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Context The Poet: Carol Ann Duffy is the first female Poet Laureate (2009), and probably the best known female poet working in Britain today. She was born in 1955 in Glasgow. Duffy is well known for poems that give a voice to the dispossessed (people excluded from society); she encourages the reader to put themselves in the shoes of people they might normally dismiss. She has published many collections of poetry, including The World’s Wife (1999), from which Medusa comes. The collection represents women from history, literature and fairytale, particularly those whose stories tend to be defined by men, or who have only a cameo appearance in a male-dominated scenario.
Before you start, annotate the following… • Gorgon = In Greek mythology a Gorgon is a monstrous feminine creature whose appearance would turn anyone who laid eyes upon it to stone. Later there were three of them: Euryale ("far-roaming"), Sthenno ("forceful"), and Medusa ("ruler"), the only one of them who was mortal. They are the three daughters of Phorcys and Ceto.
Before you start, annotate the following… • Medusa = Medousa was once a beautiful maiden who was transformed by Athena into a monster as punishment for lying with Poseidon in her shrine. However, early Greek writers and artists, simply portray her as a monster born of a monstrous family.
Before you start, annotate the following… • Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weaponuntil he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. The image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion.
Title The title reminds the reader of Greek mythology and the classic tale of Medusa. However, the poem suggests this mythological character is misunderstood. The character in the poem Medusa The metaphor of Medusa is used to represent how jealousy can change your whole character into one that is vile and ugly.
About About: The poem is about Medusa, a woman who has been wronged and is suffering deeply. The first person narrator, Medusa, is a woman who has been transformed into a Gorgon because of her jealousy. She suspects her husband is cheating on her. Everything she looks on is destroyed, turned to stone, because of jealousy. The poem is in free verse, structured around the woman's transformation, and the escalating scale of the living things she turns to stone. She starts with a bee and her victims increase in size until she changes a dragon into a volcano. Finally she turns her attention to the man who broke her heart. Themes:loss, bitterness, jealousy Tone: jealous, despair but with a threatening undertone at times. At times the tone is blackly humorous.
Stanza one Medusa is talking about herself. The use of the first person demonstrates her self loathing. A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy grew in my mind, which turned the hairs on my head to filthy snakes as though my thoughts hissed and spat on my scalp.. Length of line is symbolic of the snakes. Alliteration imitates the sound of the snakes.
Stanza Two Plosives ‘bride’ ‘breath’ ‘bags’ emphasise strength of her feelings. My bride’s breath soured, stank in the grey bags of my lungs. I’m foul mouthed now, foul tongued, yellow fanged. There are bullet tears in my eyes. Are you terrified? Could represent her foul breath or could represent the foul words that come out of her mouth. ‘Bullet tears’ is a metaphor. Her tears harden as they leave her eyes but are a danger to anyone whom they may hit. Question is answered on the following line – indicates almost a change of personality – ‘be terrified’ – Medusa shows her dangerous side.
Stanza Three Obsessive tone to her idolisation. Imperative gives the line an emphatic quality. Be terrified. It’s you I love, perfect man, Greek God, my own; but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray from home. So better by for me if you were stone. Extremely possessive/ Rhyme scheme ‘own’ and ‘stone’ intensifies impact.
Stanza four The verb gradually gets more powerful as the poem goes on ‘glanced’, ‘looked’, ‘stared’. This shows her emotions growing in intensity. I glanced at a buzzing bee, a dull grey pebble fell to the ground. I glanced at a singing bird, a handful of dusty gravel spattered down ‘Glanced’ gives a sense of casual destruction.
Stanza five I looked at a ginger cat, a housebrick shattered a bowl of milk. I looked at a snuffling pig, a boulder rolled in a heap of shit. The use of this word emphasises the deadpan, bitter tone of Medusa.
Stanza six There is a tone of pathos in these three stanzas which creates sympathy in the reader. I stared in the mirror. Love gone bad showed me a Gorgon. I stared at a dragon. Fire spewed from the mouth of a mountain. Verbs illustrate her power.
Stanza seven Use of figurative language shows he battles against his feelings? He hurts her with his actions? And here you come with a shield for a heart and a sword for a tongue and your girls, your girls. Wasn’t I beautiful Wasn’t I fragrant and young? Questions highlight her insecurity. Repetition of ‘your girls’ shows jealousy.
Stanza Eight Look at me now. Paradoxical. Both a plea and a threat. Stands on own line to punctuate the end of the poem, the line has an air of finality. Medusa is trapped by her own power. Is Duffy suggesting that the negative qualities of revenge will eventually undo the perpetrator.
Links to other poems… • Frightening but tragic: ‘The Clown Punk’ • Identity and self loathing: ‘Alison’ • Theme of power/powerful women: ‘Singh Song’ ‘LGS’ • Sense of loneliness or loss: ‘LGS’ ‘On a Portrait of a Deaf Man’ ‘The River God’
