‘Anne Hathaway’
Carol Ann Duffy
Overview
This poem, like ‘Mrs Midas’, comes from ‘The World’s Wife’, Duffy’s first
themed collection of poems. In this set of poems, Duffy considers both
real and fictional characters, stories, histories and myths that focus on
men, and gives voice to the women associated with them.
In this collection, Duffy writes a number of dramatic monologues from the
perspective of women who have been traditionally silenced in history,
mythology and fiction. A dramatic monologue is a poem that is spoken by
a character. The monologues are essentially giving a voice back to these
women, and at the same time allowing us to see the men in their lives
from a different view point. The poem portrays both genders are equal in
the relationship. The enjambment of "I held him" and "he held me"
portrays how both are equivocal to each other and a sense of equality is
restored.
Although ‘Havisham' was published a year earlier, it makes a good
comparison with this poem since both take the perspective of a woman
living without her lover - Havisham having been jilted at the altar, while
Hathaway has been widowed.
Anne Hathaway
• Born 1555/56 – Died 6th of August 1623
• Married William Shakespeare in November 1582.
• She was already pregnant with their first child.
• She was 7 years older than Shakespeare who was 18 when they
married.
• Like ‘Mrs Midas’, this poem gives voice to and empowers the female
figures from the narrative of our past.
Sonnet Form
14 lines. Often associated with the theme of love.
A Shakespearean Sonnet consists of 3 quatrains with a set rhyming
scheme and a rhyming couplet at the end. The quatrains usually present
the key ideas explored by the poet with the resolution or 'volta' (an Italian
term which literally translates as: the turn) arriving in the couplet.
In the poem, Duffy employs a softer rhyme with a much more relaxed, less
restrictive rhyme scheme, combined with overtly sensual, erotic language
and imagery. She uses a regular meter but her deliberate choices of
assonance and alliteration are designed to imitate the lovers’ caresses, so
that it is almost as though the words themselves are grazing each other.
Shakespeare wrote sonnets of iambic pentameter but with a much more
disciplined structure. Duffy’s choice to subvert the form of the sonnet
emphasises that these are the words of his wife and represent her own
insight into her husband, an insight that cannot be shared or replicated by
anyone else.
Techniques which are used throughout …
Metaphor
The full poem is a metaphor for their love and passion. The narrator
compares their love and sexual relationship to poetry and the art of
writing, suggesting that their love is deeper and more meaningful than
many critics assumed.
Enjambment and unusual rhyming scheme
Very few of these lines end with a full stop and the rhyme of this sonnet
is not as restricted as a traditional sonnet. This is to mirror the sensuality,
fluidity and freedom of their love. The lines tend to end mid sentence but
on the most seductive and passionate words.
In their relationship, the couple found something precious and valuable,
‘Item
I gyveby
unto
wife my
bestsensual
bed…’ tone is continued in the
as implied
themy
pearls.
Thissecond
intimate,
(from
Shakespeare’s
metaphor
comparing will)
her lover’s words to shooting stars which fell to
earth as kisses.
The bed we loved in was a spinning world
of
forests, castles,
torchlight,
seas language and poetry, which
Hathaway
was seduced
by clifftops,
her lover’s
where
wouldtodive
pearls.
My lover’saswords
literallyhe
seems
fallfor
from
the heavens
though a gift from the gods
were
stars which
fell physical
to earth as
kisses
beforeshooting
transforming
into the
touch
of a kiss. In this opening
quatrain then, Duffy clearly illustrates the intensity of the romantic,
passionate relationship of the two lovers.
Much of the imagery in this poem is sexual and allows us to see the
Duffy
imagines,
then,
thatintimacy
this
legacy
was
the
playwright’s
lastfor
Dare
focuses
on
the
between
the
couple.
relationship
between
husband
and
wife
as
one
that
is
both
spiritually
Lines
only
loosely
joined
together
through
assonance,
The
Fairy-tale/mystical/magical
poem
begins
with
scene/imagery
an
epigraph
creates
taken
the
directly
intensity
from
of
Describing her husband as a ‘lover’ again suggests their
romantic
gesture
Theirs
was
acreates
marriage
of
equality.
He left
her
hisand
Euphemism/metaphor
of
‘divingand
for
pearls.’
‘Pearls’
and
physically
fulfilling.
She
a
fantasy
landscape
where
Sibilance.
The
‘s’
sound
is
soft
and
seductive
just
like
Shakespeare
example
“world”
and
“words”.
Softly
subtly
joined
together,
Shakespeare’s
their
love/connection.
will.
While
‘Spinning’
some
suggests
critics
have
how
intoxicating/allviewed
this
as
an
physical relationship was vital and exciting. This is given as
best
bed
because
itwhich
was
the
one
in
which
they
had
enacted
=
precious
jewels
suggests
his
deep
Shakespeare’s
writing
and
his
love
for
Anne
are
intertwined.
hissecond
writing.
