What do you think?
Rate this book
The World's Wife
Be terrified.
It's you I love,
perfect man,
Greek God, my own;
but I know you'll go,
betray me, stray
from home.
So better by far for
me if you were stone.
—from "Medusa"
Stunningly original and haunting, the voices of Mrs. Midas, Queen Kong, and Frau Freud, to say nothing of the Devil's Wife herself, startle us with their wit, imagination, and incisiveness in this collection of poems written from the perspectives of the wives, sisters, or girlfriends of famous—and infamous—male personages. Carol Ann Duffy is a master at drawing on myth and history, then subverting them in a vivid and surprising way to create poems that have the pull of the past and the crack of the contemporary.
It's you I love,
perfect man,
Greek God, my own;
but I know you'll go,
betray me, stray
from home.
So better by far for
me if you were stone.
—from "Medusa"
Stunningly original and haunting, the voices of Mrs. Midas, Queen Kong, and Frau Freud, to say nothing of the Devil's Wife herself, startle us with their wit, imagination, and incisiveness in this collection of poems written from the perspectives of the wives, sisters, or girlfriends of famous—and infamous—male personages. Carol Ann Duffy is a master at drawing on myth and history, then subverting them in a vivid and surprising way to create poems that have the pull of the past and the crack of the contemporary.
76 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1999
272 people are currently reading
9002 people want to read
About the author
Carol Ann Duffy
174 books741 followersDame Carol Ann Duffy, DBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate in May 2009.
She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold this position.
Her collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award; Selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Mean Time (1993), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Rapture (2005), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize.
Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular in schools.
She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold this position.
Her collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award; Selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Mean Time (1993), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Rapture (2005), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize.
Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular in schools.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,159 reviews
June 4, 2020
As a veteran attendee of poetry readings—and a baby boomer male, and a cynic to boot—I admit that if sat down in a coffee-house, and overheard phrases like “feminist dialogue” “radical re-imagining,” and “mythic history,” I might begin to look round apprehensively, plotting the best route for an exit.
In the case of Carol Ann Duffy’s The World’s Wife, however, the urge to flee would be premature. All the above phrases could properly be used to describe this volume of verse, but so could the phrases “playful,” “surprisingly rhymed,” “bawdy,” “clever,” and “funny.” And so could a lot of other interesting phrases, but there’s enough right there to keep me seated in the coffee house. Isn’t that enough to keep you sitting in the coffee house too?
The World’s Wife (2000) is a collection of dramatic monologue featuring either the wives of famous mythic and historical heroes or female versions of the heroes themselves: Queen Herod, Mrs. Faust, The Kray Sisters, Elvis’ Twin Sister, etc. You get the idea. And the results are often dark, hilarious, inventive, disturbing, and memorable.
Here are three poems taken from the book. They are not representative, and not necessarily the best. Many of Duffy’s monologues extend to three or four pages (without being boring, I hasten to add). I, however, decided to pick three of the poems that are shorter.
MRS. SISYPHUS
That's him pushing the stone up the hill, the jerk.
I call it a stone – it's nearer the size of a kirk.
When he first started out, it just used to irk,
but now it incenses me, and him, the absolute berk.
I could do something vicious to him with a dirk.
Think of the perks he says.
What use is a perk, I shriek.
when you haven't the time to pop open a cork
or go for so much as a walk in the park?
He's a dork.
Folk flock from miles around just to gawk.
They think it's a quirk,
a bit of a lark.
A load of bollocks nearer the mark
He might as well bark
at the moon
that feckin’ stone’s no sooner up
than it's rolling back
all the way down.
And what does he say?
Musn’t shirk—keen as a hawk
lean as a shark
Musn’t shirk!
But I lie alone in the dark,
feeling like Noah’s wife did
when he hammered away at the Ark;
like Frau Johann Sebastian Bach
Her voice reduced to a squawk,
my smile to a twisted smirk;
while, up on the deepening murk of the hill
he is giving one hundred per cent and more to his work.
FRAU FREUD
Ladies, for argument’s sake, let us say
that I’ve seen my fair share of ding-a-ling, member and jock,
of todger and nudger and percy and cock, of tackle,
of three-for-a-bob, of willy and winky; in fact,
you could say, I’m as au fait with Hunt-the-Salami
as Ms. M. Lewinsky - equally sick up to here
with the beef bayonet, the pork sword, the saveloy,
love-muscle, night-crawler, dong, the dick, prick,
dipstick and wick, the rammer, the slammer, the rupert,
the shlong. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve no axe to grind
with the snake in the trousers, the wife’s best friend,
the weapon, the python - I suppose what I mean is,
ladies, dear ladies, the average penis - not pretty…
the squint of its envious solitary eye … one’s feeling of
pity …
MEDUSA
A suspicion, a doubt, a jealousy
grew in my mind,
which turned the hairs on my head to filthy snakes,
as though my thoughts
hissed and spat on my scalp.
My bride’s breath soured, stank
in the grey bags of my lungs.
I’m foul mouthed now, foul tongued,
yellow fanged.
There are bullet tears in my eyes.
Are you terrified?
Be terrified.
It’s you I love,
perfect man, Greek God, my own;
but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray
from home.
So better by far for me if you were stone.
I glanced at a buzzing bee,
a dull grey pebble fell
to the ground.
I glanced at a singing bird,
a handful of dusty gravel
spattered down.
I looked at a ginger cat,
a housebrick
shattered a bowl of milk.
I looked at a snuffling pig,
a boulder rolled
in a heap of shit.
I stared in the mirror.
Love gone bad
showed me a Gorgon.
I stared at a dragon.
Fire spewed
from the mouth of a mountain.
And here you come
with a shield for a heart
and a sword for a tongue
and your girls, your girls.
Wasn’t I beautiful?
Wasn’t I fragrant and young?
Look at me now.
March 23, 2009
This was the topic of my senior thesis (specifically the poem 'Medusa'), and also my most recent attempt at finding something revolutionary, interesting, or worthwhile in modern poetry. The dadaists and beat poets were intent on wresting poetry from the jaws of tradition. By popularizing poetry, they turned poetry into another pointless, populist act.
