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THEMEPOEMQUOTATIONSLOSS:??In Mrs Midas, a wife speaks of her lost marriage, lost physical closeness with her husband and the lost opportunity to have a baby.??In Havisham, a jilted bride has lost her fiance and all the happiness and fulfilment she expected in the later years from marriage: her status as wife, the experience of sex. She has lost her youth and years of her life, stagnating and festering with hatred.In Anne Hathaway, a widow speaks of her lost husband.??In War Photographer, photographs document loss of life – children presumably die in minefields; a dead man whose wife assented to the photograph being taken is described as a “ghost”. Also he “stares impassively” at the war zones he works in as if having lost the power to be shocked or moved.???In Originally, Duffy herself has lost her original home, accent, and ultimately her Scottish, Glaswegian identity.??In Valentine, it is shown that couples can lose fidelity and ultimately relationships. Mrs Midas"I miss most, even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch."Havisham"...her, myself, who did this/to me?" (loss of her sense of self)"a red balloon bursting/ in my face" (loss of the life she imagined for herself)Anne Hathaway"I hold him in the casket of my widow's head..."Past tense - "loved...we would...were shooting stars"War Photographer"a half-formed ghost" - (loss of life in war)"he stares impassively..." (having to lose emotions to do his job)Originally“All childhood is an emigration”“Your accent wrong”“Originally? And I hesitate” (contrasts with ‘our own country’)Valentine“cling to your knife”“Lethal.”“as we are/for as long as we are”Identity:Mrs Midas“the woman who married the fool / who wished for gold”Originally“Originally? And I hesitate” (contrasts with ‘our own country’)War Photographer“”He has a job to do…did not tremble then though seem to now” – he has almost become his job – he can’t have normal human emotions in order to do his job well. Havisham"...her, myself, who did this/to me?"Love/Marriage??Anne Hathaway is about a happy marriage, an equal partnership, ended only by widowhood, leaving happy memories.??Valentine suggests that marriage is optional; “platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring” hints marriage is perhaps too possessive, constricting.??Mrs Midas portrays a marriage that ends in a separation which the wife would not have wanted, due to the unreasonable behaviour of her husband.??Havisham is about a marriage called off at the last moment and the devastating effect on the remainder of the jilted bride’s life.Mrs Midas"I miss most, even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch."“…lack of thought for me. Pure selfishness.”Havisham“Spinster. I stink and remember”“Love’s/hate behind a white veil”“…heart that b-b-b-breaks”Valentine“It promises light”“It will blind you with tears”“Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding ring/if you like”Anne Hathaway“spinning world”“a verb dancing in the centre of a noun…our guests dozed on/dribbling their prose”Time and Memory??War Photographer shows time bringing about delayed shock when the developing photographs remind the photographer of the horrific original experiences. His memories don’t fade over time. The photographs preserve his memories.??Anne Hathaway shows memories of her time with her husband being preserved, not fading, stored in the “casket” of her own mind like Shakespeare’s body in his coffin.??Havisham shows how time can prevent memories from fading: over time the wedding dress has yellowed – ironically, a kind of fading - and the wedding cake remained uneaten, not just jolting but existing as constant reminders of an unhappy event.??Originally shows time bringing about identity loss due to gradual assimilation into, homogeneity with, a new community. Her memories of Glasgow gradually fade over time, a change that causes some guilt.Mrs Midas shows how certain insignificant things like sunlight or apples can jolt her memory of her husband both at the time and before the breakup of their marriage and bring back vivid recollections that haven’t faded. War Photographer“He remembers the cries/ of this man’s wife” Links to the idea of the man being a ‘ghost’ – the photographer is haunted by his memories. Anne Hathaway“My living laughing love - / I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head” Memory of him so strong that he seems still alive to her. Havisham“Not a day since then/ I haven’t wished him dead” Strength of her memory and hatred. Originally“But then you forget, or don’t recall” “I remember my tongue/ shedding its skin like a snake” Memories of a place fade over time. Regrets this, but inevitable. Mrs Midas“I think of him in certain lights, dawn, late afternoon/ and once a bowl of apples stopped me dead”“I miss most/even now, his hands, his warm hands…”PainWar Photographer deals with the physical and emotional pain of war victims remembered and captured in pictures; the idea of pain being on a scale, comparing extreme pain suffered in war zones to “ordinary pain”, trivial annoyances, of rural England; lack of pain felt by Sunday supplement readers on seeing images of war; disguised pain felt by photographer on returning to work in war zone.Havisham deals with the extreme emotional pain and heartbreak felt by a jilted bride; the physical pain she imagines being able to inflict in revenge.Valentine suggests intense emotional pain, wounding caused by the break up of a relationship.Mrs Midas shows a wife’s regretful emotional pain at a marriage so needlessly, thoughtlessly ruined; a husband’s physical pain during starving to death, thin and hallucinating.Originally shows Duffy’s family’s emotional pain – anxious parents, crying brothers – at leaving familiarity of home; Duffy’s guilty pain at eventually becoming assimilated in her new surroundings.War Photographer“spools of suffering set out in ordered rows”“ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel”Havisham“Puce curses” “Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks” Emotional PainMrs Midas“I dreamt I bore/his child”“My dream-milk/burned in my breasts”Emotional pains of longing for a child, now impossible as she can’t touch her husband. Originally“My brothers cried, one of them bawling Home”“a skelf of shame”Valentine “…a wobbling photo of grief.”“Lethal”“cling to you knife”Loneliness and Solitude??War Photographer begins with the photographer being “finally alone”, having the peace and solitude to develop pictures and deal with his feelings of shock about the war zones he has experienced. ??Valentine suggests that relationships eventually bring “grief”, are not permanent, that fidelity lasts only up to a point, leading to break ups which leave former partners alone. ??Havisham shows a lonely spinster, abandoned by her former fiancé, unable to move on with her life, imagining what she has lost, her former love twisted to violent hatred.??Originally shows Duffy lonely at first moving to England where all is unfamiliar and where “no one you know stays”.??Anne Hathaway shows a widow left alone but consoling herself with precious memories of a happy life with her husband. ??Mrs Midas portrays both husband and wife as lonely – he is dying in solitude in an isolated caravan, she is alone at home, missing him and the opportunity to be a family with a baby. War Photographer“In his darkroom he is finally alone”“they do not care”Valentine“as we are/for as long as we are”Havisham“cawing Nooooo at wall” Isolated, lost her humanity, become animal-like because of her loneliness. Originally “your accent wrong”“where no one you know stays”“I want our own country, I said” Feeling isolated, not understood, lack of belonging. Anne Hathaway“I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head”“loved…were…as he held me” – past tense, he has died, she’s isolated, only has her memories of him. Mrs Midas“I miss most,/Even now, his hands, his warm hands on my skin, his touch” “I dreamt I bore/his child”“My dream-milk/burned in my breasts”Has no husband to touch her, longs for it, feels lonely without his touch. Wishes for a child, feels lonely and unfulfilled because she has been denied one. ................
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