Summary
Summary death and the moon poem analysis
- Module
- Feminine Gospels
- Institution
- AQA
death and the moon poem analysis and annotations
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Marcangeli is the partner of the painter and poet
The speaker is trying to Adrian Henri, who was a long-time friend of Duffy. The hard, allieratated, percussive
quantify and measure the Henri died in 2000, 2 years before the poem was “c"s and "k"s in "cash”, “dark”,
distance between her and published. “pocket” and “mask” reflect the
her lost friend, an stabls of pain she feels.
impossible calculation.
Duffy presents grief as a Death and the moon The metaphor of the sky as a
struggle to re-establish the “dark pocket” is inventive and
lost connection. original, as if the moon with its
“hard old face” is greedy for the
(for Catherine Marcangeli) dead soul of her friend. It is
The “old year” can be taken interesting that she clearly sees
literally, but also signifies the The moon is nearer than where death took you the moon as unfeeling and cruel,
end of a year or era, from the at the end of the old year. Cold as cash in contrast to the more kindly
time he was alive to a new, in the sky's dark pocket, its hard old face “man-in-the-moon of children’s
sadder era after his death. is gold as a mask tonight. I break the ice nursery rhymes and stories.
over the fish in my frozen pond, look up
The adjective “old” is rhymed as the ghosts of my wordless breath reach
with “cold” and “gold”, which for the stars. If I stood on the tip of my toes
follow, giving the stanza unity. and stretched, I could touch the edge of the moon.
In what is very much like a
In what is very much like a metaphysical conceit Breaking the ice is a common metaphysical conceit — for an
— for an explanation see the latter part of the idiom meaning to cut through explanation see the latter part of
song bio of any metaphysical poem — Duffy awkwardness in a social the song bio of any metaphysical
invokes the stars and the moon and relates the situation and to create ease. The poem — Duffy invokes the stars
cosmos to her feelings. speaker is trying to reconnect and the moon and relates the
with people, but for her they are cosmos to her feelings.
The “ghosts of my wordless breath” describes “fish”, creatures distant from
her inability to put words to her grief; these humans — an example of The “ghosts of my wordless
unspoken words lie with her spirit and are not metonymy. breath” describes her inability to
solid expressions. put words to her grief; these
The frozen pond is her frozen unspoken words lie with her spirit
The metaphor in the last line is unexpected. life, which bereavement has and are not solid expressions.
Often the moon signifies mystery or aspiration. paralysed.
Here there may be a hint of lunacy — a sort of The metaphor in the last line is
mental imbalance — that aligns her with the unexpected. Often the moon
moon. signifies mystery or aspiration.
Here there may be a hint of lunacy
— a sort of mental inbalance —
that aligns her with the moon
The poet instantly focuses Death and the Moon on an image of ‘The moon’, posing as a melancholy symbol of
night and the notion of death. Following this, Duffy connects with the semantics of distance, ‘nearer’,
expressing her lack of understanding about ‘where death took you’. For Duffy, the abstract notion of death can
only be expressed through the semantics of the physical, the poet relying on images of distance to
conceptualize her loss.
The focus on ‘Cold’, both within ‘Cold as cash’ and also in ‘frozen pond’ gives an idea of deep melancholy. Cold
is often a temperature associated with lack of energy and sadness, Duffy drawing upon this. Indeed, ‘Frozen
pond’ with ‘fish’ inside could symbolize how Duffy’s world has seemed to stop. Death has impacted her so
drastically that everything has slowed down to still. Water, normally an image of movement and joy, is frozen
solid in the poem. Death has turned the world into a haunted ice landscape.
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The use of the conditional tense, ‘I could touch the edge of the moon’, signals Duffy’s own self-doubt. She
knows that she can never reach ‘the moon’, meaning she could never reach further. This means she will never
reach that strange location ‘where death took you’. The use of the personal pronoun in the first line of the
poem building on the personal elegy style. The poem is incredibly depressing, Duffy’s world transformed into a
soft silence.
The personified earth “stutters”,
After the ethereal quality of Everything in this stanza is harsh, almost violet. The Duffy using onomatopoeia to
the first stanza, the second word ‘fistful’ conveys aggression, as though the describe the sound of soil hitting
begins with his grave, a narrator is angry at the death of her loved one. Rain is the coffin. Like the “wordless
contrasting concrete depiction. generally viewed as soft, so the adjective “hard” breath” in stanza one, the “eyes”,
However, the theme of words inverts the reader’s expectation. Confetti is associated “tongue” and “ears” are all organs
and speech are picked up with with weddings and celebration, so this too is of communication, which death
the ambiguous “lip”. contradictory. Duffy therefore shows how perceptions has destroyed.
become twisted with grief.
The “open grave” has a gothic The reference to morse code is
feel, like a horror movie. also significant in that it is a terse,
stylised form of messaging devoid
of the emotional communication
The verb “gulped” has
I stooped at the lip of your open grave the poet craves
implications of greed, perhaps
suggesting that the ground is to gather a fistful of earth, hard rain,
unjustly preying upon the dead tough confetti, and tossed it down. It stuttered The implication is that, although
— it has greedily taken him like morse on the wood over your eyes, your tongue, the poet is “living” she is also
from the speaker whilst she your soundless ears. Then as I slept my living sleep sleeping, unable to live fully
sleeps. the ground gulped you, swallowed you whole, because of her grief.
and though I was there when you died,
in the red cave of your widow's unbearable cry,
The gothic theme continues in this painful image — the “red This creates immediacy. The speaker can’t
cave” is a metaphor for a mouth. The depiction of pain speaks escape the pain, reinforced by her presence at
for itself. the moment of death.
Note the use of strong colours, black and gold in stanza one and
red in stanza two. Nothing in this poem is soft and gentle
Duffy extends the stillness of the first stanza into the opening of the second. The stagnant poet, ‘stooped at
the lip of your open grave’ is watching the coffin in the funeral ceremony. The first instance of movement
occurs when Duffy throws ‘a fistful of earth’ on the grave – burying her friend. The oxymoronic ‘hard rain’ and
‘tough confetti’ compound a sense of disbelief. The use of oxymoron presents conflicting emotions, Duffy
unable to understand the death of her friend.
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