Could
also
represent
fireworks
to
suggest
the
passion
if
to
echo
their
tenderness.
insult,
consuming
Duffy
their
presents
love
was
a
new
–
almost
perspective,
as
if
when
using
together,
the
they
bed
were
asinThe
atheir
further emphasis by the words ‘spinning’, ‘shooting’, ‘dancing’
in
a very
real
sense
thea
drama
of their
relationship.
Duffy
usesneatly
her
love/desire
for
her.
idea
of
a
bed
being
‘spinning
world’
is
striking:
Duffy
marriage.
metaphor
transported
for
off
the
to/created
intense
some
passion
other
and
world
romance
together.
shared
Long
by
listof
the
and ‘laughing’.
poem
to bed
try and
the
assumptions
presents
as
achallenge
microcosmic
centre
of
anmarital
imaginative,
Usethen
ofthe
half-rhyme
confirms
this
isfact
a stereotypical
more
relaxed
version
of the
couple.
images
The
here
second
exemplifies
best
this
bed
too
was
– in
intense,
thenever
couple’s
ceasing
etc.bed,
about
Shakespeare’s
wife.
She
reimagines
the
gifteasy
ofclifftops,
the
second
expansive
universe
‘of
forests,
castles,
torchlight,
seas’
Sonnet
and
echoes
how
their
relationship
was
and
not
the
while
the
best
was
reserved
for
guests.
‘My’ conveys sense of pride and possession
best
bed,perhaps
not
asit awas
demonstration
of marital
discontent,
as
alluding
topetty
S’s
plays
‘As
You
Like
It’,
‘Macbeth’
etc. but
=shared
aetc.
link
one
made
out
to
be after
his
will
wasmutual,
released
Usedifficult
of ‘we’
suggests
equality
in
relationship
and
their
the
place these
where iconic
husband
and of
wife
experienced
theirpoetry
most romantic
between
works
literature
and the
their love
love – both
felt the same
powerful
emotions.
and
intimate
created
(bothmoments.
literally and metaphorically.)
on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme
to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
Some nights, I dreamed he’d written me, the bed
Hathaway states that her lover’s words ‘echo’ as ‘assonance’
In keeping with the expression of a separate identity, Anne Hathaway is
Anne
toowords
that, ‘on’,
like ‘body’,
the characters
in his
plays,
in her imagines
head. The
‘softer’, ‘to’,
‘echo’,
presented
as
someone
who
is
able
to
use
words
in
an
impressively
Thelanguage
reference
again
to
the
bedallatlinked
the
Continuing
the
metaphor.
Suggesting
that
she
feminine
Shakespeare
has 'written
her',
suggesting
that
itassonance;
isis only
when
‘assonance’,
‘touch’
and ‘noun’
are
by
poetic
way.
In
this
sense
her
personality
rhymes
with
her
husband’s.
end
of line
eight
creates
athrough
link
theimagination
while Shakespeare
was
masculine.
She
wasto
powerless
touch.
she
regards
herself
through
his
eyes
and
that
she
the ‘o’
sound
does
indeed
echo
the
lines to
as his
a softer
She
refers
to
her
body
being
a
‘softer
rhyme’
to
Shakespeare.
This
opening
line
of
the
poem
and
Enjambment.
She
finds
his
touch
exciting
and
erotic.
“dancing”
=
his
feels
fully
alive.
rhyme. Alludes to sexual gratification?
deliberate
comparison
their
love
to something
and, in
reinforces
theelevates
symbolic
significance
touch
– moving,
unpredictable,
exciting.
A verb
=ofvital to apoetic
sentence
doing
so, literary
become
loaded
the
bedterms
as
representation
of sensuality.
their
and
here
is imbedded
the
noun
– with
can’t
function
each
Alsoit suggests
thatain
she
barely
recognises
herself without
as a separate
love.
other. The
line
also alerts
of Shakespeare’s
most from
famous
being
anymore
– it’s us
liketoa one
dream/feels
so far removed
who
Here,
Duffy
is
subtly
relating
the
poetic
techniques
of
masculine
rhyme
means she
of energising
he would
often
turn
into
used to belanguage;
without him
as he is
such
announs
integral
patverbs.
of her
andalso
feminine
rhyme
the actual
lives oftotwo
people who could hardly
They
complete
onetoanother
– allusion
sex.
life/being.
Use
of ‘now’
suggests
life/r.ship with S. was
be separated from art: ‘kisses’ at the end of line 4 is a feminine ending;
vibrant/intoxicating.
‘touch’ is a masculine one.
The imagery of imagination and words continues into the
second half of the poem but with a less exotic, more muted
expression. This is fitting as the poem makes the transition from
physical and imaginative vitality to the revelation of the idea
behind the second best bed and finally to the expression of loss
and grief.
