English Written Commentary
Anne Hathaway by Carol Ann Duffy
The poem Anne Hathaway, written by Carol Ann Duffy in 1991, is a
mlange of several diverse elements. At heart, it is a reflection of
the intimate relationship between William Shakespeare and his wife,
Anne Hathaway, who is the speaker in this poem. Shakespeare and his
wife spent long periods of time apart; he went to London to work in
the theaters whilst she stayed behind in Stratford. When
Shakespeares clock stopped ticking, the only thing he bequeathed to
Anne in his will was the second best bed in the house, which
according to the critics is recognized as a sign that the couple
had become estranged. Moreover, it is speculated that Shakespeare
had great loves and muses, but Anne was not part of them. In this
poem, Carol Ann Duffy attempts to tackle the stereotypical
assumptions about Anne Hathaway. She reimagines the concept of the
second best bed, not as an ironic demonstration of the marital
unhappiness and discontent, but as the divine place where the
husband and wife experienced their most romantic and intimate
moments.The poem is predominantly euphonic and it uses a
combination of sexual and romantic imagery that allows us to see
that the relationship between them was both emotionally and
physically fulfilling, which reinforces the romantic and
melancholic tone. Duffy transforms the infamous second-best bed
offered to Anne by Shakespeare into a magic place where he creates
a fantasy landscape, where Anne and her husbands poetry and the
love for her become their one and only reality. His words convert
into shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses, which means that
everybody can see and admire them, but she is the only one who can
both fully comprehend them, but also feel Shakespeare as a lover,
rather than just as a master of words. Duffy links the sex and the
carnal pleasures of Shakespeare and Anne and his poetry in the line
a verb dancing in the centre of a noun in order to represent Anne
as the only muse that Shakespeare had, which means that she was the
ultimate inspiration for him to produce great works. Moreover, she
represents the passion of their sexual intercourse and the process
of making love as equal to the creative process of writing his
divine poetry. During this period in the history, it was a custom
the best bed to be given to the guests. In the poem she imagines
that the guests in the next room are only dribbling their prose
(back than the prose was considered to be a at a lower rank than
poetry), whereas Anne and Shakespeare travel into another dimension
occupied only by the senses, played by touch, by scent, by taste,
which are signs of the complete surrender of the lovers to each
other and of their natural (physical) and emotional love, as great
as Shakespeares poetry.
Duffys choice to write this poem as a sonnet is due to the fact
that the Shakespeares love poems were sonnets, which suggests both
homage to Shakespeares romantic sonnet and examine the author from
a different perspective. Linguistically speaking, the sonnet is
rich with metaphors, for example spinning world of the bed, or the
lovers words as shooting star. With these metaphors Duffy allows
the reader to make a link between Shakespeares world and the truth
about their marriage. Another poetic device is the alliteration in
living laughing love, which lets the words to dance on the page,
suggesting the sparkle of the poetic relationship in comparison
with the hollow dribbling of the prose by the guests. Furthermore,
the author, in order to highlight the passion and the active
relationship between the couple, uses verbs such as dancing , dive,
dozed and dribbling, which show an activity that requires both
mental and physical activity.
It is important to notice that the sonnet is about love,
similarly as most of the sonnets Shakespeare wrote. Anne Hathaway
is also about marriage where a couple creates their own world, own
reality, fulfilled with romance, world where they are not
conforming to any social expectation. Their relationship consists
of mutual love and respect, where they retreat from the rest of the
world through poetry, a world which is represented by the
second-best bed. The significance that is given to the bed, can be
truly understood only by Shakespeare and his wife. Another theme
that Duffy describes through the lines is the loss of her husband
and her immense grief. Because of the speculations about
Shakespeares treatment of Anne and the last gift he bequeathed to
her, one might expect that Anne Hathaway is going to be fulfilled
with anger towards Shakespeare, but instead Anne is only full of
admiration and platonic love for her husband. This point allows the
reader to experience a different perspective of Shakespeares life,
which is not a philandering man who puts his superior writing
skills above everything else.
In summary, the authors style epitomizes the sonnet. Anne
Hathaway tells the story about the notorious symbol of the
second-best bed from Annes perspective. At the same time, it
describes the passionate relationship of the couple, as well as the
complete and true love-both passionate and platonic between Anne
and Shakespeare and her respect and admiration for him, as a poet
and husband. The authors intent is to relate a very meaningful
experience and to inspire another perspective of William
Shakespeares life.
Above all, this poem shows an unheard story and an ignored
perspective of the life of the famous writer.
http://home.ku.edu.tr/~doregan/Writing/Cohesion.htmlhttp://library.bcu.ac.uk/learner/writingguides/1.33.htmhttp://www.synonym.com/http://www.chaparralpoets.org/devices.pdfhttps://www.oxford-royale.co.uk/articles/words-phrases-good-essays.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Ann_Duffy
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