Anne Hathaway Carol Ann Duffy Anne Hathaway Background

Anne Hathaway Carol Ann Duffy

Anne Hathaway – Background Shakespeare’s wife. She bore him three children: Susanna, Hamnet and Judith. 1556/7 – 1623 Outlived her husband by 7 years. Very little is known about her. The couple married when Hathaway was 6 months pregnant. Many scholars have suggested their nuptials were indicative of a “shotgun wedding”, which Shakespeare, who was only 18 at the time, was forced to enter as a consequence of impregnating Hathaway. Shakespeare famously made only one bequest to his wife in his will: his second best bed. Many see this as a slight, but Duffy challenges this view in her poem.

Anne Hathaway – Challenging Conventions Duffy challenges preconceptions about their relationship. The bequest is conventionally viewed as a contemptuous rebuff, indicating that Shakespeare didn’t hold Hathaway in high esteem. However, Duffy rejects this view, citing the Elizabethan custom of allowing guests to have the best bed. She argues that the “second best bed” was, in fact, the marital bed that the couple shared. From this perspective, the legacy does not seem like a slur but the final romantic gesture of a man deeply in love with his wife. Many scholars think Shakespeare had little interest in Anne, but Duffy rejects this view. In Duffy’s poem, Anne is a source of both erotic and creative inspiration for her husband.

Anne Hathaway – Form and Structure The poem is written in the same form as Shakespeare’s love poetry: the sonnet. This could suggest that Anne is paying tribute to her late husband by adopting the form with which he was typically associated. It could also imply how well they complemented each other, as they both adopt the same form to express loving sentiments. However, “Anne’s” sonnet uses a more relaxed rhyme scheme than a conventional Shakespearian sonnet. She only uses full rhyme in the closing couplet (“head/bed”). She uses assonance (“world/words”; “kisses/seas”), buried rhyme (“dozed/prose”) and sometimes no rhyme at all. According to Duffy herself, “this is intended to suggest the random touching of lovemaking - the words, as it were, touching each other within the poem!” Enjambment is used in the poem, possibly to show freely love flowed between the couple.

Anne Hathaway – Epigraph The poem begins with an epigraph taken directly from Shakespeare’s will. This gives the false impression that the poem will adopt a conventional view of the Shakespeare/Hathaway relationship, only to immediately reject it with the hyperbolically romantic imagery of the first quatrain. “second best bed” – sounds dismissive, and has been historically portrayed as such, but Duffy conveys the impression that this piece of furniture was magical; providing the world’s greatest writer with creative – as well as erotic – stimulation.

First Quatrain The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas where we would dive for pearls. My lover's words were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses Methapor – “The bed we loved in…” - highly elaborate and romantic extended metaphor, which is appropriate given Shakespeare employed similar imagery in his poems. This could be Anne paying homage to her husband by using imagery in a manner that reflects his own use of metaphor. Similarly, the references to locations that feature in Shakespeare’s plays could also be interpreted as a loving tribute. Moreover, the magical aspects associated with the word choices of “forests” and “castles” in this quatrain could suggest that the couple’s love was like a fairytale. Metaphor – “My lover’s words were shooting stars” – celestial imagery; perhaps suggesting that Shakespeare was divine or sent from God. His language is heavenly, magical and shining. It illuminates the everyday and commonplace, much as a shooting star illuminates the night sky.

First Quatrain – Word Choice “loved” – not “made love”, but “loved” – suggests a profound depth of feeling; not just gratification of erotic desires. “spinning” – suggests she was dizzy with the excitement of their lovemaking. “world” – suggests the all encompassing nature of their love. “forests, castles” – suggests that their love was enchanted; it had a magical and fairytale feel to it. “pearls” – suggests that their love was precious, rare and valuable. “shooting stars” – suggests beauty, illumination and the divine. Just as shooting star illuminates the night sky, so Shakespeare’s words lit up Anne’s life and were important feature of their intimacy together. “stars” – has clear romantic connotations. “fell to earth” – suggests his words were of divine or heavenly creation. “kisses” – suggests love, passion, tenderness and affection.

Second Quatrain – Imagery on these lips; my body now a softer rhyme to his, now echo, assonance; his touch a verb dancing in the centre of a noun. Some nights, I dreamed he'd written me, the bed “my body now a softer rhyme/to his” – elevating their lovemaking to a form of poetry. The reference to “softer rhyme” is appropriate, as Anne’s sonnet in celebration of her husband uses a “softer rhyme” than one of his sonnets. “his touch/a verb dancing in the centre of a noun” – forms of speech are equated with intimate touching. “he’d written me” – suggests that only through his eyes and imagination does she feel fully, thrillingly alive.

