "I crawled in his wake," - she has become submissive, which is contradicting to her previous attitude. The adult world, and the wolf, are changing her personality to fit their own.
- "my stockings ripped to shreds, scraps of red from my blazer." - the loss of innocence. The blazer suggests she is educated, young. "snagged on twig and branch, murder clues." - the death of her childhood. "I lost both shoes" - internal rhyme.
- but got there, wolf's lair, better beware." Caesure, a deliberate break in text using punctuation.
- "I clung till dawn to his thrashing fur, for/ what little girl doesn't dearly love the wolf?" - sexual and intimate. The rhetorical questions addresses the reader, and illustrates the thoughts of women. They can't resist a man.
- "went in search of a living bird - white dove - " Red wishes to reclaim her innocence, now that she's experienced what adulthood is like. The dove symbolises purity.
- "One bite, dead. How nice, breakfast in bed, he said," - Her innocence can never be reclaimed. Monsyllabic words make for an abrupt internal rhyme.
-  "As soon as he slept, I crept to the back/ of the lair, where a whole wall was crimson, gold, aglow with/ books." - she can't do anything without the permission of the wolf, so feels the need to sneak around in order to be by herself. A male is all encompassing, and you cannot escape their clutches. "gold, aglow with/ books" is a metaphor for treasure.
- "Words, words were truly alive..../warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood." Asyndetic listing for emphasis on the magesty of books. Henri was Duffy's inspiration, showing her a vivid life that is culturally rich.
- "But then I was young - and it took ten years" - time has progessed.
- "a mushroom/ stopper the mouth of a buried corpse" - she has become more knowledgeable about being an adult and the world in general. She wants to put her knowledge into practice.
- "that a greying wolf/ howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out,/ season after season, same rhyme, same reason." Red is now growing bored of the wolf. She wants to grow and change, whilst the wolf stays the same. He's just repeating himself.
"I took an axe" - link to the woodcutter in the original story. She is back to being an independant woman, who doesn't need a man to save her.
- "I took an axe to the wolf/ as he slept, one chop, scrotum to throat" - she's killing the wolf in order to be free.
- "and saw/ the glistening, virgin white of my grandmother's bones." - She is seeing a vision of herself if she had stayed with the wolf. A feminist view that men 'consume' women. Intertextuality to the original story of the grandmother being eaten.
- "I filled his old belly with stones" - she realised his age and how she could do better, she wants to bury her past life with the wolf.
- "Out of the forest I come with my flowers, singing, all alone." - Red, now that she has been cut free of the wolf, is celebrating her independance. She is happy to be alone.

Themes:
Carol Ann Duffy starts The World's Wife with this poem. It has a very feminist opinion of men; that women are just as poweful and capable, even more so.
There are a few references to age, much like in Medusa. Red is trying to be independant, like Mrs Faust and experience the world for herself.

Mrs Midas

Myth:
Midas was a king that had a wish granted that everything he touched would be turned to gold. In some versions of his story, he regrets this power because he turns his daughter into gold. Another reference to Midas in mythology is that he bet on Pan having better music compared to Apollo, so for his insolence Apollo gave him donkey's ears.

Structure:
The poem is made up of eleven stanza, all six lines long, with three examples of enjambment.

Closer Reading:
- "It was late September. I just poured some wine" - conversational, as if Mrs Midas is talking to a friend.
- Mrs Midas has a domestic setting, Mrs Midas starts out the poem in a kitchen. "The kitchen filled with the smell of itself". This could be used as a stereotype, for women always having to be in the kitchen, cooking dinner for the man.
- "its steamy breath/ gently blanched the windows" - personification of the kitchen. Blanching the windows means that Mrs Midas has an unclear view of what's going on outside, a reason for her confusion about what Mr Midas was doing "I thought it myself, Is he putting fairy lights in the tree?"
- "wiped the other's glass like a brow." - simile, shows maternal nature of women.
The first stanza is all about stating facts and setting the scene.
- "Now the garden was long and the visibility poor" - She is trying to qualify her confusion with a description of the night. "the way/ the dark of the ground seems to drink the light of the sky," - poetic, darkening gloom. The use of "now" at the beginning makes the tone conversational.
- "that twig in his hand was gold." - more justification. The darkness of the night made it clear that what Mrs Midas was seeing was the truth.
- "we grew Foundante d'Automne" - a type of golden pear. Mrs Midas suspects that it is not a normal coloured pear Mr Midas has is his hand.
- "it sat in his palm like a light bulb" - bright and golden. "On." stands alone for emphasis and clarity. It could also be a slight onomatopeia, as that 'on' sound is replicated when a light is turned on. The second stanza is all about justifying what she is seeing.
- "He came into the house. The doorknobs gleamed." - hinting to the reader of his newly found powers. Short sentences add emphasis and speed.
- "He sat in that chair like a king on a burnished throne" - A simile, referencing the original myth. The burnished throne is golden coloured like everything else around him. The throne shows superiority, a man more powerful than a woman.
- "The look on his face was strange, wild, vain." - a triplet. Midas is pleased with himself and his new power, and wants to show off.
- "What in the name of God is going on?" - there were multiple gods in the time of the Greeks; putting the myth in a modern context. Mrs Midas doesn't understand Midas's power.

