Summary
Summary Feminine Gospels Knowledge Organiser
Includes all the poems in the collection and provides a summary of each poem outlining all the AOs.
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Feminine Gospels – Revision notesCarol Ann Carol Ann Duffy is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold the position of Britain’s poet laureate.
Duffy
Collection as The collection is dedicated to men
a whole- Voice to Voiceless-Ventriloquism
Collection could be seen to have two halves
-In first half, such as with this poem, Duffy takes historical figures, or creates modern or mythical characters to illustrate aspects of women's struggle for identity in the
past and now. Mostly told by a narrator, not the character.
-In second half, from 'The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High' (which can be seen as bridge between two halves), Duffy writes much more personally and autobiographically
about her own experiences of life and love.
Most of the poems utilise listing as a key factor , joins them all together , connects them in structure as well as message.
The Title The word ‘Gospel’ means ‘Good News’ but the poems do not entirely(if at all) focus on positive aspects
A gospel is an account of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus-religious connotations
Some Christians claim gospels are historically accurate but some claim more metaphorical than literal truth. Feminine -relating to women
Themes Womens bodies: The diet, The Woman who shopped, the Map-Woman.
Women’s Voices- Anon, the Virgins Memo, Loud, White Writing , A dreaming week.
Women in History- The long queen , the beautiful , Sub , History
Biography/Personal/Elegies– Wish , death and the moon , light gatherer, north-west.
Motherhood- Light-gatherer, the cord, work.
Poem Language/Quotes Structure and Form A03- Context A04-Texts/Link Themes/Main Message
between Poems
The Long "Queen took Time for a husband” Long sentences mirror Queen Victoria, or First Poem in collection,
Queen Capitalised ,personified ,married time. longevity. Queen Elizabeth I- encompasses themes of
never married when she collection: female identity,
‘Long queen’ – identified by longevity, not name Ballad- telling a story, ruled as queen. motherhood, power,
embodies authority, but she’s nameless, do women have beginning, middle and childbirth, suffering , male
a choice in their identity or do others choose it for them. end. dominance
6 Line regular stanzas-
‘What was she queen of?’- rhetorical, derogatory remains constant, like
‘Word of law in their bones’ – all women are connected. the monarchy.
‘No girl born who wasn’t the long queens always child’
‘The cold weight of the crown’-women and power
, Feminine Gospels – Revision notes
The Map- Extended metaphor –a woman’s skin is a map of her Enjambment –freedom Title recalls the feminist Many people may attempt
Woman own experiences, emotions and surroundings. within the Jeanette Winterson’s to escape from being
poem ,contrasts with ‘Written on the Body’ ‘female’ and having female
‘When she showered, the the constraints which contains the line: identity, even being called a
map gleamed on her skin’ –past defines you and makes explored in the poem. ‘the letters feel like feminist, but attempts to
you who you are today. Braille’ which Duffy has escape it are futile.
Regular stanza length – also included
‘A-Z map’ -dash illustrates the past and the present being the strong structure The Map-Woman needs to
linked together –can’t escape the past, for both your shows the constraint . evolve and change but this is
present and future dependent on past. she feels within her life not totally successful. Her
original identity reasserts
‘Birth mark’ and ‘tattoo’ provoke connotations of Rhyming Couplet at the itself.
permanence – she can’t, no matter how hard she may end, sense of closure
ever try, escape from the grasps of her marked skin. which, combined with Themes: physical identity ,
the imagery, suggests women’s bodies and
‘Looped’ and ‘repeatedly’ displays the cyclical structure the inescapable past. expectations.
of this woman’s life, emotions and experiences, the
escapist intentions.
Historically men have ‘dominated and suppressed’
female identity. Listing of male figures, ‘Nelson…
Churchill… Kipling… Milton’ male history has shaped
culture, impacting the way women live their lives.
Beautiful- -"History's stinking breath in her face". - Written in free verse Helen of Troy: Beautiful icons throughout
Her husband launched a time, each woman is
-‘Beauty is fame’ ‘Beauty is fate’- cyclical feel, tragic and -Frequent internal and thousand ships & sailed powerful, but famed for
cautionary message, male-dominated society still irregular rhyme – to Troy to bring her “beauty” .
destroys its most impressive female icons. communicates the back.
restless attention of the Her beauty inspired Each died in an unpleasant
-“A bird inside a cage”-beautiful females trapped within people and media artists of all time to way, the poem suggests
a cage of fame. Irregularity prevents represent her, the somehow that their fame
reader from engaging personification of ideal (“beauty is fame”) aided
-Cleopatra- “roosted songbirds, gleaming figs, jasmine with any sort of true beauty. their demise though
scented milk” -her femininity, juxtapose with her male, connection with She was kidnapped as a objectification and male
Roman lover Mark Antony. characters prize as she was gaze.
. believed to be “the
-“She matched him glass for glass”-describes Cleopatra Women can be most beautiful woman 4 women appear to be
as having “held her drink” “until the big man slid recognised without in the world”. manifestations of the same
beneath the table wrecked”-amusing contrast defies the being named. Marilyn Monroe- being, defined by the ability
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