By enshrining the 'personal experience' as the sole qualifier of poetic worth, they ensured that every hack poet will feel justified in sharing their inane thoughts, and that every good poet will be lost in a sea of mediocrity. Personal experiences are often banal and painfully shortsighted. Making sacred something which everyone has is the same as making nothing sacred.
While their egalitarianism might be audacious, this does not make it useful. Remove our ability to critique poetry, and you no longer have any community of poetry. The poem has finally been relegated to the most base populist urge: escapism. When 'emotional reaction' is all that matters, Twilight and Miley become our 'high art'. Newsstand celeb rags become our critics.
When you try to eliminate tradition, you eliminate the ability to create meaning, since meaning can only be expressed by confirming or denying the experiences and notions of tradition. Keeping tradition as a basis does not mean agreeing with it. Indeed, by rejecting it, the dadaists also rejected the tradition of poetry as fundamentally subversive. Without a tradition, what is there to subvert?
I chose Duffy because I thought I saw something promising in her. Instead of shock tactics and 'personal experiences', she seemed to create a more complex and interesting view. It seemed there might be something more there than you might get from hearing a gas station attendant complain about their relationship woes for the duration of a cigarette break.
When I finally sat down and began to follow the traces and threads of Duffy's thought, it became less promising. An analysis of word use, construction, and scansion proved rather fruitless; she was keeping no extra meaning there. Her words are simple, straightforward, and though they point to something more than their pure meaning on the page, there are no worlds inhabiting the spaces between oxymorons, as in Donne and Plath.
Duffy does not take on and subvert the myths she uses, indeed she often presents the characters as divorced from their historical or mythological contexts. 'Medusa' ignores almost all of the original tale, acting less as an observation of the life of the monster than a rather simple metaphor for the belabored feminist standby of 'the gaze'.
She even misapplies the mythological elements she does use, indicating that she has no interest in trying to realistically portray these 'unwritten' women's stories. There is no apparent pattern or further meaning to her misapplication, so it is not a subversion of the original tale.
A comparison of this poem to previous Medusa-themed feminist poems (including Plath's) also failed to show promise. Duffy was not using tradition as a shorthand to create intertextuality. The similarities were haphazard and vague.
A historical view proved no more profitable, since Duffy's many wives do not represent the various and changing views of the womanhood of the past. She does not explore the time before there was a possibility of 'homosexual identity', or the understanding of the feminine in all these far-flung ages.
Indeed, her women are all remarkably modern, which would be forgiven under the auspices of the sacred 'personal experience', but it seems a crime to look at yourself, at femininity, at history, and not question whether your own assumptions are just the symptoms of your own zeitgeist.
Perhaps Duffy recognizes this, for in 'Medusa' at least, she presents a woman whose view of the world is as flawed as the metaphor would indicate. It is her obsession with her own victimization that turns men to stone, not their faults or flaws. Though she blames them, we see the chinks and cracks in her all-encompassing victimhood.
I hope that Duffy sees the cracks, as well. If she does, then her poems at least represent an informed and skeptical view of the 'subjugated woman', recognizing how this destruction becomes internalized.
If she does not recognize this, then the poem is a purely personal experience, representing not only Duffy's understanding of gender, but where that understanding becomes flawed and unreliable: the point when an unreliable narrator becomes an unreliable author.
Without clever and biting asides to clue us in, we're left wondering whether Duffy is a self-victimizer, or whether she is laughing at the notion. There is a sense that she recognizes this, but it never seemed fully-formed enough to break the bonds entirely.
Most of the poems are more-or-less unremarkable, leaving many readers with the sense that Duffy is being candid and straight-forward. Her simplistic language does not invite a deeper reading, though her work profits from it.
By failing to be clear, she leaves herself open to interpretation, even interpretations opposite to what she often seems to indicate. Many read 'Medusa' as a woman vindicated in her hatred, though perhaps this only comes from their own need for such vindication against the world.
The myth of feminism in Duffy never reaches the conscientious wit of Angela Carter, whose acumen is a rare and valuable gift to humanity. By leaving her poems open to interpretation, Duffy loses much of the punch she could have had by presenting her subversion more strongly. Her poems are likely to amuse the cynic as well as provide emotional support to the self-victimizer.
Then again, it's hard to blame Duffy for this entirely, as the short-sighted will always try to take away something that supports what they have already decided to be true.
By enshrining the 'personal experience' as the sole qualifier of poetic worth, they ensured that every hack poet will feel justified in sharing their inane thoughts, and that every good poet will be lost in a sea of mediocrity. Personal experiences are often banal and painfully shortsighted. Making sacred something which everyone has is the same as making nothing sacred.
While their egalitarianism might be audacious, this does not make it useful. Remove our ability to critique poetry, and you no longer have any community of poetry. The poem has finally been relegated to the most base populist urge: escapism. When 'emotional reaction' is all that matters, Twilight and Miley become our 'high art'. Newsstand celeb rags become our critics.
When you try to eliminate tradition, you eliminate the ability to create meaning, since meaning can only be expressed by confirming or denying the experiences and notions of tradition. Keeping tradition as a basis does not mean agreeing with it. Indeed, by rejecting it, the dadaists also rejected the tradition of poetry as fundamentally subversive. Without a tradition, what is there to subvert?
I chose Duffy because I thought I saw something promising in her. Instead of shock tactics and 'personal experiences', she seemed to create a more complex and interesting view. It seemed there might be something more there than you might get from hearing a gas station attendant complain about their relationship woes for the duration of a cigarette break.
When I finally sat down and began to follow the traces and threads of Duffy's thought, it became less promising. An analysis of word use, construction, and scansion proved rather fruitless; she was keeping no extra meaning there. Her words are simple, straightforward, and though they point to something more than their pure meaning on the page, there are no worlds inhabiting the spaces between oxymorons, as in Donne and Plath.
Duffy does not take on and subvert the myths she uses, indeed she often presents the characters as divorced from their historical or mythological contexts. 'Medusa' ignores almost all of the original tale, acting less as an observation of the life of the monster than a rather simple metaphor for the belabored feminist standby of 'the gaze'.
She even misapplies the mythological elements she does use, indicating that she has no interest in trying to realistically portray these 'unwritten' women's stories. There is no apparent pattern or further meaning to her misapplication, so it is not a subversion of the original tale.
A comparison of this poem to previous Medusa-themed feminist poems (including Plath's) also failed to show promise. Duffy was not using tradition as a shorthand to create intertextuality. The similarities were haphazard and vague.
