| Collection
Introduction | Mean Time, 1993
Duffy explores the fall from grace of a couple whose relationship has ceased to be |
| Subject (3) | The poem catalogues the breakdown of a relationship that had once been intense and passionate
The decaying relationship is anthropomorphised through the style of the house itself - a distinguishing feature of J.Ruskin's style
Only at the end is the reason for the relationship's failure revealed; 'faithless' |
| Form (2) | Eight quatrains
The traditional repetitive pattern mirrors the lack of progress - it feels more routine than 'true love'. |
| Theme (3) | Hopelessness, intransigence and desolation (within a relationship), emphasised by the consistent mention of death and decay
Insight into the way people tend to continue the relationship long past the point of breaking down
The first word 'But' signifies that they have only just now realised the situation
- Loneliness and Isolation
- Betrayal |
| Motifs (3) | "We had not been home in our hearts for months"
"still-life"
"bowl of apples rotten to the core" (Biblical allusion) |
| Diction; Zeugma
Economy on words (2)
Conceit metaphors (2)
Transferred epithet (3)
Epizeuxis | 'dust and gloom'; unpleasantness in both the house and relationship
Contrast in their relationship; they went from 'cherished italics' (highly romantic - associational) to 'obscenities'
- The idea of obscenities is used a parallel throughout; 'wrong language'
'untouched, wine bottle, empty, ashtray' (assocational)
'bowl of apples rotten to the core'; direct comparison - Biblical connotations, the apple that brought about the fall of man
Words are 'dead flies in a web'; still trying to maintain something that is already dead
'lame shoes'; stress and disappointment
'Vulnerable flowers'
'meaningless starts' (romantic image)
'Woke. Woke' suggests realisation of what has irrevocably changed (defining moment) |
| Imagery and Symbolism; Synaesthesia
Kinaesthetic
Pictorial
Visual (3)
Auditory (2) | "their echoes audible tears"; multifaceted pain that results from a broken relationship
"house plants trembling in the brittle soil" - literal and metaphorical; whilst the house is shaking from the 'banging of doors', even the surroundings start to look dreary and miserable
"waving and pointing"
"shadows of hands"; symbol for the relationship that has vanished into the past, only shadows of a better time exist now
Images of death, 'corpse', "stiffened and blackened"
"screaming alarm", "banging door" |
| Rhythm (4) | Enjambment - 'the shadows of hands/huge in the bedroom', creates a fast pace
Monosyllabic words - 'And how our words changed'
Stresses - 'In our SULLEN kitchen, the fridge/HARDENED its COOL heart'
The fast pace mimics the rush of emotions felt by the couple (especially anger - it's one argument after another) |
| Rhyme (2) | Lack of a regular rhyme scheme is indicative of disorder, lack of harmony and unpredictability
Distant approximation, 'house', 'nursing'; 'flowers', 'silhouette' (based on liquid consonance) |
| Tone (2)
Mood (2) | Sombre, autumnal - deadening resignation to the signs of death
Melancholic hesitation to the admission that the relationship is hopeless
Dark and gloomy; the use of 'night' is associated to death
The house has turned into a dilapidated building rather than a home |
