ANN HATHAWAYBy Carol Ann Duffy

Summarise the key points and what you know about the poem What is it about? (Content) What themes are covered? What tone does the poem have? What literary devices have been used? How effective is the poem for the reader?

Summary

What is it about? A woman who reflects on the love shared between her and her late husband

What themes are covered? Love, romance, dreams

What tone does the poem have? Soft, loving, reflective, nostalgia, sorrow, despair

What literary devices have been used? Enjambment, metaphor, caesura, rhyming couplet, simile, sensory imagery

Collaborative Learning

In your groups prepare a presentation on your stanza. Examine: 1. Mood, imagery, 2. Metaphor, themes, 3. Narrative voice and tone4. Structure and word choice. 5. Symbolism and literary devices------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Enjambment, caesura, colour symbolism, alliteration, plosives, sibilance, metaphor, simile, oxymoron, dark imagery, voice, climax,

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Analyse word choice and aspects of punctuation. You should also refer to how mood is created, How Duffy uses narrative voice, tone and symbolism

Metaphor and themes Extended metaphor: the bed represents the ‘spinning world’ of

their love. A list of wonderful images suggests the emotional and physical

aspects of their time together in this bed. Words become ‘shooting stars’ then ‘kisses’ which shows a links

reality with fantasy in a highly emotional and enthusiastic tone. Language features are used to connect the physical and the

emotional. Metaphorical word choices are used effectively: Rhyme, echo, assonance, and ‘a verb dancing in the centre of a noun’. This emphasises the power of language when connected to the theme of love.

She uses past tense to reminisce on her lover’s language and this gives the poem a nostalgic mood.

She remembers the second best bed fondly and their guests ‘dribbling their prose’ in the best bed. This metaphor compares poetry and prose, giving poetry the higher intellectual and physical power.

Metaphor and themes

Some nights, I dreamed he’d written me, the bed a page beneath his writer’s hands.

The volta shows a turning away from the fantasy world of WS’s language and writing to the reality of their physical reality.

She compares their relationship to the guests ‘dribbling their prose’ Her poetic exciting love is far more eloquent and imaginative than their mundane language of love.

Themes: love, language, male/female relations, loss, death, the power of memories.

Narrative voice and Tone 1st person narrative (cathartic, confessional, nostalgic =

FONDNESS and LOVE are conveyed in the voice. Happiness of the word choices show her excitement and joy in

their physical and metaphorical relationship. She uses language as a metaphor for the excitement of their

love. Assonance, verb dancing in the centre of a noun, Senses are used to explain the physical aspects of their

relationship but also links to her lover’s romantic language in his drama.

I dreamed he’d written me… Contrast is used to show the guests, who are actually symbolic of

the rest of the boring prosaic world, as they have no pyrotechnic language and sensuality in their lives. They are : ‘dribbling their prose…’

The final climactic rhyming couplet seems melancholy and sad as she remembers him and their love affair as a casket in her widow’s mind. A coffin for the memories ONLY she knows to be true…

Structure and word choice

Volta = (turning point) comes in line 8. 2 seven line septets. Lines 1-7 are descriptions of the excitement

and love they shared in this, ironic, second best bed. Lines 8-14 are more concerned with the narrator’s memory of

their sensual relationship. Her memories are placed in her mind and held as preciously as he held her in real life. She reflects fondly and lovingly on their time together.

AND she understand that the message he sends her, after his death, is a gift that only the two of them can share. She knows the bed is not an insult but an extremely beautiful compliment because he has given her the symbol of their life and love together.

The final rhyming couplet of lines 13-14 are in keeping with the Shakespearian style of sonnet and drama, as he usually concluded the acts of his plays in this way. The sonnet is over and concluded as he would his drama, this seems very appropriate.

Symbolism and literary devices

Bed is symbolic of the togetherness they experienced. The fantasy and the physical converge through the use of poetic language and structure.

Sensory images:

Symbolism and literary devices

Metaphors of fantasy experiences, descriptions of aspects of language that create images of great excitement and beauty.

Pearls are symbolic of beauty and the great value she places on their love.

She mentions aspects of language that become symbols of her and her lover. Verb dancing in the centre of a noun… illustrates how she saw herself as the named article and he the activities that danced in their relationship. The actions give name to their relationship and love and give her meaning.

Alliteration of the soft ‘l’ in living laughing love… suggest he is still alive and happy in her mind’s eye and this give an ironically sad end even though her memories are of great fondness.

Mood and imagery

The poem starts with a mood of great optimism and excitement. Images of spinning world, shooting starts are falling as kisses creates a fantasy element from the start. Their love is fantastic and incredible to the narrator.

Romance and drama played by touch, by scent , by taste… shows their relationship was a love story that was not created by her lover’s pen but by his actual words and actions in reality.