Her dreaming continues the motif of imagination which ends the
poem with his continued life in her memory, and begins the
notion of sleep which ends finally in death.
a page beneath his writer’s hands. Romance
and 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 –
end ofcontrast,
this quatrain,
Duffy employs
elongated
alliteration of
in their
the
InAtathe
marked
she compares
the poetry
and sensuality
phrase
tocontinues
emphasise
how metaphor
vividly
and
r.ship
with‘living
thoselaughing
who
in the
other
bed.the
In again
aextended
withering,
disparaging
The
enjambment
from slept
linelove’
eight
clearly
speaker
canthat
recall
their
passion,
suggesting
her on
lover
comment
she
asserts
they
only capable
of that
dribbling
their
from
the the
previous
quatrain
(bed
is are
compared
to the parchment
continues
in ‘romance’
some
ways
exist and
survive
memory.
prose.
which
theword
passion
and
excitement
so associated
with
the
The
istodeliberately
placedinather
the
endplaywright
of
wasthe
written.)
line to emphasise that this is what she most
The
dash creates
aclear
pause
to allow(and
usThe
totheir
reflect
ontouch,
this
idea and
The
implication
- poetry
r.ship
by extension)
associates
withis their
relationship.
senses
prepare
usthe
for
the
resolution
finaljust
=played
awhile
dramatic
symbolises
most
skilful
and and
creative
use
ofcouplet.
language
prose
All
the
romance
and
drama
contained
inthe
these
pages
was
out
scent,
and
taste
are
employed
to reinforce
how
vividly
pause
to their
stress
theand
contrast
between
vitality
ofutilitarian
their living
others)
byrelationship,
comparison
isthough
ordinary,
or(relationships
begun
on
bed,
again
Duffy
implies
that
thethrough
inspiration
forand
she can
stillofrecall
their
asthe
relationship
the
realisation
that
he
now
can
only
livecreativity
on
in her
unexceptional.
Parenthesis
of
‘thetheir
best’
iscan
her
mocking
those
who
his
characters to
and
plots
camememories
from
love
where
S’s
immersing
herself
in these
she
experience
mind.
suggest
the bedonce
sheand
was
left was
when
in the
supposedly ‘best’
was
thenpassion
actualised
brought
toinferior,
existence
in his
work.
this
more.
bed it is devoid of passion etc.
I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head
as he held me upon that next best bed.
The metaphor
of holding
her lover
the protective
casket
of her
Continued
tenderness
for in him
their and
The final
couplet ends
with the masculine
full mirrors
rhyme of ‘head’
‘bed’
imagination
reiterates
the
idea
presented
in
the
previous
line
that,
in
tenderness
withconclusion
one another
‘I hold
him
as relationship
he
to provide
a defined
to in
thelife:
poem
and
their
–
our way,
our
memory
of
a
deceased
loved
one
allows
their
held me.’
only through
death would they part (contrary to public’s view.) Final
continued existence.
rhyme is plosive and harsh and definite just like the end of their
Simile
– She his
felt secure
in histhe
hold
and he held
marriage,
through
death and
pain/agony
thisherwould have
Duffy seems
to
suggest
that
this
is
much
more
fitting
tightly as she promises to do to his memory now.than an urn or
caused.
coffin which, although they may contain the physical remnants of a
body, can never capture the energy or vitality of the person's
character. By remembering her husband, and replaying her
memories of their passion, the speaker is really honouring his true
legacy and repaying him for the way that he held her in ‘that next
best bed.’
It is fitting that Anne Hathaway writes in the form that her husband
so famously used. This in itself is an act of homage and, possibly, a
means of keeping him alive. Shakespeare’s famous sonnet 18
concludes with ‘So long lives this and this gives life to thee’, which
voices the commonly held view that humans might die but a work of
art can last forever, effectively immortalising its subject.
Themes
• passion
• sensual erotic love
• death and remembrance
In the poem, Duffy concentrates on conveying that this was a marriage
based on an all - encompassing, deeply physical relationship. She
uses the physical legacy of the bed left by Shakespeare to his wife to
meditate on this specific aspect of their relationship. In doing so, she
presents a couple completely in tune with each other both sexually
and emotionally.
Fittingly, in a poem about the world’s greatest ever poet and
wordsmith, she uses language itself as an extended metaphor to
convey the intensity of their passion. As well as emphasising the
profound physical connection of the lovers, Duffy also considers that
the most fitting way to honour our dead loved ones is by preserving the
most enduring, vivid aspects of their character in our memories, thus
allowing them to continue to survive.
Links with other poems
• ‘Havisham’ - both tell the story of a woman’s life after love/a
relationship.
• ‘Mrs Midas’ – Both have a famous spouse and are described from
the woman’s perspective.
• Valentine – Unusual perspective of poet on a topic (Love.)
• ‘Originally’ and ‘War Photographer’ – looking back/reflecting on past
experiences to understand who you now are or how you have
reached this point.
• Use your grid to track the similarities and differences of the poems we
have already studied.