A historical view proved no more profitable, since Duffy's many wives do not represent the various and changing views of the womanhood of the past. She does not explore the time before there was a possibility of 'homosexual identity', or the understanding of the feminine in all these far-flung ages.
Indeed, her women are all remarkably modern, which would be forgiven under the auspices of the sacred 'personal experience', but it seems a crime to look at yourself, at femininity, at history, and not question whether your own assumptions are just the symptoms of your own zeitgeist.
Perhaps Duffy recognizes this, for in 'Medusa' at least, she presents a woman whose view of the world is as flawed as the metaphor would indicate. It is her obsession with her own victimization that turns men to stone, not their faults or flaws. Though she blames them, we see the chinks and cracks in her all-encompassing victimhood.
I hope that Duffy sees the cracks, as well. If she does, then her poems at least represent an informed and skeptical view of the 'subjugated woman', recognizing how this destruction becomes internalized.
If she does not recognize this, then the poem is a purely personal experience, representing not only Duffy's understanding of gender, but where that understanding becomes flawed and unreliable: the point when an unreliable narrator becomes an unreliable author.
Without clever and biting asides to clue us in, we're left wondering whether Duffy is a self-victimizer, or whether she is laughing at the notion. There is a sense that she recognizes this, but it never seemed fully-formed enough to break the bonds entirely.
Most of the poems are more-or-less unremarkable, leaving many readers with the sense that Duffy is being candid and straight-forward. Her simplistic language does not invite a deeper reading, though her work profits from it.
By failing to be clear, she leaves herself open to interpretation, even interpretations opposite to what she often seems to indicate. Many read 'Medusa' as a woman vindicated in her hatred, though perhaps this only comes from their own need for such vindication against the world.
The myth of feminism in Duffy never reaches the conscientious wit of Angela Carter, whose acumen is a rare and valuable gift to humanity. By leaving her poems open to interpretation, Duffy loses much of the punch she could have had by presenting her subversion more strongly. Her poems are likely to amuse the cynic as well as provide emotional support to the self-victimizer.
Then again, it's hard to blame Duffy for this entirely, as the short-sighted will always try to take away something that supports what they have already decided to be true.
September 30, 2025
Mrs Ulysse
My husband asked
chérie d'you mind
if I write from
your point of view?
No I replied
and while you're at it
why don't you do
the laundry too?
June 11, 2011
"These myths going round, these legends, fairytales, I'll put them straight."
While I was clearing out my wardrobe I was attacked by a falling lever-arch file and, after flicking through it, I found a copy of an A-Level essay that I wrote on this collection.
I immediately went to my bookshelf and dug out my heavily annotated (Phrases such as "Satirises the traditional views of women to represent them as holders of power" and "Men's violence is faced and outdone" somehow look more intelligent when scrawled in purple, glittery gel pen, no?), ink-seeping-through-the-pages, well-thumbed copy and spent a good rainy afternoon reading through them all again.
To me anyway, it's one of the most clever and beautifully written anthologies out there :)
My favourites have to be Medusa, Mrs Midas, Mrs Darwin, Anne Hathaway, Frau Freud and, of course, Mrs Beast.
"Let the less-loving one be me."
While I was clearing out my wardrobe I was attacked by a falling lever-arch file and, after flicking through it, I found a copy of an A-Level essay that I wrote on this collection.
I immediately went to my bookshelf and dug out my heavily annotated (Phrases such as "Satirises the traditional views of women to represent them as holders of power" and "Men's violence is faced and outdone" somehow look more intelligent when scrawled in purple, glittery gel pen, no?), ink-seeping-through-the-pages, well-thumbed copy and spent a good rainy afternoon reading through them all again.
To me anyway, it's one of the most clever and beautifully written anthologies out there :)
My favourites have to be Medusa, Mrs Midas, Mrs Darwin, Anne Hathaway, Frau Freud and, of course, Mrs Beast.
"Let the less-loving one be me."
Read
February 2, 2022carol ann duffy is no doubt a talented poet. i just wish i was more familiar with the mythology she references, because i enjoyed the ones i recognized much more than the ones i didn't. can't help but think that if i knew all the figures she writes about, i would've loved this book a lot more!
April 14, 2022
This one got a mention in Pandora’s Jar . Carol Ann Duffy in this collection of poems gives some of the wives of well-known fictional characters a voice. In times past, and sometimes even today, wives are just shadows who rarely get a voice – so I was curious, wanting to hear what they say.
I’ve read this 3 times now, on the first read I preferred the first half to the second – I couldn’t say why except the beats, and the sharp imagery in the second half did not zing out to me as much as the first half where I was wowed!!! and amazed!!!
By the third read I couldn’t fault it – some poems I love more than others – and others left a smile on my face.
Here’s a taster:
Mrs Icarus
I'm not the first or the last
to stand on a hillock,
watching the man she married
prove to the world
he's a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock.
I’ve read this 3 times now, on the first read I preferred the first half to the second – I couldn’t say why except the beats, and the sharp imagery in the second half did not zing out to me as much as the first half where I was wowed!!! and amazed!!!
By the third read I couldn’t fault it – some poems I love more than others – and others left a smile on my face.
Here’s a taster:
Mrs Icarus
I'm not the first or the last
to stand on a hillock,
watching the man she married
prove to the world
he's a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock.
February 21, 2023
'Wasn't I beautiful?
Wasn't I fragrant and young?
Look at me now.'
Another outstanding collection from Carol Ann Duffy. The World's Wife takes traditional legends and myths historically dominated by male figures and shrewdly flips them on their head, deftly portraying the female perspective. The result is comical. Mrs Sisyphus: 'That's him pushing the stone up the hill, the jerk'.
Some of the mythical references went beyond me and I had to resort to google - which only further revealed the extent of Duffy's genius. Her poetry is enchanting, sardonic, beautifully crass and sharp; perfectly encapsulating the fragility of masculinity, in addition to the poignancy of youth and beauty.
Wasn't I fragrant and young?
Look at me now.'
Another outstanding collection from Carol Ann Duffy. The World's Wife takes traditional legends and myths historically dominated by male figures and shrewdly flips them on their head, deftly portraying the female perspective. The result is comical. Mrs Sisyphus: 'That's him pushing the stone up the hill, the jerk'.