The final lines show a remarkable change in mood as she shows real sorrow and has nothing left but memories of her dead lover, held in the casket of her mind.

Her mood changes almost like one of Shakespeare’s many tragic characters, from extreme happiness to deep sorrow.

She uses the casket as an image and symbol of the death of their relationship and the place she keeps the memories.

Group 3: Structure and word choice

Sonnet: 14 lines, split into two 7 line septets. The first septet deals with her memories of physical love with her lover (who we assume to be William Shakespeare)

Word choice: ‘spinning world’ suggests movement but also an emotional connection between the lovers.

‘Words were shooting stars’ is an image to emphasise how the language of their love impacted on the narrator. The words ‘fell to earth as kisses’ showing how the words become almost physical.

She seems to become a character in one of her lover’s plays as she dreams she has become one of his creations.

The poem ends by illustrating how she is now alone and has only memories in ‘the casket of her widow’s head’ of the times spent in the second best bed. Her tone is created by the word choices and shows regret at his death (unlike Havisham) , melancholy, nostalgia and remorse. She appears at the end of the poem like a sad tragic character

New Style questions

1. Referring to the section “The bed…” to “…these lips” (lines 1-5), show how the poet creates a sense of joy and happiness. (4 marks)

2. In lines 5-10, there are many references to writing poetry and plays. Choose any two examples of this and explain in detail how each one adds to your understanding of the speaker’s feelings. (4 marks)

3. Look closely at the last four lines (lines 11-14).a) How does the poet make clear how different the

guests are from the speaker and her lover? (2 marks)b) What feelings does the speaker show for her lover at

the end of the poem? (2 marks)

THE BIG TEN MARKER

1. Discuss Carol Ann Duffy’s use of imagery in this poem and one other and show how the images effectively link to the central themes and concerns of the poems.

(10 marks)CEOUse quotations and terminology to add depth and detail to analysis: structure, symbolism, metaphor, alliteration, voice, themes, imagery, word choice, impact.

BIG TEN MARKER1. Discuss Carol Ann Duffy’s use of imagery in this poem and one other and show how the images effectively link to the central themes and concerns of the poems.

(10 marks)

2. Examine how effectively Carol Ann Duffy uses contrasting moods in this poem and one other. (10 Marks)

3. Examine how Carol Ann Duffy uses narrative voice to explore the central themes of this and one other poem. (10marks)

4. Examine how Carol Ann Duffy uses structure to explore the central themes of this and one other poem. (10marks)

Use quotations and terminology to add depth and detail to analysis: structure, symbolism, metaphor, alliteration, voice, themes, imagery, word choice, impact.

Ann Hathaway 'Item I gyve unto my wife my second best

bed ...'(from Shakespeare's will)

The bed we loved in was a spinning worldof forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seaswhere we would dive for pearls. My lover's wordswere shooting stars which fell to earth as kisseson these lips; my body now a softer rhymeto his, now echo, assonance; his toucha verb dancing in the centre of a noun.Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the beda page beneath his writer's hands. Romanceand 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 headas he held me upon that next best bed.

Style and content

Shakespeare’s neglected wife The only sonnet in ‘The World’s Wife’ Mirror of Shakespeare’s Sonnets with

beautiful, romantic imagery which questions the perceptions of Hathaway and the idea that it was the ‘second best bed’ that Shakespeare left to her in his will

Intimacies between Hathaway and Shakespeare made clear in the poem

Questions what happens in relationships behind closed doors

The Sonnet Form The word sonnet comes from the mid-sixteenth

century Italian sonetto meaning ‘little sound’ or ‘song’.

Traditional sonnets consist of 14 lines and are written in iambic pentameter and are either Shakespearean or Petrarchan. The Shakespearean sonnet has an abab cdcd efef gg rhyme scheme (3 quatrains and then a rhyming couplet)

In Anne Hathaway the theme of the poem, love, is ideal for the sonnet form. Indeed, Duffy could hardly have chosen another form, since it celebrates the relationship between Shakespeare, whose collection of sonnets contains some of the greatest love poems, and his wife.

Analysis

This poem is a celebration of Anne Hathaway’s love for her dead husband, spoken through her, and in her own name. The quotation at the start of the poem is an epigraph from Shakespeare’s will, in which he leaves his wife his second best bed. This has proved a curiosity over the years, and scholars have puzzled over its meaning. Duffy takes the view, as many do, that the custom at the time was to reserve the best bed for guests. In the poem the bed becomes a metaphor for marital love. It is the place where Anne Hathaway’s intimate thoughts and past experiences are played out against the memory of Shakespeare’s creativity.