Themes:

Mrs Icarus

Myth:
The son of the inventor, Daedalus, who crafted wings made of feathers and wax for his son. Using this wings he tried to escape the island of Crete, but didn't listen to his father's advice, and flew too close to the Sun, its heat causing the wax to melt. He fell to his death.

Structure:
Mrs Icarus is five lines long, with an A, B, C, D, B rhyme scheme.

Closer Reading:
- "I'm not the first or last" - many women have experienced the same thing, watching their husbands do something stupid. This suggests that women know better than men, but can only watch as they try to do something the women know won't work.
- "to stand on a hillock" - a 'hillock' is a small hill, used to rhyme with the final word. Most of Carol Ann Duffy's poems don't have a distinct rhyme scheme, and she has said that she likes to mess about with the well known structure of rhymes.
- "watching the man she married/ prove to the world" - Duffy is suggesting that men need to be consolidated in their actions. They are needy and desperate for the approval of others; definitely a critical opinon! This line could also suggest that Mrs Icarus knows that Icarus's venture is going to fail, because she's disputed it and know he needs to "prove" himself to others.
- "he's a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock." This sentence stands on its own at the end of the poem, making it stand out to the reader. The language is colloquial, and slightly taboo, with the use of the word "pillock". The modern slang word helps to put this myth into a mordern context. Using more adjectives when building up a descriptive can make the description stronger and more vivid.
The way that Mrs Icarus continues to insult her husband is negative and moany.

Themes:
Mrs Icarus is presented as an unsupportive wife, that is fed up with her husband's antics. She is similar to Mrs Sisyphus in this way. Both their husbands had to prove to the world that they could complete an impossible task. She mocks her husband because she does not respect him. Icarus is shown as selfish because he is trying to prove to the world he can do something, even when she's told him it's impossible. He doesn't care for his wife's opinion and perhaps this is what Duffy is trying to say; that a woman's opinion is belittled compared to that of a man.

Mrs Darwin

Story:
Charles Darwin wrote the Theory of Evolution, and stated that man had evolved from apes. This was controversial at the time due to the highly religious views on the creation of the world.

Structure:
The poem starts with a date, there proceeded on to three lines with an ABA rhyme scheme. Line Four of the poem is significantly longer than the rest.

Closer Reading:
- "Went to the Zoo." With the date at the top of the poem (7 April 1852) the style is reminiscent of a diary entry. As the poem is so short, but effective at getting the message across, each sentence must be poignant. The effect of a short sentence, without a pronoun at the beginning, suggests a lack of care - a sense of boredom. Zoos are were animals are kept, and Darwin was studying animals for his theory.
 - "I said to Him-" the word 'him' starts with a capital letter. This could be to show that Charles Darwin is more powerful than she is, or a reference to God, as when refering to God, him always begins with a capital 'H'. This ties in with the religious conflict between Darwin and his wife, as well as the people of the time.
- "Something about the Chimpanzee over there reminds me/ of you." This last line suggests that it was Mrs Darwin that sparked the idea of evolution - that animals could resemble humans and visa versa. However, she is mocking her husband for looking similar to a monkey - this is obviously critical and rude, but adds humour and irony.
"of you" is idented on a separate line as a definitive ending.

Themes:
Mrs Darwin is very much playing to the idea that behind every great man, there's an ever greater wife, with the idea that it was Mrs Darwin that eluded to the theory of evolution. She undermines her husband, trying to show a more powerful and educated woman. I think that Carol Ann Duffy is trying to show that women are just as capable of achieving great things as man.

Mrs Faust

Story:
Dr Faustus is a German legend. It's about a man that wants to gain as much knowledge as possible, that he is willing to sell his soul to the devil. He makes a deal with Mephistopheles to gain knowledge within 24 years, but once those years were up he was dragged down to Hell.

Structure:
There are fifteen stanzas, each one including nine lines with internal rhyme. This regular structure is typical of the character, Faustus, who was a compulsive list maker.