Second Quatrain – Word Choice “softer” – suggestive perhaps of Anne’s femininity. “to his” – suggestive of Shakespeare’s masculinity and possibly his state of arousal. “echo” and “assonance” – literary sound techniques, which here are imbued with sensuality and imply the sounds of their lovemaking. “Echo” suggests mirroring, perhaps implying how attuned they were to each other when lovemaking. The repeated vowel sounds apparent in “assonance” could also reflect the sounds associated with physical intimacy. “dancing” – suggests joyous, carefree, pleasurable physical activity. “dreamed” – has connotations of fantasy. “bed” – positioned at the end of the line for emphasis; recalls the opening line and reinforces its symbolic significance as a representation of their love.

Third Quatrain a page beneath his writer's hands. Romance and drama played by touch, by scent, by taste. In the other bed, the best, our guests dozed on, dribbling their prose. My living laughing love - The enjambment from line eight continues the extended metaphor from the previous quatrain as the bed is equated with the parchment on which the playwright wrote. It seems the passion and excitement of lovemaking inspired the passion and excitement of the dramatist’s creative process. “Romance and drama” – It seems that the inspiration for the “Romance and drama” in Shakespeare’s work stemmed from the “Romance and drama” of his passionate love life with Anne.

Third Quatrain – Word Choice “touch, scent and taste” – suggests that poetry, like lovemaking, is a sensual experience. “Romance” – suggests love, passion and desire. “drama” – suggests excitement and perhaps theatricality. “In the other bed, the best” – makes it clear that the best bed was reserved for guests. This undermines the conventional view that Shakespeare’s legacy was derisory. “dozed” – the sleepiness of the guests is contrasted with the passion and excitement of Anne and her husband’s lovemaking. “dribbling” – suggests a drip or trickle. The inference here is clear – the sexual encounters taking place next door are far more disappointing than the lovemaking enjoyed by Anne and her husband.

Third Quatrain “prose” – Again here an unflattering comparison is made between the lovemaking in the second best and best beds. Whereas Shakespeare and Anne’s lovemaking is poetical, recalling the most skilful, creative and intellectual use of language; their neighbours’ intimacy is likened to prose; suggesting it is an ordinary, dull and unexceptional. “My living laughing love –” - alliteration and elongated assonance are used here, possibly to emphasise how vividly the speaker recalls her lover. The present tense of “living” and “laughing” suggest that, despite his demise, Shakespeare remains very much alive in Anne’s memories of him. The dash allows the reader time to reflect upon this idea before the resolution of the final couplet.

Couplet I hold him in the casket of my widow's head as he held me upon that next best bed. Full rhyme is used here, which contrasts with the soft rhyme utilised elsewhere in the poem. This provides the poem with a defined conclusion. Metaphor – “I hold him in the casket of my widow’s head” develops the idea presented in the previous line that the dead live on in our memories of them. This suggests that even death cannot undermine the power of true love.

Couplet – Word Choice “casket” – the placement of Anne’s memories in a metaphorical casket suggests that they are protected and secure, just like the corpse of her husband in his literal casket. “I hold him”/“as he held me” – the balanced contrast of these lines suggests that Shakespeare and Anne loved each other equally. “hold” and “held” – indicative of the tenderness and physical intimacy the couple enjoyed. “bed” – fittingly, the poem ends, as it had begun, with reference to the bed, which is used symbolically to represent the couple’s love. By beginning and ending in this fashion, the reader is given the impression that Shakespeare and Anne’s love was a constant from the start of their relationship to the end of their lives.

Imagery and Symbolism Extended metaphor equating literary creativity with lovemaking. Numerous examples of this: “The bed we loved in…”; “my body now a softer rhyme to his”; the references to “echo” and “assonance”; “his touch a verb dancing in the centre of a noun”; “Romance and drama played by touch, scent and taste”; “dribbling their prose”. The suggestion here could be that both lovemaking and writing poetry require skill, imagination, empathy, sensual awareness and passion. Bed – symbolic of the love and passion the couple shared. It also used to reject conventional interpretation of Shakespeare and Anne’s relationship, and to provide a contrast between the exalted lovemaking of the central couple and the inferior intimacy of their guests.

Themes Love Creativity Romance Passion Sex Death Memory Language