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Feminine Gospels

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The poem comprises four free-verse stanzas of uneven length with lines also of uneven length. There is no regular rhyme scheme, although Duffy uses internal consonant and assonant rhyme. There is also no regular metrical rhythm, but the sentences flow smoothly. Lines are frequently enjambed. Key features: monosyllabic and harsh consonant sounds, asyndetic listing, declarative sentences, cross-line rhyme, caesure The poem progresses, describing how the map spans the woman’s whole body. The woman begins to try and escape the map, travelling around the world, and experiencing new cultures. Yet, she cannot really escape her past. The identity she formed as a child has followed her forever, represented by the constant presence of the map. Although there are moments of positivity within the poem, the overall tone is gloomy and depressing. Eventually, the woman manages to shed her skin. Yet, even then, deep in her bones the ‘old streets’ remain. The conclusion of the poem is depressing, Duffy discusses how identity cannot ever really be changed. The inescapability of the past is tragic to the Map-Woman, yearning for a change that never comes. The Long Queen‘ by Carol Ann Duffy elevates the status of women by focusing on one of the most influential rulers in history. Duffy begins by focusing on the principle of marrying ‘Time’ instead of an actual husband, and Elizabeth focuses on ruling successfully instead of marriage and romance. Duffy then moves through the type of people that Queen Elizabeth rules over, focusing on the blinding quality of being a woman, everyone encompassed within her reign. Duffy explores how the Queen’s ‘laws’: supporting all women, dispelling the fear and shame around periods, ensuring that emotions are shown, and safe childbirth. The final stanza suggests that Queen Elizabeth would have given up everything to extend the voice of women, championing females across her ‘time’ and long into the future.

The triple reception of ‘loved’ signals the happiness that Helen experiences. Now away from her perusers, she is able to experience the happiness of love. Yet, the men still follow her, wanting to contain her beauty from themselves. The poems near the end of the book - which are closer to prayers or love poems - have that kind of intensity in abundance, particularly those that lament the dead, and tease the living with the hope that after all Following this, these stanzas reveal how invasive the media was in pursuit of Diana. Although loved by many, ‘The whole town came’, she was still constantly followed by the media. The repetition of ‘stare’, combined with polysyndeton represents the invasive media. The constant, repeated, invasion followed Diana until her death. Another technique that Duffy uses throughout Beautiful is a caesura. Following or preceding important phrases within the poem, Duffy uses caesura. This caesura creates a slight metrical pause within the line. This pause then places emphasis on what comes before or after the caesura. In doing this, Duffy can focus the poem on key ideas without disrupting the rhythm of reading. In many places, this caesura appears incredibly blunt, such as ‘Beauty is fame.’, emphasizing the harshness of this statement.Duffy employs a form of epiphora at the end of the second stanza, ‘The whole world swooned’ echoing ‘The US whooped’. Now, her commodification has spread to the whole world, becoming an international sex symbol. She is abused and exploited for the whole world to see. The hallucinatory, almost feverish, presentation of Monroe’s life begins with ‘slept’. Duffy presents the woman exploited from the moment she wakes right till she sleeps. Everything in between is connected with hellish asyndeton, propelling the poem onwards, ‘coffee, pills, booze’. The reference to addictive substances foreshadows Monroe’s death, overdosing on sleeping pills.