Closer Reading:
- The first stanza starts with "First things first".  This creates a conversational tone, as if Mrs Faust is speaking directly to the reader. She says "I married Faust." in a very direct manner despite, throughout the poem, she becomes a very indecisive woman. This creates character development, and shows how Faust's actions are affecting his wife.
- "BA. MA. Ph.D. No kids." Both man and wife value education and knowledge above all else, shown by the fact they have no kids.
- "Two towelled bathrobes. Hers. His." - this shows that they were well matched, like matching bathrobes, but still separated. This separation will grow more and more obvious as the poem progresses.
- We worked. We saved. We moved again." - using the inclusive pronoun "we" to show togetherness.
- "The latest toys - computers, mobile phones." - The couple have a lot of money to spend so can afford a luxurious lifestyle. Material possessions are important to both people at this point.
- "I was a bad." - Another example of how well matched they are because of their similarity.
- "I grew to love the lifestyle,/not the life./ He grew to love the kudos,/ not the wife." - Kudos means praise or achievement. Faust became obsessed with knowing as much as possible, where as Mrs Faust thrives in the expensive lifestyle.
- "I felt, not jealousy, but chronic irritation." - Mrs Faust becomes less and less interested in what her husband does. They are becoming separated in their ideals and what they care about.
- "I went to yoga, t'ai chi,/ Feng Shui, therapy, colonic irrigation." - Mrs Faust is searching for knowledge in obscure places compared to her husband. She finds pleasure in practicing spiritual beliefs over anything else.
- Stanza five starts with the short sentence "He wanted more." Mr Faust is unhappy with how much he knows and will do anything to know more. In this stanza, Mrs Faust knew he was "upstairs in the study" but was unaware of what he was doing. "I smelled cigar smoke, hellish" Mr Faust is now meeting with the devil, making the deal for his soul.
- "Next thing, the world" - Faust began to conquer the world. "First, politics -/ Safe seat. MP. Right Hon. KG". As time progresses, Faust becomes more and more powerful.  "Vice-chairman. Chairman. Owner. Lord." Mrs Faust can only sit and watch his progression.
- "Enough? Encore?" Faust is an unstoppable force that knew no limits. He was "Cardinal, Pope/ knew more than God" - he was powerful and all knowing, like God.
- There is always the idea throughout the poem that Faust is unsatisfied with his lot. He wants more knowledge, yes, but also a new partner. In stanza eight Mrs Faust talks about how he "surfed the Internet/ for like-minded Bo-Peep." The reference to the internet puts the poem in a modern context.
- "As for me,/ I went on my own sweet way," - Faust and his wife are fully separated. Mrs Fausty continues to find spiritual enlightenment. "had a face lift,/ had my breasts enlargened, my buttocks tightened"- Mrs Faust is using Faust's money to try and improve herself, both physcially and mentally.
- "Went to China, Thailand Africa,/ returned, enlightened." - Highlighting that Mrs Faust is looking for spiritual guidance, but also that she is burning through a lot of places and ideas quickly. She is trying to better herself, but in the process, not taking anything in.
- "Turned 40, celibate" Mrs Faust has a dwindling sex life - she no longer needs to depend on men. Her appearance is important to her, much like age in Medusa.
- "Went blonde, redhead, brunette" - all superficial "improvements". She can't settle and is restless.
-  "Went on the run, alone;/went home." - She can't be happy.
- "Things is-/ I made a pact/ with Mephistopheles,/ the Devil's boy." - written in italics because it is Faust that is speaking. When Mrs Faust returned home from her adventures, Mr Faust explained to her about his deal.
 - "He's on his way/ to take away/ what's owed,/ reap what I sowed." - The Devil is returning for Mr Faust's soul. He wishes to claim back on his deal. The way the sentence is split between several lines adds speed, as if Mr Faust was dying to spit out what he wanted to say, before his time was up.
 - "gagging for it, / going got it,/ rolling in it,/ I've sold my soul." - the repetition of the structure of this sentence shows madness in Mr Faust. "I've sold my soul." is direct and impactual.
 - "I heard,/ a seperent's hiss/ tasted evil, knew its smell," - serpent's hiss could be a reference to the form the devil takes in Eden, the paradise. Mrs Faust thought she was living in a paradise when she and her husband were first married.
- "terracotta Tuscan tiles" - alliteration
- "and dragged him, oddly smirking, there and then/ straight down to Hell." - Mrs Faust is suspicious of her husband's reaction. "Straight down to Hell." is on a seperate line as if it's also being dragged down.
- "Oh well." Mrs Faust feels no loss. "Faust's will,/ left everything - ..............to me." Mrs Faust benefits more to his absence than she did when he was around. She lists all the possessions that will now be her's, still caught up in a superficial and materialistic world. She couldn't care that her husband's in Hell; "C'est la vie."
- "When I got ill,/ it hurt like hell." - an idiom but also humourous because of it's reference to Hell; she'd know what that felt like.
- "I bought a kidney/ with my credit card, then I got well." - Expense is not an obstacle for her.
- "I keep Faust's secret still - / the clever, cunning, callous bastard/ didn't have a soul to sell." The use of tripling and alliteration show her opinion of her husband and how it is constant and will never change. The fact that he didn't have a soul to sell suggests that Mr Faust cheated the devil, and he won. The man comes out on top.

Themes:
Carol Ann Duffy, with Mrs Faust, is presenting a self-centred woman that relies on her husband. She is similar to Mrs Sisyphus in this respect. Mrs Faust is materialistic and loves things more than her husband. Duffy is showing a semi-independant woman, but also a critical opinion that the modern woman must rely on her husband.She is also hinting that a wife is like a possession to a man, just another thing to say they have, even if they don't show any affection toward her.