“The tarnished spoon of your body stirring betrayal” - Duffy uses a metaphor
to explain that the adulterer feels dirty due to his/her actions, and is acutely
aware of how he/she has let down the family and betrayed the spouse. The reader
feels that the adulterer regrets their actions, and is now dealing with the
consequences, which could be severe as he/she has to send “dumb and explicit
flowers on nobody’s birthday” to try to win over the partner again and apologise.
If the partner hasn’t found out then the adulterer is probably sending the
flowers just out of guilt. However, the last verse implies that the partner does
know what’s been going on, as they appear to have an argument about it: “...You
did it. What. Didn’t you. Fuck. Fuck. No...” Duffy does not explicitly show that
it is dialogue by using inverted commas, but the language suggests it is. The
partner has just discovered what is going on and is confronting the adulterer.
The colloquialism is again used to give the line power, impact, and the ability
to shock, as “*censored*” is generally considered to be the most taboo word in
the English language.
It is shows that the this is very emotional. The
characters are using “strong language” because they have very strong feelings
and are very upset. They both want to get across the power of what they are
feeling, and the lack of question marks-?- show that they are not calmly asking
each other questions, but are speaking in statements - “You did it, didn’t
you.”, rather than “You did it, didn’t you?”. This also implies that they are
shouting at each other. This is usually shown in either capital letters,
italics, or bold type, but Duffy again does not want to be so explicit. She
wants the reader to have to read the verse a few time through to understand it,
as this will make them concentrate more and focus on what is being said.
Throughout this poem Duffy is building up atmosphere. She uses language and
poetic devices to create a mood, and then changes the mood, thereby moving the
story on.
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