Imagery and Metaphor

The ‘spinning world’ of the first line that she inhabits in her mind is the world of Shakespeare and all its abundance. The landscape in the second line is from the forests of Arden and the world of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘As You Like it’; the battlements of Elsinore in ‘Hamlet’ and the seas of ‘The Tempest’, where he would ‘dive for pearls’: a metaphor for sex.

techniques

The poem is articulate and lyrical Full of traditional poetic techniques-

metaphor, alliteration and assonance etc Shakespeare lies in the ‘casket of my

widow’s head’ at the end of the poem. As a casket is a strongbox it could be said that he is kept immortal in his wife’s imagination, through his own creative genius and in the celebration of this poem

Task

Pick out 3 examples of metaphor in the poem and fully analyse them. Remember that you should be explaining the literal meaning of the metaphor (denotation) before telling me what the connotations of it are and why it is effective.

The bed we loved in was a spinning world…

This metaphor represents the depth of their love and the fact that their marriage was full of joy. By comparing the bed to a ‘spinning world’ we are given the impression that Hathaway and Shakespeare’s marriage was full of the creativity that he expressed in his writing. It allows us an insight into their conversations and makes us imagine that Shakespeare discussed the characters and plot of his plays with his wife. The word ‘spinning’ suggests movement and we are left with the impression that Shakespeare worked quickly and was full of ideas. ‘world’ implies that they discussed everything and that nothing was off limits. This is effective as it opens the poem by telling us that their marriage was a happy one, setting the tone.

Techniques Throughout this poem there are a number of poetic/ literary

techniques used which you might not be used to. Copy down the meanings below and make sure that you understand their use within the poem.

Oxymoron- when two contradictory words or phrases are placed next to each other for effect

Caesura- a strong pause in a line, often found next to enjambment

Enjambment- when a sentence in poetry travels onto the next line

Sibilant ‘s’ - creation of a hissing sound

Olfactory senses- contributing to the sense of smell

Assonance- the repetition of a vowel sound (often in the middle of words) – contrast to alliteration which is the repetition of a consonant sound (usually at the start of a word)

Ann Hathaway

Anne Hathaway was Shakespeare’s wife. He married her in 1582 and they had three children, Susanna, the eldest, and twins, Hamnet and Judith. Hamnet sadly died when he was twelve. Although Anne was older than Shakespeare, she outlived him, and famously, he left her his ‘second best bed’ in his will. Shakespeare worked in London, but it is clear that he made regular visits to his home in Stratford-on-Avon and both his house and Anne Hathaway’s cottage can still be seen. It is likely that the second best bed was the one which he shared with his wife, while the best bed was kept for visitors, and this is the idea that Duffy explores in her poem.

Ann Hathaway

As well as plays, Shakespeare wrote a large number of sonnets, mostly about love, and it is this form that is used here, to give Anne Hathaway a voice. The poem is written in iambic pentameter, Shakespeare’s rhythm, and ends with a rhyming couplet, as do all his sonnets. Again, like William’s sonnets, this uses an extended metaphor to compare their nights together to Anne’s husband’s wonderful writing and to celebrate his achievements both as a writer and a lover.

Ann Hathaway

The first two lines are a tribute to Shakespeare’s imagination, where the bed becomes the whole world, encompassing

forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas where he would dive for pearls suggesting not only the varied settings of

Shakespeare’s plays, but also areas of sexual pleasure. His words are shooting stars which light up the universe, but which for Anne fell to earth as kisses / on these lips. The rest of the world may have the benefit of the words, but it is she who has the love.

Ann Hathaway

The rhythms of their lovemaking are described in literary terminology, where her response to his movements becomes

a softer rhyme / to his, now echo, assonance, revealing the way she follows or repeats

what he does. it is not hard to guess what is referred to as

a verb dancing in the centre of a noun when we remember that a verb is active and his verb is

inside her noun. Her occasional dreams make her feel like a character

from one of Shakespeare’s plays – as though he has created her and given her life in the bed, which is compared to a page where he uses his writer’s hands.

Ann Hathaway

The idea of vivid experience is continued through the use of the senses, and the extension of the idea of the page/bed

Romance / and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste.

Lovemaking as romance and drama is conveyed sensually to the reader through the imagination of what is involved in the touch, scent and taste. It may also recall to the reader their knowledge of Shakespeare’s writing about love, in the sonnets or in plays [most famously ‘Romeo and Juliet’], which could suggest that he knows a good deal about the subject.

Ann Hathaway

The wonderful experiences that Anne Hathaway has are contrasted with those of the guests

In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on / dribbling their prose

where the language of love is ‘dribbled prose’ rather than the ‘shooting stars’ of drama and poetry.

Anne’s final couplet is about remembrance. She compares her widow’s head to a casket. Normally this would hold the ashes of a dead person, but Anne’s memories of Will are of a living laughing love , the alliteration pointing up the reality of her recollection, and of their time together

as he held me upon that next best bed.

Ann Hathaway

Duffy connects the two ideas through the rhyming of head / bed and through the repetition of I hold him / he held me.

