Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry combines myths, fairy tales, historic stories, Bible, legends, horrors - the wide range of cultural and family heritage, mythological tradition and autobiographical transaction. She celebrates them all, discovering the truth which hasn’t been completely unveiled. Her poems demonstrate a female mindset, in a way that personally connects her with myths, history, fairy tales. The World’s Wife collection of poems starts with “Little Red Cap” which is about a young-girl-turning-poet and ends with “Demeter”, about a woman becoming a mother and, to a certain extent, represents Duffy’s own life. Her poems are a perfect proof of rhyme as poignant, suggestive, yielding and seductive.
The title of the collection is an unspoken …show more content…
Unlike the famous Grimm fairy tale, Little Red Cap falls in love with the Wolf (being an older male poet that she learns from), and, contrary to the authentic story, she “consumes” the Wolf. Duffy communicates the idea of dominant male tradition in poetry, combining the fairy tale and the feminist ideas, like insufficient recognition of female poets - "howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out" (Duffy). Emerging out of her innocence, Little Red Cap sleeps with the Wolf, but as soon as she has the opportunity, she grabs the axe and cuts him “scrotum to throat”, and finds her grandmother’s bones inside, thus indicating that the skeleton of language is female, on deeper layers of our sub conscience than the mother …show more content…
It celebrates the rebirth and the relationship between mother and daughter in their ancient form as the two of the three elements of the Great Goddess – mother, daughter, wise woman. It speaks of love, spring and the future to be. It is essentially lyrical, free from satire and criticism of men, thus implying freedom and independence for women. In the opening of the collection, Little Red Cap presents the main themes and demonstrates Little Red Cap's metamorphosis from a young innocent girl, thrown into adolescence, venturing into the unknown, losing her purity. Contrary to the Little Red Cap, Demeter is a sturdy woman with extensive experience; she is no longer defined by the men, but her daughter – “in bare feet, bringing all spring's flowers to her mother's house / I swear” (Duffy). She is independent, powerful, free from being subordinate to the men. The key difference between Little Red Cap and Demeter marks the long journey of women ending in Demeter's maternal love, marking her liberation from the men
The title of the collection is an unspoken …show more content…
Unlike the famous Grimm fairy tale, Little Red Cap falls in love with the Wolf (being an older male poet that she learns from), and, contrary to the authentic story, she “consumes” the Wolf. Duffy communicates the idea of dominant male tradition in poetry, combining the fairy tale and the feminist ideas, like insufficient recognition of female poets - "howls the same old song at the moon, year in, year out" (Duffy). Emerging out of her innocence, Little Red Cap sleeps with the Wolf, but as soon as she has the opportunity, she grabs the axe and cuts him “scrotum to throat”, and finds her grandmother’s bones inside, thus indicating that the skeleton of language is female, on deeper layers of our sub conscience than the mother …show more content…
It celebrates the rebirth and the relationship between mother and daughter in their ancient form as the two of the three elements of the Great Goddess – mother, daughter, wise woman. It speaks of love, spring and the future to be. It is essentially lyrical, free from satire and criticism of men, thus implying freedom and independence for women. In the opening of the collection, Little Red Cap presents the main themes and demonstrates Little Red Cap's metamorphosis from a young innocent girl, thrown into adolescence, venturing into the unknown, losing her purity. Contrary to the Little Red Cap, Demeter is a sturdy woman with extensive experience; she is no longer defined by the men, but her daughter – “in bare feet, bringing all spring's flowers to her mother's house / I swear” (Duffy). She is independent, powerful, free from being subordinate to the men. The key difference between Little Red Cap and Demeter marks the long journey of women ending in Demeter's maternal love, marking her liberation from the men