Feminine Gospels

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Yet, Cleopatra is able to leverage her beauty to get what she wants, Duffy presents the woman’s power. The fact she reduces ‘Caesar’ to ‘gibbering’ displays the control she has. We know this is a sexual power by the location, ‘in bed’. Duffy suggests that Cleopatra gains power by accepting her beauty and using it to manipulate and control men. Duffy here is showing how consumerism is destroying women's morals and women prostitute their bodies and souls to gain worldly goods.

Duffy introduces a character who helps Helen, her female ‘maid’. This woman ‘loved her most’, loving her for herself instead of her beauty. Indeed, she would not ‘describe/one aspect of her face’, protecting Helen of Troy. Instead of furthering the iconic legend of Helen, she remains faithful, the only friendly character of this section is a female. This could be a mechanism through which Duffy suggests that women always support women, especially in retaliation to the male gaze. Miss Batt and Miss Fife ‘had moved’ together ‘to a city’, finally experiencing true freedom. They ‘drank in a dark bar where women danced, cheek to cheek’, being able to express their love publicly. In her new happy life, Miss Fife dreams of the oppressive school. She pictures it as a ‘huge ship/floating away’. Miss Batt’s lips, ‘a warm mouth’ wakes her, causing the ‘school sank in her mind’. The semantics of water return, symbolises how the school was lost to the battle of laughter. The first laugh, coming from Carolann Clare’s note passed to Emily Jane, spreads across the school. One by one the students all begin to laugh, infectiously spreading across the school. The oppressive schoolroom scene is subverted by the laughter. Laughter represents freedom of expression, contrasting against the rote memorization the girls are forced to learn. There are several teachers mentioned in the poem. Of these, each eventually follows their dream, inspired by the girls’ free laughter. One could argue there is a slight reference to Desdemona from Othello, ‘a handkerchief she’d dropped once’. This reference bears relevance as Desdemona is murdered by Othello due to his male rage, unable to believe his loyal wife.Nonetheless, Feminine Gospels (2002), as the title suggests, is a concentration on the female point of view. It is a celebration of female experience, and it has a strong sense of magic and fairytale discourse. However, as in traditional fairytales, there is sometimes a sense of darkness as well as joy. Birth, death and the cycles and stages of life feature strongly, including menstruation, motherhood and aging. Duffy’s beloved daughter Ella was born in 1995, and her experience of motherhood has deeply influenced her poetry (as well as inspiring her to write other works for children). Poems such as 'The Cord' and 'The Light Gatherer' rejoice in new life, while ‘Death and the Moon’ mourns those who have passed on: ‘[…] I cannot say where you are. Unreachable / by prayer, even if poems are prayers. Unseeable / in the air, even if souls are stars […]’. A modernised adaptation of Everyman by Duffy, with Chiwetel Ejiofor in the title role, was performed at the National Theatre from April to July 2015. Duffy represents the gaining of freedom through the literal escape from the school. The girls ‘jumped’ out the window, ‘bouncing around in the snow.’ The simile of ‘like girls on the moon’ is polysemous. On one hand, ‘moon’ connects with classic feminine imagery, demonstrating that they have reclaimed power within The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High. Moreover, ‘Moon’ also suggests remoteness, they have escaped society and fled to the safety of the ‘moon’. Being away from society, they have finally been able to escape. Their grappling with freedom inspires Miss Dunn, ‘flung open her window and breathed in the passionate cold’. Dunn is empowered by the girls, their actions causing a ‘wild thought seeded’ in her head. The poem begins by focusing on the personal pronoun, ‘she’. Women are at the center of this poem and Duffy makes this evidently clear from the offset. Helen is said to be born ‘from an egg’, Duffy also focusing on the physicality of this figure in the opening line. It is interesting to note that even in fiction, women are exploited and prosecuted. Firstly, the consonance across ‘deep, dumped’ creates a sense of oppression, the language flowing in hypnotic circles. Furthermore, the plosive ‘p’ within both these words cuts through the narrative, representing the brutality Monroe experienced on a daily basis.

Rayner, Gordon (4 June 2013). "Queen's coronation anniversary: Crown to leave Tower for first time since 1953 for Westminster Abbey service". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022 . Retrieved 7 October 2013.In 2011 Duffy, spearheaded a new poetry competition for schools, named Anthologise. The competition is administered by the Poetry Book Society and was launched by the Duchess of Cornwall in September 2011. School students aged 11–18 from around the UK were invited to create and submit their own anthologies of published poetry. The 2011 Anthologise judges were Duffy; Gillian Clarke (National Poet for Wales); John Agard; Grace Nichols and Cambridge Professor of Children's Poetry, Morag Styles. The first ever winners of Anthologise were the sixth form pupils of Monkton Combe School, Bath, with their anthology titled The Poetry of Earth is Never Dead, which was described by Duffy as "assured and accomplished as any anthology currently on the bookshelves." [41] Plays and songs [ edit ] Duffy suggests that women are brought up to nurture, transforming into teachers that carry the legacy of the past. The ‘safe vessels’ which will continue the passing on of knowledge seem like an important role. Yet, the attached ‘sensible’ seems boring and tasteless. Duffy could be suggesting that this form of learning numbs both teacher and student equally. Dame Carol Ann Duffy DBE, HonFBA, HonFRSE - The Royal Society of Edinburgh". rse.org.uk . Retrieved 16 February 2018. In Stylist magazine, [27] Duffy said of becoming poet laureate: "There's no requirement. I do get asked to do things and so far I've been happy to do them." She also spoke about being appointed to the role by Queen Elizabeth II, saying: "She's lovely! I met her before I became poet laureate but when I was appointed I had an 'audience' with her which meant we were alone, at the palace, for the first time. We chatted about poetry. Her mother was friends with Ted Hughes whose poetry I admire a lot. We spoke about his influence on me." [27] The stories of the women are told by a third person narrator. The tone is ironic and bleakly humorous. The pace is fast, relying particularly on lists that carry their own significance to the reader.

