‘Unloving’ Georgia and Flo

AO1 In this poem, Duffy uses images of nature to symbolise that her relationship has or is changing in the same way that nature is ever-changing In ‘Unloving’, Duffy seems to have learnt from her previous relationship experiences, which are explored in the other poems – in this poem there are frequent references to past aspects and symbols that come from the rest of the ‘Rapture’ collection It is interesting to see that in ‘Unloving’ she corrupts positive and loving images from the previous poems so to make them darker and more threatening – things she used to love and cherish as symbols of her relationship are now filled with negative connotations

AO2 Quote 1: ‘…turn to ice’ This suggests that the lover/relationship has altered in the same way that water does when its goes from a liquid to solid state. The word ice carries connotations of love turning cold/not sustaining its life This contrasts with Duffy’s earlier poem ‘Absence’ where she describes ‘the sun’s soft bite on my face is your mouth’. In ‘Absence’, the lover seems warm and sustaining the life of the relationship By contrasting these two images, we can see a concept that coincides with the idea of seasons changing – the relationship has gone from being something warm and loving, to something cold and inhospitable

AO2 Quote 2: ‘Learn from the river, flowing always somewhere else’ In nature, rivers are in a state of constant motion away from their original source – this is used to describe the transformations in relationships It may be seen that Duffy is stating that their relationship is unnatural to an extent – they are having to learn from natural elements

AO2 There seems to be a semantic field of death throughout the poem to symbolise that Duffy’s relationship is coming to an end or has already ended Images of a noose, a crow, a dead heron, flies and a grave all add to the saddened, sinister tone of the poem

AO2 ‘… summer’s grave where nothing grows’ This illustrates an image of death whilst also suggesting that even after death, life doesn’t return – this indicates that love will not regrow like after a ‘Row’; their relationship is lost completely The word ‘summer’ is something we associate with warmth, light and joy – for Duffy to refer to summer as being dead conveys her lost happiness This links to the previous quote about the seasons changing and nature’s constant cycle – just as a garden dies when summer ends, so does their relationship

AO2 The use of anaphora (in this poem it is the word ‘learn’) encourages the need for stoicism. Former symbols reappear, but the link between landscape and love is lost. The speaker seems to learn from nature’s elements: the winter trees, the stone, the river, a “dumbstruck garden” There are conflicting ways of receiving the poem: firstly, you could interpret it as Duffy telling herself to learn from the relationship; another interpretation is that she is telling her lover to learn from it Interestingly, this poem is stripped of its fairy-tale quality (“not a Beast’s rose” being a reference to Beauty and the Beast). This contrasts the other poems in the collection which frequently refer to fairy-tale concepts.

‘unloving all the places where you were’ AO2 The last line of the poem is extremely final: ‘unloving all the places where you were’ This suggests that Duffy has realised that she has to begin the long process of ‘unloving’ the things and places that she associates with her loved one We know that this is a significant task because throughout the ‘Rapture’ collection she refers to a vast amount to discuss and symbolise her lover – this is most clearly seen in ‘Absence’

AO4 The use religious references is also seen in this poem. Reference to ‘a church’ and ‘daily bread’ can be associated with Duffy’s Catholic upbringing. In this poem, she suggests that even prayers vanish, though rain and clouds, which connote a mystical embrace and unity, remain. The religious term ‘daily bread’ is symbolic of Christ’s flesh, perhaps conveying how important her lover is to her in a physical way as well as a spiritual way

AO4 ‘All poetry is prayer’ - Duffy Duffy often turns to religious language to supply the words and significance she seeks in the relationship. Duffy states that: ‘Poetry and prayer are very similar… I write quite a lot of sonnets and I think of them almost as prayers: short and memorable, something you can recite’

Link to ‘Hour’: They didn’t use to let time effect them but now they do; time has become more powerful than their love Learn from the winter trees, the way they kiss and throw away their leaves, then hold their stricken faces in their hands and turn to ice; or from the clocks, looking away, unloving light, the short days running out of things to say; a church a ghost ship on a sea of dusk Learn from a stone, its heart-shape meaningless, perfect with relentless cold; of from the bigger moon, implacably dissolving in the sky, or from the stars, lifeless as Latin verbs. Learn from the river, flowing always somewhere else, even its name, change, change; learn from a rope hung from a branch like a noose, a crow cursing, a dead heron mourned by a congregation of flies. Learn from the dumbstruck garden, summer’s grave, where nothing grows, not a Beast’s rose; from the torn veil of a web; from our daily bread: perpetual rain, nothing like tears, unloving clouds; language unloving love; even this stale air unloving all the places where you were. Link to ‘Row’: our hearts were jagged stones in our fists Link to Name: Pre-occupational language; use of literary terminology Link to ‘River’: the fact that a river leads to something more significant and is ever moving. Before the heron was alive, bowing its head, but now it is dead. Star imagery is comparable to ‘sieve the stars’ Link to Swing: the ambiguous, disconcerting opening line that initially illustrates a noose. Again Duffy corrupts the image of a wedding by describing the veil as torn Link to ‘Rain’: rain has now become an image of sadness, associated with tears, whereas in the poem ‘Rain’ it symbolised relief and rejuvenation

Structure and Form The structure of this poem is stilted and broken – this symbolises that Duffy feels somewhat broken by her loss of love It is interesting to note that each stanza fits perfectly to the one before, like a jigsaw puzzle – this may represent their relationship; something that was so perfect (they fitted together perfectly) has now been broken The use of enjambment creates a stilted tone – again symbolic of something broken but could also be interpreted as Duffy finding it difficult to to get the words out; she is choking back her sadness

Brief AO3 “And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” Duffy and Fitzgerald both use nature imagery to express the way that lovers’ relationships change Fitzgerald uses the concept of changing seasons to indicate that the lives of the characters in ‘Gatsby’ will be compelled to change