Some of the mythical references went beyond me and I had to resort to google - which only further revealed the extent of Duffy's genius. Her poetry is enchanting, sardonic, beautifully crass and sharp; perfectly encapsulating the fragility of masculinity, in addition to the poignancy of youth and beauty.
June 6, 2018
What more can I say about the amazing Carol Ann Duffy at this point? She is my favourite poet of all time. Her way with words never fails to astound me. The World's Wife for me, was thought-provoking, entertaining, satirical, and incredibly witty.
A few of my favourite lines -
Some swaggering lad to break her heart
some wincing Prince to take her name away
and give a ring, a nothing, nowt in gold.
and the poem entitled Mrs. Darwin
7 April 1852
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him -
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of
you.
A few of my favourite lines -
Some swaggering lad to break her heart
some wincing Prince to take her name away
and give a ring, a nothing, nowt in gold.
and the poem entitled Mrs. Darwin
7 April 1852
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him -
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of
you.
September 9, 2021
The World’s Wife is utterly fascinating. I’m not commonly a consumer of poetry, though I tend to enjoy it when I do think to pick it up. But this collection is unlike any poetry I’ve ever read. The theme here, peering into the minds of fictional, classical, historical women, often overshadowed by their more famous spouses, or gender-bent versions of famous male characters, is incredibly unique. And every single poem in the collection delivered something witty or clever. They made me think, which I think is one of the best compliments I could give this type of work. I’ve never reviewed a book of poetry before, so the thoughts below are a bit… untamed, if you will. So I’ll sum up my thoughts like this: if you’re looking to dip your toes into the waters of poetry and you happen to love fantastical stories with a strong female voice, The World’s Wife is the collection for you.
My favorite entries tended to be those inspired by either Christian scripture or classical mythology. Of those more classically inspired, I especially loved the poem about Thetis. The descriptions of her fight for freedom, of her transformation into so many wildly varying creatures, was enchanting. I could feel her defeat as if it were my own. I also loved the poem from Penelope’s perspective, detailing how she sank into her weaving after Odysseus didn’t return home and found herself maid the strands. She claimed to have “lost {herself} completely in a wild embroidery of love, lust, loss, and lessons learned,” and I loved how that sentiment was worded. By the time he returned, he was no longer missed. At least, so her story plays out in this particular poem. There was something prettily maudlin about “Penelope” that I truly adored.
And then there were the biblical entries. The amount of symbolism in “Queen Herod” is insane. There are layers upon layers of meaning here. It’s a poem that could be read half a dozen times and the reader would notice something new each time. I found the motivation behind her decision to have all the boy-children killed incredibly interesting, and vastly different from that of the biblical King Herod. I found “Salome” to be an interesting take, as well, though that one was far more tongue-in-cheek. Can you imagine waking up with a killer hangover only to find a severed head in bed with you? Yikes.
I appreciated the way Duffy’s style and meter changed poem by poem. In “Anne Hathaway,” her poem from the perspective of Shakespeare’s wife, she gives us an actual fourteen-line Shakespearean sonnet, which I thought was a lovely touch. The same can be said of the poem from Eurydice’s perspective. I loved that she kept referring to “the girls,” as if she was telling the Muses, or perhaps the Greek chorus that so often narrated stories, a story for once, instead of the other way around. While the collection was largely free-verse, I feel that I can say little about the style and meter because it did change so radically from poem to poem. What I can say is that, even when I felt I was missing some deeper meaning that I could sense but not see clearly, I never got tangled up in the writing itself. I found every single entry in this collection easy to read.
“Queen Kong” was a very unique poem. How differently would a gender-swapped King Kong act in regards to her love interest? The piece took a surprising, gruesome turn right at the end that actually made me gasp aloud. And then there were “Mrs. Rip Van Winkle,” “Mrs. Icarus,” “Mrs. Aesop,” and “Frau Freud.” All of these poems made me laugh, or at least chuckle internally. Not to be sexist, but I’m not sure exactly how much a man would enjoy this collection. The male half of the population is never shown in a flattering light within these pages. There’s a bitterness, aimed toward men, running through the entirety of the collection. While I understand it, and that choice does make sense with the idea of the whole, it grated and grew a bit tedious after the fifteenth poem or so. These lines from “Mrs. Beast” convey the misandric tone of the collection:
The imagery in some of these poems is by turns beautiful and vulgar, lovely and jarring. In “Medusa,” her former love is described as having “a shield for a heart and a sword for a tongue.” In “Mrs. Quasimodo,” she is scorned by her husband and gets revenge, her destruction called “the murdered music of the bells,” which I found incredibly evocative. But there were other turns of phrase that just made me uncomfortable. Which was most likely the intent, but it jarred me right out of my enjoyment of whichever poem I happened to be reading.
Some of thes entries in this collection, such as “The Devil’s Wife,” were a bit over my head. While I understood the main thrust of the poem, I felt like there was a deeper meaning I was missing. There were a few I didn’t care for, and others that I really loved in the beginning that included a line or thought that soured the lines before it. But some, like “Thetis” and “Queen Herod,” “Penelope” and “Mrs. Lazarus,” were wonderful.
I ended up very much enjoying The World’s Wife, and can actually see myself rereading it. All of these poems, whether I liked them or not, gave me a lot of food for thought. This is a very feminist collection that rewards a familiarity with classical stories while shattering them and piecing the splinters into something new. Whatever qualms I might’ve had, I can’t deny that it was wholly fascinating.
You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.
My favorite entries tended to be those inspired by either Christian scripture or classical mythology. Of those more classically inspired, I especially loved the poem about Thetis. The descriptions of her fight for freedom, of her transformation into so many wildly varying creatures, was enchanting. I could feel her defeat as if it were my own. I also loved the poem from Penelope’s perspective, detailing how she sank into her weaving after Odysseus didn’t return home and found herself maid the strands. She claimed to have “lost {herself} completely in a wild embroidery of love, lust, loss, and lessons learned,” and I loved how that sentiment was worded. By the time he returned, he was no longer missed. At least, so her story plays out in this particular poem. There was something prettily maudlin about “Penelope” that I truly adored.