  This is one of the most celebratory poems in the

collection, where Duffy imagines Shakespeare as an artist both in words and in lovemaking; where the two are intimately woven together so that making love through words and language is brought vividly to life. She also uses Shakespeare’s technique of comparing love, or a lover, to something greater in time or the natural world, and finishing on a note of remembrance.

Compare Shakespeare’s famous sonnet No. 18

  SONNET XVIII   Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate: Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, When in eternal lines to time thou growest: So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this and this gives life to thee. William Shakespeare

Ann Hathaway

Anne Hathaway   Anne Hathaway (1556-1623) was a real woman -

famous for being the wife of William Shakespeare. (We do know some things about her - she was nine years older than her husband, but outlived him by seven years. They married in 1582, when Anne was already pregnant, and had three children together. Although Shakespeare spent many years working in London, he made frequent visits to their home in Stratford-upon-Avon.)

 

Ann Hathaway

In the poem Anne sees her relationship with Shakespeare in terms of his own writing. She uses the sonnet form (though she does not follow all the conventions of rhyme or metre) which Shakespeare favoured. She suggests that as lovers they were as inventive as Shakespeare was in his dramatic poetry - and their bed might contain “forests, castles, torchlight”, “clifftops” and “seas where he would dive for pearls”. These images are very obviously erotic, and Ms. Duffy no doubt expects the reader to interpret them in a sexual sense. Where Shakespeare's words were” shooting stars” (blazing in glory across the sky) for her there was the more down-to-earth consequence of “kisses/on these lips”.

 

Ann Hathaway

She also finds in the dramatist's technique of “rhyme...echo...assonance” a metaphor for his physical contact - a “verb” (action) which danced in the centre of her “noun”. Though the best bed was reserved for the guests, they only dribbled “prose” (inferior pleasure) while she and her lover, on the second best bed enjoyed the best of “Romance/and drama”. The language here has obvious connotations of sexual intercourse - we can guess what his verb and her noun are and what the one is doing in the other, while the guests' “dribbling” suggests a less successful erotic encounter.

 

Ann Hathaway

Does this poem change the way you think of William Shakespeare?

The poem relies on double meanings (AMBIGUITY/PUN) very like those we find in Shakespeare's own work. It gives a voice to someone of whom history has recorded little. The language is strictly too modern to be spoken by the historical Anne Hathaway (especially the word order and the meanings) but the lexicon (vocabulary) is not obviously anachronistic - that is, most of the words here could have been spoken by the real Anne Hathaway, though not quite with these meanings and probably not in this order.

Ann Hathaway

Questions1. What does this poem say about the nature of imagination?  2. Explain, in your own words, how the central image of the “second best bed” works in the poem. 3. How well does the poet adapt the sonnet form here?  4. In what ways does this poem appeal to the senses?  5. Is this poem more about Anne or her husband, or is it about them both, as a couple?  

Commonality (2) Extract (2) Other texts (6)

------------------------------------------------------------------This is the order we answer the TEN MARKER in.SME should also be applied.STAR should structure your bullet points and prose.

SME/CEO/STAR

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Up to 2 marks can be achieved for identifying elements of commonality as identified in the question, ie use of contrast to highlight main concerns of this and other poems by Duffy.

A further 2 marks can be achieved for reference to the extract given. Additional marks can be awarded for discussion of similar references to at least one other poem by the poet. 0 marks for reference/quotation alone.

  Candidates can answer in bullet points in this final question, or

write a number of linked statements. In practice this means: Identification of commonality (2) (eg: theme, characterisation, use of

imagery, setting, or any other key element…) C from the extract: E 1 x relevant reference to technique/idea/feature (1) 1 x appropriate comment (1) (maximum of 2 marks only for discussion of extract) from at least one other

text/part of the text: as above (x3) for up to 6 marks O OR more detailed comment x2 for up to 6 marks Thus, the final 6 marks can be gained by a combination of 3, 2 and 1 marks

depending on the level of depth/detail/insight. The aim would be to encourage quality of comment, rather than quantity of references

SME/CEO/STAR

SME 1 SME2

STAR The poem starts with vivid metaphoric imagery of a mindscape

that involves a wide array of natural and fantasy sources:

The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas where we would dive for pearls.

The narrator tells how the worlds created in this bed made her feel elated and joyous to the point where reality and fantasy, physical and emotional would spin her into converging and disparate levels of being. The metaphors and word choices flash images into the readers head at great speed to convey her sense of excitement and happiness. These references can be taken directly from the works of William Shakespeare and seen in a variety of his dramatic works. His drama seemed to fuel their joy and create worlds where the narrator was in an ecstatic state. The symbolic pearls the would dive for seem to be references to the sharing of their physical and emotional beings and create images of fantasy within a everyday setting. This symbolic bed is a dream world full of limitless imagination.