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Summary wish poem analysis
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wish poem analysis and annotations
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Wish
But what if, in the clammy soil, her limbs
Is Duffy symbolically grew warmer, shifted, stirred, kicked off Emotive imagery may suggest that this is
attempting to rescue the covering of earth, the drowsing corms, dedicated to her late mother. These are
someone or open the the sly worms, what if her arms reached out ideas of loss.
coffin to reach her to grab the stone, the grooves of her dates
mother. May suggest under her thumb, and pulled her up? I wish.
that she had a rocky Her bare feet walk along the gravel path The fact that the sleepers can be
relationship with her between the graves, her shroud like washing “woken by the light” suggests that
mother. “If I can” may blown onto the grass, the petals of her wreath the occupants of the entire
suggest regret for not kissed for a bride. Nobody died. Nobody graveyard are reanimated and
connecting with her wept. Nobody slept who couldn't be woken brought back to life.
while she was still alive. by the light. If I can only push open this heavy door Duffy may be idealising a world
she'll be standing there in the sun, dirty, tired, where there is no suffering for
wondering why do I shout, why do I run. women, or she may be trying to
celebrate the legacy of all the
This is ambiguous in the sense woman who have suffered in the
that it can be applied both to the past.
speaker and to the protagonist.
Summary
Wish by Carol Ann Duffy deals with Duffy’s own depression, the poet seeking comfort in a dark moment. Duffy
creates a depiction of a woman trapped in a grave, using this as a metaphor to represent her depression. Two
representations of Duffy are created, one seeking to help and the other locked away, out of reach. There is no
positive ending to the poem, Wish staying in the conditional tense right until the end, Duffy never escaping
from her ‘grave’.
Wish by Carol Ann Duffy begins by describing a woman covered in earth, trapped underground. Duffy is willing
this woman to escape, to draw herself up from the ground, and escape her hollow tomb. Yet, this is only a
‘wish’, the poet knows that she cannot use an escape. She images the corpse-like woman on the other side of
a ‘heavy door’, wishing that she could help the woman escape. This ghostly figure represents Duffy, the poet
Form and Structure
Form and structure
Duffy writes Wish in a sonnet form, the poem measuring 14 lines in total. Typically, the sonnet form is used to
discuss love or death, Duffy indeed tapping into the imagery of death to relate to this tradition. Yet, the poet
decides not to follow a traditional rhyme scheme of the sonnet. In doing this, Duffy is using structure to
represent her rejection of traditionally, using aspects of the sonnet form but making it directly her own. This
could be understood as a further representation of how Duffy is discussing her own mental health, rejecting
traditional form in order to showcase the poem as uniquely her own.
Normally a Volta in a sonnet arrives on the 8th line, but Duffy instead only contains a tiny element of change,
the triple repeated ‘Nobody’ serving to suggest that there is a possibility of salvation. But having this moment
of hope encased in an otherwise depressing poem, Duffy furthers the sense of entrapment, reflecting the
primary character through the use of structure. her depressing into the entrapped character. Although Duffy
wants to free herself from depression, it is not that easy, the poet never achieving liberation.
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