Language is used as a metaphor for love: ‘my body now a softer rhyme/ to his’. The narrator uses this metaphor to show how in awe she was of the power of Shakespeare’s writing.
Carol Ann Duffy links the lovers together as it compares the rhyme and it is much softer than his. She imagines herself as a flippant of his imagination: ‘I dream’d he had written me’.
Another poetic device used in ‘AH’ is enjambment. Enjambment is the continuation of a sentence or clause over a line-break. Duffy allows the sentences of the poem to end in the same place as regular line-breaks. So, in other terms, punctuation is absent at the end of a line. For instance, the sentence in AH, runs to the next line, so for example: ‘… spinning world of forests…’ this shows that we do not know what it’s a spinning world of, until we read the next line. Enjambment is one way of creating audible interest as it allows the flow of reading. This creates a conversational tone to the poem. This device allows the poem to carry a realistic voice, also making the poem more personal, allowing the reader to relate to the narrator and their feelings.
In D, the apparent inversion of: ‘to break the ice. My broken heart-…’ reveals disordering affects of grief. The hyphen (-) used after ‘heart’ causes a faltering of breath at the end of the line. This pause is then carried on with ‘I tried that’; this shows that the speaker attempted to regather herself and to move forward through her mourning. This attempt is represented through the image of the ‘flat’ heart stone hardly registering on the ‘frozen lake’ that is her diminished life. The flat heart shows how lifeless and dull the heart has become. The frozen lake shows the solid forming on top of the liquid and not allowing any subtle feelings or emotions to flow in the wave of the sea but its kept hard, the frozen means that it used to be in a liquid form but it has changed, so it wasn’t a solid to start off with. We can also see that this is reversible, so it is possible to change with love and inner feelings.
The images in ‘AH’ and ‘D’ are striking because they combine the everyday with the extraordinary. An old bed is described with the romance of ‘shooting stars’ and ‘torchlight’. In ‘D’ the ‘blue sky’ is ‘smiling’ and the ‘new moon’ has a ‘shy mouth’, the writer uses human features to make this ‘not-so-important’ object seem more intriguing. The poet’s use of imagery emphasises how these ordinary objects and situations had special significance. From line five to line ten, Duffy uses imagery in a fascinating way that relates directly to the fact that Shakespeare was a writer. Anne sees her body as ‘a softer rhyme to his… now echo… now assonance’ assonance being a figure of speech in which the same vowel sounds is repeated. Then follows the charming personification of his touch, portrayed as ‘a verb dancing in the centre of a noun’, giving a feeling of grace and delicacy. Anne says that she sometimes dreamed that Shakespeare had ‘written her’, wishing that she herself were part of his artistic creation. She metaphorically imagines the bed as ‘a page beneath his writers’ hands’. She sees their lovemaking as drama enacted through ‘touch’, ‘scent’, and ‘taste’. The use of first person in ‘Anne Hathaway’ makes the poem sound loving and tender – for example, when she says ‘my lovers words were shooting stars’ and ‘my living laughing love’. Using the first person emphasises how personal the poem is.
‘D’ is also written in 1st person narrative, as the poem is related from D viewpoint. This viewpoint is central to the poems message and effect. It is D’s poem and reflects and refracts the emotional grief she is feeling. The opening verse testifies her viewpoint of life without her loved one: ‘where I lived-winter and hard earth. I sat in my cold stone room choosing tough words, granite, flint…’ from this opening sentence we can see that her life is inconsolable. The world is a barren infertile place for the mother without her child and the sharpness of the images reveals the irredeemable suffering. D’s language presents the reader with her immunity to anything. She can only select words that reflect her aloneness and isolation. She is incarcerated in a world that has become a literal and metaphorical tomb without her daughters’ presence.
Relationships are like the human body: they are either healthy or they are not. In this respect, even a healthy relationship can
"catch a cold." If we treat the cold properly, then the relationship returns to its naturally healthy state. If we neglect it, though,
it can develop complications and die — the relationship ends. We can expand this analogy and compare relationships to the
various parts of the human body.
HEART and BLOOD (Flow of Love)
If the body represents a relationship, then the heart would circulate the blood ("love"), pumping it throughout the system.
When you are completely in love, you feel it though your entire body. This makes it the most important organ of the body.
Obviously, without the caring energy of love, loving relationships cannot develop. Keeping the blood flowing is essential.
Remember too that cholesterol (neglect, materialism, or ego-centeredness) clogs the arteries and cause the system to shut
down.
