1. Carol Ann Duffy (CFE) Advanced Higher English ©Dean Mohammad 2016
Mrs Lazarus
Carol Ann Duffy
(CFE) Advanced Higher English
©Dean Mohammad 2016

2. The World’s Wife (1999)
All the poems in the collection are dramatic monologues. Duffy gives voice to female characters from history, myth and fairy-tale who have either been marginalised or completely omitted from the originals.
In doing so, Duffy’s ‘revisionist feminism’ allows her to explore issues and concepts from the perspective of the marginalised female voice.
Through the reimagining of familiar tales, Duffy calls into question the stereotypes and assumptions these narratives make regarding gender, power and expose and take aim at aspects of misogyny.
Duffy’s poems in this collection are using the dramatic monologue form to facilitate her feminist agenda.

3. The Lazarus tale from the Bible
Most prominent version can be found in John Chapter 11.
Jesus performs the miracle of resurrection by returning Lazarus to life.
There a number of ‘gaps and silences’ in the biblical account which Duffy takes aim at:
If Lazarus had a wife, would her opinion be of this miracle?
What is the condition of Lazarus once revived?
What are Jesus’s motivations for performing this miracle?
If Lazarus was a good man, he surely would have gone to heaven. Why would Jesus deny him this?

4. First Reading: Critical Literacy Questions
What is happening in the poem (narrative)?
Who is speaking?
What insights do we gain into their emotional/psychological state?
Does this change as the poem progresses?
Are there any images you find particularly powerful?
What are the similarities and differences between this poem and the original Lazarus tale?
What is Duffy’s purpose/agenda in revising the tale (!think feminism!)?

5. First Analysis: Annotation
On your rough copy of the poem:
Annotate the poem, underlining and labelling the poetic techniques.
Consider:
Simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, sibilance, verb choices, repetition (of sounds and images), tone……….

6. Form and Structure Form: Dramatic monologue, but…..
The poem is written in some ways as an Elegy: a mournful, melancholy, or plaintive poem, esp. a funeral song or a lament for the dead. (We could say it has elegiac qualities)
In this poem, what is being lamented?
Structure:
8 stanzas, each consists of five lines (cinquains).
No regular rhyme scheme
No regular metrical pattern (different number of syllables across the lines)
Regular stanza form allows for the steady progression of the poem’s narrative (like the progression of her grieving process).
However, the irregular rhyme and metre perhaps reflect the chaotic emotional journey of the speaker.

7. Stations of the Cross

8. Repetition of powerful and emotive verbs
Repetition of powerful and emotive verbs. Each has animalistic connotations. Each is onomatopoeic. Her grief is so profound she has become dehumanised. Her behaviour is frenzied and crazed. Conveys the intense psychological impact and emotional devastation of the loss of her husband.
Short simple sentence. Past Perfect Tense. Conveys that her grieving was complete. The rest of the opening stanzas describe the process of dealing with grief retrospectively.
Frist line is mostly stressed monosyllabic words. Emphasises her anger and frustration.
I had grieved. I had wept for a night and a day over my loss, ripped the cloth I was married in from my breasts, howled, shrieked, clawed at the burial stones until my hands bled, retched his name over and over again, dead, dead.
This verb has connotations of painful, violent sickness. Onomatopoeic- creates the sounds of her vomiting. Grief took a physical toll on her body as well as a emotional/psychological one.
Visual image shows the physical impact of her grief. Emphasises the intensity of her loss as the ‘clawing’ must be a repeated action in order to make her hands bleed. Further conveyed by the use of ‘over and over again’.
Repetition suggests the finality of his death. Their life together has come to and end. Ironic as in this poem, death is only the beginning for the story of Lazarus.
Overall the opening stanza describes Mrs L’s initial reaction to her loss; an intensely physical and emotional response. Duffy’s skilful use of language effectively conveys the scale, power and depth of Mrs L’s grief; positioning her as a sympathetic figure to the reader.

9. Placement of the word at the start of the line gives it metrical stress. Emphasises her loneliness and isolation after his death.
Verb connotes a careless and rushed action. Contrasts with our expectations that she would be careful and precious over his possessions. This perhaps suggests her anger and frustration at being left alone.
‘Cot’=bed
Conveys the absence of her husband. She sleeps alone in a single bed as opposed to in their marital bed.
Alliteration and Consonance of guttural ‘g’ and clipped ‘t’ sounds create a harsh tone. Perhaps suggests her ongoing frustration.
Gone home. Gutted the place. Slept in a single cot, widow, one empty glove, white femur in the dust, half. Stuffed dark suits into black bags, shuffled in a dead man's shoes, noosed the double knot of a tie around my bare neck,
Stressed monosyllabic word. Suggests she views herself and her life as incomplete without him. Emphasised by the use of the comma to separate the word. His death has impacted on her sense of self. She is Widow, no longer Wife.
An act of imitation. Wearing his shoes is perhaps an effort to recreate him and deal with her isolation. A symbolic resurrection.
Ironic, given the latter events of the poem.
‘femur’= thigh bone
Image is symbolic of death.
She is perhaps reminded of his body decomposing in the ground. Ironic given the latter events of the poem.
Verb ‘noosed’ connotes death by hanging. His absence is now connected with an image of her own death. Perhaps suggests that she contemplated suicide. Adjective ‘bare’ connotes something exposed. Perhaps suggests her psychological/emotional vulnerability.
Overall, this stanza moves on from the initial response to his death to the impact it has on her identity; revealing void that has been left emotionally and well as in her own sense of self, ending in the suggestion of her possible suicide.

