The last line of this verse: “unpeels to a lost cry. You’re a bastard.” The
caesura breaks up the line, balancing it, and giving greater impact and
significance to the second half. The colloquialism “bastard” is used for several
reasons. It has a big impact, surprising the reader, and shocking a minority,
who aren’t used to taboo words in poetry. This gives it more power - it is swear
word, and is offensive. Duffy could have said “You’re a bad person”, but this is
dead, lame, and ineffective. It is also more emotional, as “bastard” is more
dramatic than “bad person” and so has more feeling in it. It is likely that
Duffy is revealing what the spouse’s reaction would be to the news that his/her
wife/husband is having an affair. If not then the adulterer is imagining what
their spouse would say, and is calling him/herself a bastard. It is unlikely
that Duffy herself is calling the adulterer a bastard.
Firstly Duffy does not
appear to pass judgment on the characters in the rest of the poem, she lets
their actions and feelings speak for themselves. Secondly, Duffy would probably
realise that it is more interesting to hear another character’s opinion, than
her own, especially when she has focused on what the characters are thinking in
the rest of the poem. Altogether, Duffy is revealing some of the emotions
involved with adultery. There is also the matter of whether the adulterer is
male or female. “Bastard” is traditionally an insult towards men, and it is
unlikely that Duffy would purposely confuse the reader in regard to the gender
of the main character, especially when their actions and thoughts are so vital
to the poem. This does not necessarily mean that the adulterer is male. The
references earlier to oral sex implied that the adulterer was female, but I
could be wrong about those, or maybe Duffy is saying that person the adulterer
is having an affair with is a bastard - hence a female adulterer. With the oral
sex references in mind, presuming they are correct, it suggests that the affair
is homosexual, but if this were the case then Duffy would almost certainly say
it in more explicit terms, as on first read this is not apparent, and Duffy
cannot want her poem to be that misunderstood. The next verse begins: “Do it do
it do it. Sweet darkness” Duffy is using poetic devices to convey the mood and
atmosphere she wants to create. The caesura again breaks the line in two giving
a big impact and significance to both halves as the readers pauses for effect.
The repetition shows that the phrase “do it” is important and needs to be
emphasized again and again, or perhaps it is describing how they “do it” again
and again - a possible sexual reference. The lack of punctuation conveys the
speed and urgency. “Sweet darkness” is almost an oxymoron; we are used to
thinking of darkness as spooky, scary and hiding dangers, and to think of it as
sweet seems to be a contradiction in terms, it isn’t really, but Duffy knows
that this impression will be given. She could be talking about the lovers
meeting in the darkness, or darkness hiding their sins, but either way, the fact
that it appears to be an oxymoron draws the readers attention to it, as does the
caesura.
Duffy then returns to sexually ambiguous phrases like “how you are wanted,
which way, now”, and “pay for it in cash” this must be referring to desire in
the former quotation and probably prostitution in the latter. However, Duffy
never explicitly writes about prostitution, just hints at it in order to
increase the sexual tension and condense the atmosphere of seediness. Duffy goes
on to describe how the affair is taking it’s toll on the marriage and conscience
of the adulterer. “...The life which crumbles like a wedding cake.” - Duffy uses
a simile to describe how the life is being eroded, by comparing it to a
crumbling wedding cake, reminding that the adulterer is married, and that the
marriage must also be splintering. The seventh verse is interesting: “Paranoia
for lunch; too much to drink, as a hand on your thigh tilts the restaurant. You
know all about love, don’t you. Turn on your beautiful eyes” The annotations
show all the poetic devices that Duffy uses, mostly in order to increase the
mood of the poem and convey the theme. In the next verse Duffy uses an
interesting image: “the slicing of innocent onions scalds you to tears”. I do
not know what Duffy is trying to say to the reader here, but there are several
possibilities. The adulterer has returned to the household chores for the
family, and is crying because he/she feels bad about how he/she has betrayed the
family, and is reminded of this by the return to the old routine; or possibly
the “innocent onions” represent the innocent members of the family that the
adulterer has hurt - this would be the “slicing” - and the realisation of this
has made the adulterer cry, just like cutting onions would. Duffy is telling the
reader that the adulterer feels remorse that the family has suffered for her
affair, and this changes the atmosphere. It appears that in these verses the
poet is describing what happens when the adulterer returns to the family home,
he/she sleeps in a “marital bed”, Duffy is pointing this out so deliberately to
highlight the fact that he/she has recently been sharing another bed, an
extra-marital one.
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