And then there were the biblical entries. The amount of symbolism in “Queen Herod” is insane. There are layers upon layers of meaning here. It’s a poem that could be read half a dozen times and the reader would notice something new each time. I found the motivation behind her decision to have all the boy-children killed incredibly interesting, and vastly different from that of the biblical King Herod. I found “Salome” to be an interesting take, as well, though that one was far more tongue-in-cheek. Can you imagine waking up with a killer hangover only to find a severed head in bed with you? Yikes.
I appreciated the way Duffy’s style and meter changed poem by poem. In “Anne Hathaway,” her poem from the perspective of Shakespeare’s wife, she gives us an actual fourteen-line Shakespearean sonnet, which I thought was a lovely touch. The same can be said of the poem from Eurydice’s perspective. I loved that she kept referring to “the girls,” as if she was telling the Muses, or perhaps the Greek chorus that so often narrated stories, a story for once, instead of the other way around. While the collection was largely free-verse, I feel that I can say little about the style and meter because it did change so radically from poem to poem. What I can say is that, even when I felt I was missing some deeper meaning that I could sense but not see clearly, I never got tangled up in the writing itself. I found every single entry in this collection easy to read.
“Queen Kong” was a very unique poem. How differently would a gender-swapped King Kong act in regards to her love interest? The piece took a surprising, gruesome turn right at the end that actually made me gasp aloud. And then there were “Mrs. Rip Van Winkle,” “Mrs. Icarus,” “Mrs. Aesop,” and “Frau Freud.” All of these poems made me laugh, or at least chuckle internally. Not to be sexist, but I’m not sure exactly how much a man would enjoy this collection. The male half of the population is never shown in a flattering light within these pages. There’s a bitterness, aimed toward men, running through the entirety of the collection. While I understand it, and that choice does make sense with the idea of the whole, it grated and grew a bit tedious after the fifteenth poem or so. These lines from “Mrs. Beast” convey the misandric tone of the collection:
“…they’re bastards when they’re Princes,
What you want to do is find yourself a Beast. The sex is better.”
The imagery in some of these poems is by turns beautiful and vulgar, lovely and jarring. In “Medusa,” her former love is described as having “a shield for a heart and a sword for a tongue.” In “Mrs. Quasimodo,” she is scorned by her husband and gets revenge, her destruction called “the murdered music of the bells,” which I found incredibly evocative. But there were other turns of phrase that just made me uncomfortable. Which was most likely the intent, but it jarred me right out of my enjoyment of whichever poem I happened to be reading.
Some of thes entries in this collection, such as “The Devil’s Wife,” were a bit over my head. While I understood the main thrust of the poem, I felt like there was a deeper meaning I was missing. There were a few I didn’t care for, and others that I really loved in the beginning that included a line or thought that soured the lines before it. But some, like “Thetis” and “Queen Herod,” “Penelope” and “Mrs. Lazarus,” were wonderful.
I ended up very much enjoying The World’s Wife, and can actually see myself rereading it. All of these poems, whether I liked them or not, gave me a lot of food for thought. This is a very feminist collection that rewards a familiarity with classical stories while shattering them and piecing the splinters into something new. Whatever qualms I might’ve had, I can’t deny that it was wholly fascinating.
You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.
July 15, 2021
Author: Carol Ann Duffy
Published: 24/09/1999
Okay so I read this book for my gcse english exam and I absolutely loved it! I very rarely give a five star rating but this one definately deserves it, it is packed full of incredible poems. It is a book that has become a firm favourite of mine and one that I could read a million times. When I read this book and had to disect it and find out exactly what the poem was meaning, it pretty much blew my mind!
This book is full of the female version of myth's/legends such as the Mrs Quasimodo version of events that happened, Mrs Icarus, Anna Hathaway. The poems are funny and in some places quite touching especially Anna Hathaway it is possibly my favourite one in the book. I dont really like poetry too much but these ones I found easy to understand, very funny and they are stories that you will remember for a long time. I recommend this book to anyone who has wanted to read it, or has never even heard of it. Carol Ann Duffy is an absolutely incredible poet!
This is also a great book if you are someone who likes books that involve mythology as some of the people featured in the novel are from Greek Mythology but are from the point of view of the partners/wives/sisters of the characters. If you read these poems and look a little bit closer into the poems you can see exactly what the characters are saying and how Carol Ann Duffy is portraying them in such an incredible and talented way.
Published: 24/09/1999
Okay so I read this book for my gcse english exam and I absolutely loved it! I very rarely give a five star rating but this one definately deserves it, it is packed full of incredible poems. It is a book that has become a firm favourite of mine and one that I could read a million times. When I read this book and had to disect it and find out exactly what the poem was meaning, it pretty much blew my mind!
This book is full of the female version of myth's/legends such as the Mrs Quasimodo version of events that happened, Mrs Icarus, Anna Hathaway. The poems are funny and in some places quite touching especially Anna Hathaway it is possibly my favourite one in the book. I dont really like poetry too much but these ones I found easy to understand, very funny and they are stories that you will remember for a long time. I recommend this book to anyone who has wanted to read it, or has never even heard of it. Carol Ann Duffy is an absolutely incredible poet!
This is also a great book if you are someone who likes books that involve mythology as some of the people featured in the novel are from Greek Mythology but are from the point of view of the partners/wives/sisters of the characters. If you read these poems and look a little bit closer into the poems you can see exactly what the characters are saying and how Carol Ann Duffy is portraying them in such an incredible and talented way.
April 6, 2025
Beautiful, smart, intelligent, creative. Carol Ann Duffy is a true master of her art. Loved it.
May 23, 2021
I read this book in my “Reading like Danielle Galligan aka Nina Zest”!! Check it out for my full thoughts:
https://youtu.be/gzXCJOJz0kI
https://youtu.be/gzXCJOJz0kI
May 15, 2018
A collection of poems written from the perspectives of the wives, sisters or girlfriends of famous men in myth and history. There's a playful tone to most these poems with a bit of a cynical undercurrent (or more than a bit, depending on the poem).
Some of the highlights for me:
"Medusa"
Are you terrified?
Be terrified.
It’s you I love, perfect man, Greek God, my own;
but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray
from home.
So better by far for me if you were stone.
"Mrs Icarus"
I'm not the first or the last
to stand on a hillock
watching the man she married
prove to the world
He’s a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock.