10. Changing self-image. Adjective ‘gaunt’ suggests she sees herself as older, perhaps frail. ‘nun’ has no sexual relations. The poem is now exploring the sexual loss of his death.
Reference to the Stations of the Cross (depiction of the death and resurrection of Jesus). Biblical language connects the poem with the original Lazarus story. Again Ironic. Mrs L’s stations are perhaps the steps she goes through to overcome her grief (so this may be a double reference- also to the psychologic concept of The Stages of Grief).
gaunt nun in the mirror, touching herself. I learnt the Stations of Bereavement, the icon of my face in each bleak frame; but all those months he was going away from me, dwindling to the shrunk size of a snapshot, going,
Self-image. Trying to determine what is her new identity after his death.
Verb connotes fading away. Emphasised by the use of the past continuous tense. Suggests her memory and indeed the pain of her grief are beginning to diminish and ease.
Metaphor. Her once immense emotional turmoil has been reduced down to a small picture. Sibilance used to reflect the shrinking down and receding of her pain.
Symbolic of her coming to terms with and accepting her loss.
Enjambment to end the stanza. Again, compounds the notion of her pain drifting away into memory
Overall, this stanza continues to explore the impact of her loss on Mrs L’s identity (through the comparison to the nun). The stanza also introduces her coming to terms with the pain of her grief as her anguish and anger begin to decrease and subside.

11. Perhaps a metaphor for memory
Perhaps a metaphor for memory. Thinking about him no longer has the power to conjure up her thoughts of their life together. Again, showing her continuing acceptance of and recovery from her loss.
going. Till his name was no longer a certain spell for his face. The last hair on his head floated out from a book. His scent went from the house. The will was read. See, he was vanishing to the small zero held by the gold of my ring.
Sensory imagery and internal rhyme. The familiar sights and smells that reminded her of his absence are now beginning to leave the home.
Metaphor for his disappearing. Echoes the snapshot image from the previous stanza. He was fading into a distant memory as was the pain of her loss. The wedding ring is one of the only remaining reminders of her previous life. Zero connotes nothingness.
Sibilance used throughout this stanza. Softens the tone of the poem (compared to the harsh sounds from before). Again, conveys her acceptance.
This stanza continues the motif of the fading of her grief. Through the use of imagery and sound devices, Duffy conveys the gradual process of overcoming and acceptance Mrs L goes through.

12. Simple sentence to convey the completion of her grieving process
Simple sentence to convey the completion of her grieving process. She is now able to move on.
Something of the past. But also, a story told over again. This poem retells the biblical legend and gives voice to a character excluded from the original.
Something spoken. The physical reminders have now all disappeared.
Verb choice. Suggests that time has passed and that the feeling of a man is now unfamiliar.
Then he was gone. Then he was legend, language; my arm on the arm of the schoolteacher-the shock of a man's strength under the sleeve of his coat- along the hedgerows. But I was faithful for as long as it took. Until he was memory.
She did not have sexual relations until she concluded grieving. Faithful to the memory of their marriage. Maintains the reader’s sympathy for Mrs L.
Ironic. Jesus was the teacher of the Lazarus story.

13. Image of rebirth. Hers is a positive rebirth (ironic) compared to the horrific resurrection of her husband that will soon occur.
‘fields’ connotes nature, things growing anew.
Metaphor ‘shawl of fine air’- the breeze over her body. Pleasant tone, reflecting her recovery.
So I could stand that evening in the field in a shawl of fine air, healed, able to watch the edge of the moon occur to the sky and a hare thump from a hedge; then notice the village men running towards me, shouting,
Verb choice shatters the pleasant tone. Enjambment across stanzas builds tension and anticipation for the reader.

14. Adjectives ‘shrill’ and ‘sly’ to describe the townsfolk’s facial features. Suggests judgement. Is she being judged for moving on after her husbands death? Duffy is perhaps exploring the difficulties faced for women who have suffered loss when it comes to moving on.
behind them the women and children, barking dogs, and I knew. I knew by the sly light on the blacksmith's face, the shrill eyes of the barmaid, the sudden hands bearing me into the hot tang of the crowd parting before me.
The crowd push her forward to witness the horror. Continues to build tension.
Perhaps an ironic reference to another biblical miracle: the parting of the Red Seas by Moses. Duffy is perhaps changeling how positive we should be about these ‘miracles’.

15. Sensory description is used throughout the stanza to convey the terrifying sight of the undead Lazarus. ‘rotting’, ‘moist’ and ‘dishevelled’ suggest a zombie-like figure, with raw wounds and decomposing flesh , still disintegrating from his time in the ground. This contrasts sharply with the image of Lazarus in the biblical story. Duffy is perhaps challenging our received ideas about this ‘miracle' by imagining the impact of his resurrection on his wife.
Short sentence. Impactful. Conveys his shock and horror at his state.
He lived. I saw the horror on his face. I heard his mother's crazy song. I breathed his stench; my bridegroom in his rotting shroud, moist and dishevelled from the grave's slack chew, croaking his cuckold name, disinherited, out of his time.
She is sympathetic towards him.
Cuckold = cheated on
The poem raises a terrifying question as to whether Mrs L is still obliged to remain with her husband. It also poses an ethical dilemma for all widowed woman as to how far their fidelity should go.
Personification of the grave conveys the decomposition of her husband’s body. This is a revolting, visceral image, creating a grotesque mood at the end of the poem. Shows the horrific reality that Mrs L is confronted with.
This final description of Lazarus creates a sense of hopelessness at the end of the poem. He as returned to this world, but is no longer part of it, as his wife has moved on. Duffy is clearly taking aim at the biblical version of the story through this alternative telling and the horror of L’s return.

16. Key Concerns of this Poem
Thematic: Grief Loss Change Religion
Formal:
Dramatic Monologue
(voice or persona)