Studying The World's Wife

This collection by the current poet laureate was first published in 1999. It is generally considered the most accessible of Duffy's collections and has proved the most popular so far. The central conceit employed by Duffy is to present a selection of famous men through the eyes of their wives or female equivalents; the effect is twofold as Duffy gives a voice to an historically marginalised group while undermining a number of self-regarding men and the values of the traditional patriarchal system.

Duffy's choice of title is significant. In her novel The Mill on the Floss, the female novelist George Eliot uses the phrase 'the world's wife' disparagingly; in this tragic tale the protagonist Maggie Tulliver is uncompromisingly idealistic and moral but accidentally commits a social error and is denounced by public opinion. Eliot points out that 'Public opinion, in these cases, is always of the feminine gender,--not the world, but the world's wife.' Using the technique of free indirect discourse Eliot depicts the public response: 'No good could happen to her; it was only to be hoped she would repent, and that God would have mercy on her: He had not the care of society on His hands, as the world's wife had.' Thus the world's wife, symbolising public opinion, is depicted as self-righteous, judgemental and unforgiving. The women in Duffy's collection are far more sympathetic; even the Devil's wife, a lightly veiled portrait of Myra Hindley arouses pathos and perhaps even pity. If these women are critical it is not of each other but of the men to whom they have been made subservient.

The tone of the collection is satirical, at once both comic and biting. The politics of gender are central to this collection but there are other important themes at work; religion, art, love, death and loss are all explored here. Each poem adopts the form of a dramatic monologue giving each 'wife' a unique and often commanding voice. The use of language is inventive as Duffy attempts to match the register of each poem to the background and mood of the speaker; the result is a collection that is replete with the slang terminology, cliches and taboo language of everyday speech as well as the lyrical sounds and vivid imagery of a masterful poet. Because The World's Wife draws on such a wide range of sources, it is also rich in intertexual references and students will find it useful to brush up on classical mythology and biblical stories.

 

Studying Poetry

After reading a poem for the first time, there are a number of questions to ask yourself which will help you to elucidate its meaning.

• who is present in the poem?
• who is speaking in the poem?
• what issues or events is the poem about?
• what themes does the poem explore?

Your answers to these questions should be recorded as they should form part of your revision notes for the poem. It is is only after you have identified who is speaking, to whom, about what, that you should start to explore the use of language in more detail.

There are a range of poetic devices that writers employ to create particular effects. You should learn to use a range of poetic terminology and be able to comment on a range of poetic devices but you must beware of feature-spotting. You should always focus on the meaning of the poem first, then on the use of language; there is no point in saying that a technique is used, unless you can go on to discuss its effect.