Some of the highlights for me:
"Medusa"
Are you terrified?
Be terrified.
It’s you I love, perfect man, Greek God, my own;
but I know you’ll go, betray me, stray
from home.
So better by far for me if you were stone.
"Mrs Icarus"
I'm not the first or the last
to stand on a hillock
watching the man she married
prove to the world
He’s a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock.
March 5, 2016
There is only one thing I can say, a quote.
"I'm not the first or the last
To stand on a hillock,
Watching the man she married
Prove to the world
He's a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock."
"I'm not the first or the last
To stand on a hillock,
Watching the man she married
Prove to the world
He's a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock."
July 29, 2020
If I were to be sent off to a remote island tomorrow (maybe as one of the last survivors of covid-19 or some other equally threatening catastrophe, I don't know) and I was told I could carry one poetry book with me it would be this or Renascence and Other Poems.
I do not want to elicit a collective groan from my goodreads friends by calling this book a splendid masterpiece in which Carol Ann Duffy bestows female agency upon traditionally oppressed female characters and forgotten wives, but I tend to call a spade a spade. (Okay, you can groan now). Allow me to illustrate.
Remember Thetis? The woman best known as the mother of Achilles, cursed with a prophecy she never asked for, hunted by Zeus, raped by Peleus? Remember she tried to escape by constantly shape shifting? Carol Ann Duffy remembers.
I was wind, I was gas,
I was all hot air, trailed
clouds for hair.
I scrawled my name with a hurricane,
when out of the blue
roared a fighter plane.
Then my tongue was flame
and my kisses burned,
but the groom wore asbestos.
So I changed, I learned,
turned inside out – or that’s
how it felt when the child burst out.
I wonder why I never thought of Mrs Emma Darwin while marveling over the theory of evolution during my high school biology courses. What was she up to while Darwin pondered upon the intricacies of genetics and its link to the environment around us? A quick Google search tells me she was a devoted wife and mother, caring for her 10 children, three of whom didn't make it to adulthood.
7 April 1852.
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him –
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you.
I admit though, over the course of my often futile quest to find good poetry based on Greek mythology, I did occasionally wonder about Mrs Icarus. Was there a Mrs Icarus? Was she pleased with his passion or did she mourn his stupidity?
I’m not the first or the last
to stand on a hillock,
watching the man she married
prove to the world
he’s a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock.
And did anyone ever pause to ask Eurydice if she even wanted to return from the dead? Did anyone try to slap some sense into Orpheus and remind him that not everything is about him?
Like it or not,
I must follow him back to our life –
Eurydice, Orpheus’ wife –
to be trapped in his images, metaphors, similes,
octaves and sextets, quatrains and couplets,
elegies, limericks, villanelles,
histories, myths . . .
I think the best way to read this beautiful collection of poems is to flip through the pages, pick a poem at random and savor every word.
I do not want to elicit a collective groan from my goodreads friends by calling this book a splendid masterpiece in which Carol Ann Duffy bestows female agency upon traditionally oppressed female characters and forgotten wives, but I tend to call a spade a spade. (Okay, you can groan now). Allow me to illustrate.
Remember Thetis? The woman best known as the mother of Achilles, cursed with a prophecy she never asked for, hunted by Zeus, raped by Peleus? Remember she tried to escape by constantly shape shifting? Carol Ann Duffy remembers.
I was wind, I was gas,
I was all hot air, trailed
clouds for hair.
I scrawled my name with a hurricane,
when out of the blue
roared a fighter plane.
Then my tongue was flame
and my kisses burned,
but the groom wore asbestos.
So I changed, I learned,
turned inside out – or that’s
how it felt when the child burst out.
I wonder why I never thought of Mrs Emma Darwin while marveling over the theory of evolution during my high school biology courses. What was she up to while Darwin pondered upon the intricacies of genetics and its link to the environment around us? A quick Google search tells me she was a devoted wife and mother, caring for her 10 children, three of whom didn't make it to adulthood.
7 April 1852.
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him –
Something about that Chimpanzee over there reminds me of you.
I admit though, over the course of my often futile quest to find good poetry based on Greek mythology, I did occasionally wonder about Mrs Icarus. Was there a Mrs Icarus? Was she pleased with his passion or did she mourn his stupidity?
I’m not the first or the last
to stand on a hillock,
watching the man she married
prove to the world
he’s a total, utter, absolute, Grade A pillock.
And did anyone ever pause to ask Eurydice if she even wanted to return from the dead? Did anyone try to slap some sense into Orpheus and remind him that not everything is about him?
Like it or not,
I must follow him back to our life –
Eurydice, Orpheus’ wife –
to be trapped in his images, metaphors, similes,
octaves and sextets, quatrains and couplets,
elegies, limericks, villanelles,
histories, myths . . .
I think the best way to read this beautiful collection of poems is to flip through the pages, pick a poem at random and savor every word.
May 27, 2012
These are fun, clever, sly poems, reimagining fairy tales, Bible stories (one of my favorites was "Queen Herod"), myths, legends and even true stories, but all from a female point of view and in contemporary language.
Though I used the word 'fun,' a few really aren't. Some are too sad ("Mrs Quasimodo") or too touching ("Anne Hathaway") or too scathing ("Mrs Beast," the penultimate poem, states in no uncertain terms the reason for this collection) to be considered mere fun. And even the ones that are a lot of fun, end with a devastating line that begs for the poem to be reread, and so I would.
Though I used the word 'fun,' a few really aren't. Some are too sad ("Mrs Quasimodo") or too touching ("Anne Hathaway") or too scathing ("Mrs Beast," the penultimate poem, states in no uncertain terms the reason for this collection) to be considered mere fun. And even the ones that are a lot of fun, end with a devastating line that begs for the poem to be reread, and so I would.
January 19, 2020
hello new favorite poetry collection!
i loved this so much. this is exactly what i’ve been looking for from poetry. i’m so happy i read this, and excited to reread and dissect it in the future!
i loved this so much. this is exactly what i’ve been looking for from poetry. i’m so happy i read this, and excited to reread and dissect it in the future!
January 16, 2022
I was somewhat excited for the premise of this book; I enjoy works that focus on women's voices and perspectives. Then I reached "from Mrs Tiresias" and all my excitement vanished; I couldn't get through how transphobic the poem seemed to me.
