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Summary the virgins memo
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the virgins memo analysis and and annotations
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The virgins memo The poem begins in the middle of a train of thought, and therefore an
example of in medias res, meaning literally “in the middle of things”. So the
reader is drawn into the mind of the Virgin Mary as she is thinking and
writing down her ideas to present to her son, Jesus.
Maybe not abscesses, acne, asthma, That she uses the conditional “maybe” could suggest her lack of influence
son, maybe not boils, and perhaps lack of confidence to push her views forward. Even to her child
maybe not cancer her authority was limited; they were both aware that it was a patriarchal
or diarrhoea world. This establishes the essence of the poem; the limited power of
or tinnitus of the inner ear, women
maybe not fungus,
The use of the alphabetic list suggests that Jesus is still a child listening to his
maybe rethink the giraffe,
mother as she instructs him in the language.
maybe not herpes, son,
But it is also a sign of a well-ordered mind, thinking through her
or (text illegible)
recommendations to her son in a methodical way.
or jellyfish
or (untranslatable)
maybe not leprosy or lice, The diseases listed are either unpleasant or serious. The names are modern —
the menopause or mice, mucus, son, another anachronism — for example tinnitus of the inner ear wouldn’t have
neuralgia, nits, been an identified condition in biblical times.
This is maybe not body odour, Duffy clearly put some thought into this list. Poor diet and primitive living
another a piles, conditions would have resulted in boils and acne. Poor hygiene would have
nachronis quicksand, quagmires, resulted in diarrhoea.
m, the maybe not rats, son, rabies, rattlesnakes,
term shite, This intrusion, together with “untranslatable” in the next but one line,
would not and maybe hang fire on the tarantula, implies that the memo has been found, for example on an archeological
have the unicorn's lovely, dig. It suggests that female voices throughout history have been silenced.
existed in but maybe not veruccas This memo was never converted into a formal document; the writing has
biblical or wasps, been obliterated like historic female voices.
times. or (text illegible)
Also, most or (untranslatable)
maybe not... Alliteration and the rhythmic pace link the items together, conflating
women randomly serious diseases with minor irritations
would
have died Duffy chose to
before replicate the The reference to the rattlesnake could allude to the temptation in
reaching “illegible” and the Garden of Eden, to original sin and the fact that Even was a
the “untranslatable” precursor of women who have been deemed responsible for the
menopaus lines from earlier downfall of Man.
e, so the in the poem. This
unpleasan continues the idea
t of the fragility of This last “maybe” reinforces the essence of the poem, that
symptoms the memo. And by Mary has no real power. It could also allude to the idea that
would not implication the women’s voices were deemed unimportant, the final words
have fragility of the would have been provided by men. It is also anti-climactic
affected opinions of — a sign of a disappointing outcome. Perhaps she guessed
many and women, who that Jesus would ignore her wishes.
not made were disregarded. The ellipsis is significant, indicating that the list will continue
it to through the generations, that the world will always struggle
Mary’s with sickness and evil, as it has to the present day.
list.
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Summary
The Virgin’s Memo by Carol Ann Duffy explores a memo written from Mother Mary to Jesus, which is
subsequently ignored. Duffy writes this poem to display the total disregard of the female opinion and
perspective, beginning right at the start of history and continuing onwards. Duffy wants the reader to
realise how sexist society has been (and still is), using this poem to display how female opinions are
ignored and subsequently lost to history.
The Virgin’s Memo by Carol Ann Duffy uses the structure of the ABCs, with Mary writing a memo for Jesus
of all the things that he should change within the world. Duffy begins with ‘abscesses’, moving right down
through the alphabet until she gets to ‘W’, at which point the text becomes ‘illegible’ for the last few
letters. Duffy presents a detailed list of ideas, all of which are completely ignored by Jesus. In doing this,
Duffy suggests that males don’t care about female opinions and that the female voice is lost within
history. Even an important figure, the Virgin Mary, doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, she, too,
being a woman ignored.
Form and Structure
Duffy’s The Virgin’s Memo uses structure to present the thoroughness of Mary’s work. She has
constructed an alphabetized list of things that Jesus/God should change. Yet, reading this from the
modern age, we know none of these things have stopped existing, therefore she was ignored. Duffy uses
this fictional account to showcase the voicelessness of women, their opinions being ignored throughout
history. Duffy uses the A—>Z structure and one stanza to emphasize how easily Mary has made it for
Jesus. Yet, even after all of this planning and structure, she was still not listened to.
Poetic Techniques
Structural is integral to the reading of The Virgin’s Memo, with Duffy also using asyndeton to further her
fictional recommendation. By structuring the poem as an asyndetic list, Duffy suggests that there are a
huge number of things that Mary recommends Jesus to change. This shows how corrupt and ridiculous
the ‘God Made’ world is, with Mary wishing for a huge number of changes. At the same time, this listing
also furthers the idea that Jesus/God listened to none of Mary’s recommendations, even the one thing
she did think was good, ‘Unicorns’, obviously didn’t make it into the final draft of the world. This listing
seems to go on forever, asyndeton furthering this idea.
Title
The Virgin’s Memo
Two key things are conveyed through the title, the first being the speaker and the second being the sense
of importance this fictional note contains. Duffy instantly alerts the reader to the fact that it will be the
‘Virgin’ Mary writing this note, using biblical allegory to craft her poem. Yet, by using ‘memo’, Duffy
attaches a sense of lacking importance to the poem, demands or suggestions being disempowered
through the irrelevance of a ‘memo’. This demonstrates how women’s voices are not taken seriously by
men, all of Mary’s recommendations being ignored by Jesus.
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