Anne Hathaway is the legal wife of shakespeare according to different law documents that was found. Anne Hathaway and Shakespeare was believed that they have met in Shottery, England.When Shakespeare he only left his ‘second best bed’ in his will for Anne, some scholars said that it is because he doesn’t love her anymore, but interpreted in a whole different way by Carol Ann Duffy in the poem. This poem was written as a sonnet in the voice of Anne Hathaway which have been shown in every poem in the collection of poem ‘ The World’s Wife’.
There is one main symbol that was found in the poem is the bed. The bed is the symbol of Anne’s long love for her husband and at the same time shows devotion. There are three main themes that was found in the poem. There was love, writing and truth. This three themes have been shown in different forms. Love was shown in the poem through the eyes of Anne Hathaway talking about the sex in their second best bed, and also how Anne have describe her husband. Secondly, the theme was writing because this form of the poem is a sonnet which is one of Shakespeare’s popular format in his writing, Anne have also added literary devices in her poem “rhyme” “echo” “assonance” and others to show that Anne herself and Shakespeare both love writing, expressing their passion. Thirdly, the truth, Anne wants to show that the ‘second best bed’ is not what scholars have said that it is because shakespeare doesn’t love her anymore, instead it shows that it is their love and memories in the ‘second best bed’. This could be shown in Guardian’s valentines day interview that Carol Ann Duffy have participated, she said that she found it hard to agree that the ‘second best bed’ was because Shakespeare doesn’t love his wife anymore because through his plays and writing, we could see that his language is a generous witty playful and sexy passionate man, which doesn’t look like he is that mean.
The formation of this poem is really interesting as well, since the formation is a sonnet. A sonnet is used 154 times by Shakespeare in his writing. But there was only roughly a iambic pentameter being used in line 12, but other than that there was no iambic pentameter being used in the whole poem. Also, there was no rhyme at all in the whole sonnet, expect for the last two lines which is strong and clear. The two lines at the end is also a ‘Shakespeare’s style’, shakespeare always write his two last lines in strong and clear rhymes at the end. In BBC radio 4’s book club interview, Carol Ann Duffy have stated that her favorite form of poetry is also a sonnet, because it is a good form for something that you like to share (eg love) couplet at the end, a sonnet also depends on the rhyme, but in this poem she didn’t add it, only in the last two lines to deliberately learning it from shakespeare.
There are quite a few literary devices being used. There are metaphor, repetition and also rhyme. Metaphor was the major literary device that was used in this sonnet. In line 1-2, “spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas”, this metaphor shows that the bed is fill with all beautiful things, this gives the reader a concept of how much enormous and significant things have happened in the bed. Another metaphor that was found is in line 8-9 “Some nights, I dreamed he’d written me, the bed a page beneath his writer’s hands.”, this means that the bed is like a page where her husband wrote her, by using this metaphor, the audience would understand that how much Anne misses her husband and also the passion between them. The repetition in line 10, emphases on the world “by” which shows that Anne loves how Shakespeare is, “by touch, by scent, by taste” she loves Shakespeare was who he is.
In conclusion, Carol Ann Duffy have used different kinds of literary devices reference of Shakespeare and have also added her own character into the poem. Through this poem, there are a lot of symbols and different interpretation also being used.
There is one main symbol that was found in the poem is the bed. The bed is the symbol of Anne’s long love for her husband and at the same time shows devotion. There are three main themes that was found in the poem. There was love, writing and truth. This three themes have been shown in different forms. Love was shown in the poem through the eyes of Anne Hathaway talking about the sex in their second best bed, and also how Anne have describe her husband. Secondly, the theme was writing because this form of the poem is a sonnet which is one of Shakespeare’s popular format in his writing, Anne have also added literary devices in her poem “rhyme” “echo” “assonance” and others to show that Anne herself and Shakespeare both love writing, expressing their passion. Thirdly, the truth, Anne wants to show that the ‘second best bed’ is not what scholars have said that it is because shakespeare doesn’t love her anymore, instead it shows that it is their love and memories in the ‘second best bed’. This could be shown in Guardian’s valentines day interview that Carol Ann Duffy have participated, she said that she found it hard to agree that the ‘second best bed’ was because Shakespeare doesn’t love his wife anymore because through his plays and writing, we could see that his language is a generous witty playful and sexy passionate man, which doesn’t look like he is that mean.
The formation of this poem is really interesting as well, since the formation is a sonnet. A sonnet is used 154 times by Shakespeare in his writing. But there was only roughly a iambic pentameter being used in line 12, but other than that there was no iambic pentameter being used in the whole poem. Also, there was no rhyme at all in the whole sonnet, expect for the last two lines which is strong and clear. The two lines at the end is also a ‘Shakespeare’s style’, shakespeare always write his two last lines in strong and clear rhymes at the end. In BBC radio 4’s book club interview, Carol Ann Duffy have stated that her favorite form of poetry is also a sonnet, because it is a good form for something that you like to share (eg love) couplet at the end, a sonnet also depends on the rhyme, but in this poem she didn’t add it, only in the last two lines to deliberately learning it from shakespeare.
There are quite a few literary devices being used. There are metaphor, repetition and also rhyme. Metaphor was the major literary device that was used in this sonnet. In line 1-2, “spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas”, this metaphor shows that the bed is fill with all beautiful things, this gives the reader a concept of how much enormous and significant things have happened in the bed. Another metaphor that was found is in line 8-9 “Some nights, I dreamed he’d written me, the bed a page beneath his writer’s hands.”, this means that the bed is like a page where her husband wrote her, by using this metaphor, the audience would understand that how much Anne misses her husband and also the passion between them. The repetition in line 10, emphases on the world “by” which shows that Anne loves how Shakespeare is, “by touch, by scent, by taste” she loves Shakespeare was who he is.
In conclusion, Carol Ann Duffy have used different kinds of literary devices reference of Shakespeare and have also added her own character into the poem. Through this poem, there are a lot of symbols and different interpretation also being used.