IMMUNE SYSTEM (Health)
Truth is the immune system of a relationship. Once the immune system is compromised, the relationship becomes vulnerable
to many diseases. Lies, deceit, and putting material things before your relationship will naturally weaken the system. The
antibodies of truth can stave off most infections; so to keep the body strong, prevent the free radicals of deceit from
compromising the system.
BRAIN (Communication)
This organ is in charge of communicating and perceiving, along with other functions. It must function properly if we are to
have normal social relationships. In intimate unions, it becomes even more significant.
A healthy brain expresses itself freely and spontaneously, yet with common sense. This implies being both introverted and
extroverted at once, which is not an easy task. Here's why.
Introverts have trouble communicating spontaneously. When they eventually say what's on their mind or in their heart, several
filters have already processed the information, which clouds the message. Introverts are often careful, and they show
common sense. They are more the "thinking" type.
Extroverts, on the other hand, blurt out whatever pops into their head. Because extroverts do not "think" before they talk, they
can say things unintentionally that may offend others. This often results in "Foot in Mouth Syndrome," which stamps out the
*common sense* part. While some argue that blurting out everything is healthy, this misses two points. First, just because
something occurs to you doesn't mean that it is worth saying. In extreme cases — like a person with no "Off" button — the
speaker drowns the listeners in an endless stream of small talk. Second, being thoughtless can cause permanent damage to
a relationship and is often the source of regret. On the plus side, extroverts are usually gregarious and spontaneous.
A healthy brain requires both common sense and spontaneity. How, though, can a person be introverted and extroverted at
the same time?
One way is to follow your spirit without hesitation. Some confuse this with "following your thoughts or emotions without
hesitation," which is the same as being an extrovert. The spiritual path of "following spirit" requires that you distinguish
between the voice of your mind and the voice of your spirit. This is difficult: in advanced metaphysics, it represents the
greatest hurdle to spiritual progress. The way to succeed, of course, is to practice. Meditation, yoga, listening to classical
music, prayer, or communing with nature can help.
Once the brain becomes balanced, it can be one of most useful tools for developing and maintaining a loving, intimate
relationship.
SEX (Union)
Sex, the most intimate and intense expression of love, can be bonding because it imprints one's energy on the other,
especially during orgasm. It is the closest two people can be in physical bodies. Symbolically, it represents two being one. In
addition, sex is the mechanism through which new life enters the world. Metaphysically, where does new life come from? It
flows from the miraculous energy of creation. Sex, then, has the power to summon profound energies.
While Western religions have wrapped sexuality in a thick shroud of guilt and science has reduced it to chemical interactions,
Hinduism has recognized its spiritual potential as expressed in tantric yoga. Sex, when used as a vehicle to express love, is
pure, organic, natural, and uplifting.
ARMS (Security)
Arms reach out. They are for embracing, for feeling close and wanted, and for furnishing emotional warmth and security.
HANDS (Communion)
Hands denote touch. You can learn much about people not only by how they touch you, but also by the energy that
accompanies it. The sensation can be caring or indifferent, peaceful or disturbing, trusting or fearful, gentle or rough.
Additionally, we can touch each other physically, mentally, and emotionally. Being aware of how we contact others is an
exercise in Zen.
FEET (Grounding)
Feet keep you in touch with reality. When a couple is in touch, they have a greater chance of understanding the challenges,
responsibilities, and opportunities that face them. Being "in the clouds" is uplifting, but without the necessary grounding, it
leads to misunderstandings and confusion.
THE SENSES (Appreciation, Gratitude)
The senses — seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and feeling — are receptive mechanisms. They provide ways in which we
can appreciate and enjoy our partner. Loosely speaking, each sense is a different form of touch. In intimate relationships, our
senses delight in touching the one we love.
SOUL
Although the soul isn't a physical part of the human body (it's more of an aspect of consciousness), we can include it in this
analogy as representing a person's love. Everyone loves differently, and if we could say love was tangible, each would be as
unique as a fingerprint. The many different ways we express love — in gestures and voice — all spring from that same
"entity." While the blood represents the expressions of love in this analogy, the soul represents love itself. When we love
purely and freely, it is our soul that expresses itself and, as such, is a spiritual act. Like that, we bring a touch of Heaven to
Earth.
GENERAL OBSERVATIONS
When our relationships are healthy, we glow. We are happy. The flow of love makes us radiant and animates us. We dance.
If life has blessed us with a loving relationship, we are wise to nurture it and keep it healthy. Health is wealth, and being
healthy in this way means we are rich in spirit.