Alongside the innate eroticism of Duffy’s language here, she also presents a note of violence. Monroe is a commodity to be employed, ‘investors’ gold’, Duffy suggesting how people capitalize on her beauty. Indeed, ‘her eyes’ are ‘pressed by a banker’s thumb’, the violent imagery being covered in false ‘sapphires’ and ‘platinum’ to cover up the horrors of her mistreatment. Monroe is manipulated and controlled by those around her, made into a money-making machine instead of treated like a human. The name Larkin often comes up when Duffy is discussed. She is, of course, in many ways Larkin's antithesis, but they do occupy the same niche in their respective eras. Duffy is the poet of the multicultural noughties as Larkin was the bicycle-clipped representative of the dowdy, repressed fifties. The critic Justin Quinn has noted how many of Duffy's poems echo themes of Larkin's - you can pair them off: "Larkin's 'Posterity', Duffy's 'Biographer'; 'Ambulances', 'November'; 'Mr Bleaney', 'Room', etc". The Larkin/Duffy story has taken a surprising turn recently. Duffy's new book has a long poem set in her girls' school of the 1960s, "The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High", an allegory of the rise of feminism, sweeping away dowdy post-war austerity and buttoned-up emotional sterility. And here is a fat new Larkin book, recently published, Trouble at Willow Gables, girls' fiction written for private entertainment. Duffy's last word on Larkin: "As anyone who has the slightest knowledge of my work knows, I have little in common with Larkin, who was tall, taciturn and thin-on-top, and unlike him I laugh, nay, sneer, in the face of death. I will concede one point: we are both lesbian poets." Lyall, Sarah (2 May 2009). "After 341 Years, British Poet Laureate Is a Woman". The New York Times . Retrieved 2 May 2011. In the ninth stanza, Duffy refers to the ‘Poet Laureates’ of England. Each of these, ‘John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell, Nahum Tate’ are all male characters. This links to Duffy’s portrayal of history, how women were excluded from the canon and lost to anonymity. Duffy, herself becoming poet laureate, quite literally achieved history through her incredible poetry. Themes: loss of control, loss of identity, suffering, society pressure altering women to fit into stereotypes

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The head announces to the school the plans, letting them know the teachers are leaving. The girls react with joviality, ‘cries of Olé’, and ‘A round of applause’ following her speech. Doctor Bream angrily ‘banged through the double doors, crunched down the gravel drive’ and was gone in ‘her car’. The aggressive ‘banged’ and ‘crunched’ signal the head’s frustration, the girls winning the laughter war.

This is further suggested by ‘she rolled’, Cleopatra being the active participant in lines. Cleopatra ‘reached and pulled him down’, controlling Caesar with her intelligence and beauty. a b c "Interview: Carol Ann Duffy - Celebrity Interviews and Profiles - Stylist Magazine". Archived from the original on 7 October 2011 . Retrieved 4 October 2011.For the new National Qualifications Higher English Course in Scotland, Duffy's agents, RCW Literacy Agency, refused permission for her poem, "Originally," to be reproduced in the publicly accessible version of the paper. [40] Anthologise annual competition for schools [ edit ] One of the key themes within Beautiful is Duffy’s exploration of women in history. History is a major theme that Duffy discusses within ‘Feminine Gospels’. This poem uses history to suggest that women have been exploited since the beginning of time, both in fantasy and real life. Duffy exposes the horrors of this exploitation, discussing how it often leads to pain and death. Women are oppressed at the hands of men, both individuals and making up larger forms of society. Asyndeton is once again used across the end of the fourth stanza, Duffy linking together names for Helen. The large number of names people call Helen could further link to her name, her notorious beauty calling the attention of every man. The longest poem in the book is "The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High" and Duffy clearly enjoyed writing it. At one level the poem is a tour de force of sparkle and fizz. A mysterious giggle grows ineluctably into an all-consuming merriment that destroys the whole structure of grammar school propriety. Those who went to such a grammar school, as I did, will recognise the discipline and the drudgery, and recall the passionate longing to escape shared by teachers and students alike. At the same time it is hard to keep out of mind Searle's St Trinian's, or even the hearty attachments of Angela Brazil's captains and head girls. I found the poetry lay mainly in the asides: a teacher on a cold night, watching her own breath, a moment of loving abandon, an evocation of "The world like Quink outside". For all its accomplishment, this was not my favourite poem in the collection.