So to recap: Tiresias was an ancient Greek prophet who was turned by the gods into a woman. The poem is written from the perspective of his wife, who tries to cope with the change and ridicules her spouse for not being able to handle being in a woman's body. This all sounds like a take on the "if men had periods, pads would be free" talking point, which, while not funny, is bearable. But then the transphobia fully kicks in; the couple splits and the wife, to her disgust, sees Tiresias on TV talking about knowing how women feel; about being one of them. There's one thing Tiresias can't get quite right in the eyes of the wife: and it's manipulating their voice to sound female.
Now, I'm not saying that the author intended for the poem to contain speaking points of trans-exclusionary rhetoric; I'm saying it's a hell of a coincidence and a disgusting one at that. I get that it was written 20 years ago but that only sounds to me like a lot of time to revise it; the edition I've read was published in 2017. I couldn't find anything specific about Duffy's own views on the subject, so if you know of anything let me know.
I finished the book but the poem left a sour enough taste in my mouth that I couldn't bring myself to enjoy it.
So to recap: Tiresias was an ancient Greek prophet who was turned by the gods into a woman. The poem is written from the perspective of his wife, who tries to cope with the change and ridicules her spouse for not being able to handle being in a woman's body. This all sounds like a take on the "if men had periods, pads would be free" talking point, which, while not funny, is bearable. But then the transphobia fully kicks in; the couple splits and the wife, to her disgust, sees Tiresias on TV talking about knowing how women feel; about being one of them. There's one thing Tiresias can't get quite right in the eyes of the wife: and it's manipulating their voice to sound female.
Now, I'm not saying that the author intended for the poem to contain speaking points of trans-exclusionary rhetoric; I'm saying it's a hell of a coincidence and a disgusting one at that. I get that it was written 20 years ago but that only sounds to me like a lot of time to revise it; the edition I've read was published in 2017. I couldn't find anything specific about Duffy's own views on the subject, so if you know of anything let me know.
I finished the book but the poem left a sour enough taste in my mouth that I couldn't bring myself to enjoy it.
January 26, 2014
My favourite of her books.
Incisive and uncompromising, this diverse series of vignettes contains women of all stripes, vibrant vessels for Duffy's kaleidoscope of reflections on relations between women and men, the roles and experiences of wives and lovers. Her protagonists are everything but passive, and Duffy takes every view but the easy and obvious.
Incisive and uncompromising, this diverse series of vignettes contains women of all stripes, vibrant vessels for Duffy's kaleidoscope of reflections on relations between women and men, the roles and experiences of wives and lovers. Her protagonists are everything but passive, and Duffy takes every view but the easy and obvious.
February 3, 2023
Powerful, divisive and inserting a female gaze into male dominant fairy tales and fables.
October 20, 2021
I've never been able to appreciate poetry, but my co-blogger, Celeste's review made me interested in this one. I wished I've all the requisite knowledge of the referenced materials because for those which I did, I thought it was quite cleverly done. Some even made me laugh.
May 3, 2022
I’ll keep this review brief.
Pros:
-An interesting concept.
-A couple of the poems are amusing or have a few good lines.
Cons:
-The concept is dragged down by its incredibly lazy execution.
-A lot of the original source material is simply disregarded or dealt with so poorly and unimaginatively.
-Copious amounts of sexism. The misandrist attitudes here are obvious, but there is also so much self-victimisation and internalised misogyny being projected onto the female characters discussed in these poems too.
-Clear-cut, casual transphobia.
-This is most definitely an example of the ugly side of feminist writing.
Why two stars and not one? Well, regardless of the author’s issues, I believe it’s at least easy to analyse this collection as the poems are not entirely gibberish. There is some good poetry on display in terms of technique, just not content. The concept being attempted was also worth a star at least; however, it’s a great shame that the concept has been executed in this manner as it had the potential to be a far more noteworthy work.
Pros:
-An interesting concept.
-A couple of the poems are amusing or have a few good lines.
Cons:
-The concept is dragged down by its incredibly lazy execution.
-A lot of the original source material is simply disregarded or dealt with so poorly and unimaginatively.
-Copious amounts of sexism. The misandrist attitudes here are obvious, but there is also so much self-victimisation and internalised misogyny being projected onto the female characters discussed in these poems too.
-Clear-cut, casual transphobia.
-This is most definitely an example of the ugly side of feminist writing.
Why two stars and not one? Well, regardless of the author’s issues, I believe it’s at least easy to analyse this collection as the poems are not entirely gibberish. There is some good poetry on display in terms of technique, just not content. The concept being attempted was also worth a star at least; however, it’s a great shame that the concept has been executed in this manner as it had the potential to be a far more noteworthy work.
November 7, 2021
Over-all this collection was a slight disappointment. It opens excellently with a poem dense with imagery, a radical re-imagining of the Red Riding-hood story, a complex and thought-provoking piece. Then nothing else in the book matches it, which is unfortunate, since the concept is so good.
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY
See the complete review here:
http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/77...
THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY
See the complete review here:
http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/77...
October 20, 2018
Brilliant collection of poems (and the introduction by Jeanette Winterson was amazing!)
Faves: Queen Herod, Mrs Faust, Medusa, Mrs Icarus, Pygmalion's Bride, Frau Freud, Eurydice, Mrs Beast.
Faves: Queen Herod, Mrs Faust, Medusa, Mrs Icarus, Pygmalion's Bride, Frau Freud, Eurydice, Mrs Beast.
May 17, 2022
I am usually not a poetry reader. They are convoluted and difficult. They will give me a headache most of the time. But carol ann Duffy has just made my day with this collection of brilliant poems about the wives of historical figures, real and mythical. There is tragedy and comedy and strength and weakness, all told from the point of view of these overshadowed women. She takes these so called heroes and shreds them to pieces. She doesn’t leave anyone alone, not even Jesus or the pope, especially them. My personal favourite was Mrs Lazarus. The most difficult poem was mrs devil. All the rest were classy. Do not miss this collection.
January 13, 2024
I feel like when you have such a spectacular prompt, one that focuses on either well known female figures or the fictional counterparts to well known male figures, you must offer more than just… I’m not even sure what to call it: crude humor?
