Miscellaneous
What is the poem about?
Global issue related (women sheltering daughters )
Themes (male oppression, female power, female companionship)
The impact of using verse with rhymes and alliteration
Makes the poem feel like a song
The feeling of the stanza depends on what sound it is alliterating with (b, plosive vowel)
When it breaks out of rhyme or alliteration, emphasis is placed there
An instance of personification and its significance
- Chattering & shivering stars (stanza 6)
- set nervous atmosphere, something is about to happen
- fierce eyes of the black queen (stanza 4)
- when it comes to a daughter, mothers will do whatever it takes to protect
- adds urgency, she sees girl treated badly even now, she must not be lazy
One instance of birds in symbolism and what it symbolizes
Peacock -> the queen's promise to protect her daughter, her anger at what men would do to her daughter
Chittering maid -> The maid's innocence and how she is too light-hearted/young to understand what men do
The reason Queen Herod likely ordered the death of all men
- Her daughter will be vulnerable to harm from all men, pedophiles exist
- Overreacting, the queens tell her about a possible boyfriend, she says no man will harm her
The impact of Duffy's word choice in the lines with descriptions of men
It characterizes men to be sloppy, gross, loud, brazen, flashy
An instance of alliteration and its significance
- alliteration of "B" in stanza 6, means that the star (and boy) is very piercing
Orion has seen it all before -> generational issues
Orion chases women -> women have been chased by men forever, the fact that Orion was put in the stars as punishment for chasing Artemis shows that it is not common that women fight back.
Other global issues that can be identified in the poem
Motherhood?
Male oppression?
Women protecting each other from men?
The literary device and impact it has that is used in stanza 1 to describe the Queens
Alliteration, (c sound), " piercing the poem", same phonetic start as queens, matches them. Emphasizes the queens.
An instance of enumeration and its significance
Stanza 1 -> shows the luxury & civility of the palace, contrasts the barbaric massacre
How does the symbol of Cassiopeia impact the poem? Greek mythology?
Cassiopeia was a woman -> it is ironic that here it symbolizes a man appearing, used in context with the boyfriend star
studded, diamond -> flashy, like men are characterized in the poem
The significance of the subversion of the original story of the Massacre of the Innocents
Female companionship -> queens come to her after giving kind gifts to her daughter (who is precious to her as shown by precious metal comparisons), warn her
To show that all men are threats to women, regardless of age -> kills all men
What is the significance of the three final tercets?
- One for each queen
- grace is reflected in the first(mentions status, makes excuses, keeps peace), strength in the second (women using violence and doing things so that their daughters don't have to suffer), happiness in the last ( have to find a way to go on after living in male violence filled world )
How does the symbol of Sirius impact the poem?
Sirius means glowing in Greek -> also shares in the characterization of men as flashy
At his heels -> informational, also could be that all who follow and try to persecute the men oppressing women will be viewed as just annoying and not as important
The number of lines in the poem
What is 77?
Who were the Pleiades
(Extra Credit: give the pronunciation for this in American English, British English, and Greek)
7 sisters
Daughters of Atlas and Pleione (give credit for Aethra)
Companions of Artemis
One of them (Maia, oldest) is mother of Hermes