The past is depicted as tragic and oppressive. The lexis Duffy employs, ‘crying’, ‘snarl’, and ‘shrieks’ create a nightmarish scene of memory. She cannot escape these memories, the sound-based verbs calling out after her. Even the ‘motorway’ she uses to escape ‘groaned’, everything reminding her of her hometown. Firstly, I must say that I absolutely love what Feminine Gospels has set out to do: ‘Exploring issues of sexuality, beauty and biology, Carol Ann Duffy’s poems tell tall stories as though they are unconditional truths, spinning modern myths from images of women as bodies – blood, bones and skin – and corpses, as writers and workers, shoppers and slimmers, as fairytale royals or girls next door’. Its style and focus was reminiscent of The World’s Wife for me. Duffy uses images of places she has lived in ‘Greengate Street’ and others in the stanza belonging to Stafford. Stafford is a city in which Duffy has lived for many years, perhaps suggesting that the Map-Woman is Duffy herself. The reference to ‘Beatles’ also alludes to Duffy’s childhood, growing up in Liverpool. The fourth section discusses Princess Diana. This is the most structurally confined section of the text, being written in quatrains. These carefully planned stanzas could reflect the pressure on Diana to conform to the stereotypes of a princess. Her life was measured and directly compared to other royals, the pressure on her immeasurable. Duffy emulates this pressure by confining the structure to a particular style – representing Diana’s entrapment through the form and structure of this section. Duffy here is showing how consumerism is destroying women's morals and women prostitute their bodies and souls to gain worldly goods.The ‘fuzz of woodland… under each arm’ represents armpit hair. This image could be interpreted polysemously within the text. Although some argue that it means she has stopped caring about her body, I would argue that this is an overly British analysis. Considering she has travelled all over the world trying to escape her identity, she would be familiar with the customs of many countries. Indeed, in other parts of the world, it is not traditional for women to shave, Duffy’s Map-Woman embracing this custom. Moreover, the rejection of shaving ties in with the 21st Century feminist movement, many women not following the stereotypes built on patriarchal assumptions.

It is within the fourth stanza in Duffy introduces the first ‘law’ of Elizabeth’s, ‘Childhood’. Duffy states that Queen Elizabeth created a society in which ‘a girl’ would feel safe wherever she was, ‘no girl growing’ without being protected. The consonance of /g/ across ‘girl growing’ reflects the sense of ageing, with the extended sound being emblematic of growing and changing. Duffy employs many techniques within this expansive poem. Yet, one that appears consistently throughout is a caesura. Indeed, Duffy uses caesura within Map-Woman to control the speed of reading, some parts slowed by the employment of caesura. These slight metrical pauses allow Duffy to emphasize certain moments. Indeed, ‘waiting to start’, is encased in caesura, grammatically isolated. The two pauses around this phrase, caused by a caesura, lead to a slower reading, reflecting the character waiting through her youth until she is old enough to leave. Duffy controls the rhythm, using caesura to place emphasis on many key moments within ‘ The Map Woman‘. The final law that Elizabeth comes to represent is ‘Childbirth’, safety, and support to all those the ‘lie on the birthing beds’. Duffy presents the pain of childbirth, ‘screamed scarlet’ using the symbolism of deep red to reflect pain, and also the symbol of blood, inherent in childbirth. The reference to ‘light’ is normally a positive association. Yet, for Monroe, even the most positive things are subverted. Duffy uses ‘under the lights’ to display how exposed Monroe was. Especially surrounding the rumored affair with President Kenedy, the world blamed her instead of the wildly powerful man who manipulated her.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. Litotes: each stanza starts with a measure of time, 'not tonight', majority of which reference the future There is nothing cosy about her vision, however. This is a dark book, for all the jokes, exposing equally the trash of our aspirations and the crumbling urban landscape around us. As she thinks of history, she imagines an old woman, who with Though nothing is known of Helen’s death, the other three — significantly — died gruesomely; Cleopatra used a poisenous snake to bite and kill her; Marilyn Munroe committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping tablets, and Diana died in a car crash pursued by the press seeking photographs.

The poem comprises seven six-lined stanzas. They are carefully structured with lines of increasing length, as if gradually building her power and authority. The consistency reflects the stability of her reign. Duffy writes] with lyric intensity . . . She moves through the lives she invents with a kind of casual confidence.” — Elaine Feinstein, The Guardian (London) The second and third ‘laws’ that Queen Elizabeth comes to represent are ‘Blood’ and ‘Tears’, dispelling the shame and fear of periods and allowing all women to own their emotions. ‘Tears’ are not something to be feared or ignored, but rather used as ‘salt pearls’ to adorn the ‘Long Queen’s fingers’, the Queen engendering an image of women supporting women. 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.

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The second section, depicting Cleopatra, is built from lengthy stanzas. Each of these long-form stanzas reflects major parts of the ruler’s life. The length of this section could be emblematic of her long reign, Duffy remembering the success of Cleopatra. Even when discussing Cleopatra’s death, it is contained within two words, only a slight mark on the incredible reign she had. Duffy emulates her success through the extended stanzas, containing an element of Cleopatra’s longevity through this style. Beautiful . . . Feminine Gospels shows its author still exploring, testing her imaginative powers and masterly way with language.” — Lesley Duncan, The Herald (Glasgow)

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