Carol Ann Duffy
Swing
1st stanza
Reference to marriage – someone
putting a ring on someone’s finger.
This action is done out of choice.
Someone had looped a rope over a branch
Enjambment
and made a rought swing for the birch tree
next to the river. We passed it, walking and walking
Caesura
Suggestion; someone
walking down the aisle
into the future of love.
Repetition; walking for a
long time, representing
the length of their
relationship.
1st stanza
Idea continues of
marriage is like entering
a new love life.
Metaphor; veil is a traditional item
of clothing for the bride to wear
during marriage.
into our new love; soft, unbearable dawns of desire
where mist was the water’s veil, or foam
boasted and frothed like champagne at the river’s
bend.
Description of the water, could be
used towards the description of the
champagne; a token of celebration.
Simile; comparing the water to the
champagne that the bride and
groom use to celebrate their new
beginning.
2nd stanza
Second person
direct address.
First person.
Geese; no individual
personality, appear quite
structured.
Imagery.
You asked me if I was sure, as a line of Canada
geese
Enjambment
crowded the other bank, happy as wedding guests.
Yes,
Caesura
sure as the vision that flares in my head, away from
you now,
Second person
direct address.
2nd stanza
Second person
direct address.
It is an elegant, important
colour, representing 25 years
of marriage, also resembling
that there is more to come.
of the moment you climbed on the swing, and
swung out
into the silver air, the endless affirmative blue,
like something from heaven on earth, from
paradise.
Could give the suggestion of
the honeymoon and also
happy ever after.
Suggestion; could be a
reference to a cultural
rhyme associated with
marriage.