Duffy's states that her collection focuses on the unheard perspective of female counterparts of famously known male figures; that it “gives a voice to the wives of famous and infamous 'great men' of world literature and civilization.” But I didn’t feel that.
You’re writing about Medusa, Penelope, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Midas, Mrs Darwin, Circe, Red Riding Hood, Mrs Quasimodo, Mrs Faust, and even the Devil’s wife herself! Surely there’s more to them, surely you can write a never-ending thesis on their lives, fictional or not, revel or scorn them, grant them justices or spit out your curses, carve something special with their undermined voices and existence. But no. And that’s why I’m disappointed.
All these myths, legends, heroes, villains, historical and biblical characters, reduced to something I’m having trouble describing. I did ponder on whether it was just a matter of me not understanding this type of poetry, but no, I’ve read Carol Ann Duffy before—and even if I hadn’t, there’s no excuse to the deplorable piece of work that was that.
You have the opportunity to do so much more here. Write verses that focus on the perspective of the wives/daughters/maids of powerful men, show me their excellences, their truths, their desires, their downfalls. Paint words with an entire gender swap to exhibit the rich and raw voices of women through the occupations of men celebrated in culture, perhaps we’ll be able to see how they would navigate life with such a station. There’s magic there, there’s power, one that so many would appreciate.
Anyway, I remember liking Duffy’s Miss Havisham (which was not a part of this collection) back when I read it in high school. At least I could feel her vengeance there.
Duffy's states that her collection focuses on the unheard perspective of female counterparts of famously known male figures; that it “gives a voice to the wives of famous and infamous 'great men' of world literature and civilization.” But I didn’t feel that.
You’re writing about Medusa, Penelope, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Midas, Mrs Darwin, Circe, Red Riding Hood, Mrs Quasimodo, Mrs Faust, and even the Devil’s wife herself! Surely there’s more to them, surely you can write a never-ending thesis on their lives, fictional or not, revel or scorn them, grant them justices or spit out your curses, carve something special with their undermined voices and existence. But no. And that’s why I’m disappointed.
All these myths, legends, heroes, villains, historical and biblical characters, reduced to something I’m having trouble describing. I did ponder on whether it was just a matter of me not understanding this type of poetry, but no, I’ve read Carol Ann Duffy before—and even if I hadn’t, there’s no excuse to the deplorable piece of work that was that.
You have the opportunity to do so much more here. Write verses that focus on the perspective of the wives/daughters/maids of powerful men, show me their excellences, their truths, their desires, their downfalls. Paint words with an entire gender swap to exhibit the rich and raw voices of women through the occupations of men celebrated in culture, perhaps we’ll be able to see how they would navigate life with such a station. There’s magic there, there’s power, one that so many would appreciate.
Anyway, I remember liking Duffy’s Miss Havisham (which was not a part of this collection) back when I read it in high school. At least I could feel her vengeance there.
December 24, 2019
A host of poetry both cynical and witty in approach, tackling female perspectives in history. Duffy introduces the influential women behind infamous men or who are famed themselves because of the actions of men; the undertone is somewhat mocking of their male counterparts but largely celebrates their savvy and wit.
I like that the poems have an interesting foundation, that the voices are different and compelling in part because of their ire, and that the message isn't always entirely obvious at first. Most of the poems require a couple of read through's in order to actually grasp Duffy's intent, and certainly require the reader to know a little about the character in question to really appreciate them. I think this is clever, adding a new dimension to poetry which I appreciated, however I think for some readers this might be off-putting; it's unlikely any one reader would be familiar with all of these people, particularly as a few are more obscure, so a degree of research is probably necessary (or was for me!).
I didn't like that some of the poems were overtly crude or aggressive in approach; this is a style which just doesn't work for me and really detracts from my enjoyment and, perhaps more importantly, my understanding of the wider point. I equally found that the tone of many of the poems was repeated too often, reducing the impact and becoming tiresome.
An interesting approach to re-tellings with a fun and subversive take on poetry, but sometimes missed the mark.
I like that the poems have an interesting foundation, that the voices are different and compelling in part because of their ire, and that the message isn't always entirely obvious at first. Most of the poems require a couple of read through's in order to actually grasp Duffy's intent, and certainly require the reader to know a little about the character in question to really appreciate them. I think this is clever, adding a new dimension to poetry which I appreciated, however I think for some readers this might be off-putting; it's unlikely any one reader would be familiar with all of these people, particularly as a few are more obscure, so a degree of research is probably necessary (or was for me!).
I didn't like that some of the poems were overtly crude or aggressive in approach; this is a style which just doesn't work for me and really detracts from my enjoyment and, perhaps more importantly, my understanding of the wider point. I equally found that the tone of many of the poems was repeated too often, reducing the impact and becoming tiresome.
An interesting approach to re-tellings with a fun and subversive take on poetry, but sometimes missed the mark.
July 7, 2010
I've read this book a few times because it's poetry that's fun while at the same time having a rich vein of truth running through it. What Carol Ann Duffy has done with The World's Wife is give voice to the unsung wives of famous husbands of history and literature. These wives have lived unappreciated and without credit in the shadows of their husbands until Duffy told their stories. Some of them we're familiar with--Eurydice, for instance, and Penelope. But it's the ones we've not given thought to who provide the most fun in revealing the foibles and foolishness of their men. Mrs Sisyphus is here along with Mrs Quasimodo and Mrs Rip Van Winkle and Mrs Midas and many more, all long-suffering and trenchant and fed up with the outrageous weaknesses of their husbands. You can have some fun with these women.
April 11, 2014
I first encountered a mention of this book of poems when Frieda Hughes selected five books of poetry on the Five site.
While it is easily seen as a writing exercise, taking characters in literature, mythology, and pop culture and flip them on their ear by writing about their wives, the poet does it brilliantly. Some poems are sad (Mrs. Lazarus), some are triumphant (Little Red-Cap), and they vary in style and tone. So fun to read, highly recommended.
While it is easily seen as a writing exercise, taking characters in literature, mythology, and pop culture and flip them on their ear by writing about their wives, the poet does it brilliantly. Some poems are sad (Mrs. Lazarus), some are triumphant (Little Red-Cap), and they vary in style and tone. So fun to read, highly recommended.
February 14, 2023
I really enjoyed this collection of poems playing with male characters from (mostly European) history, literature, mythology... as told by significant women in their lives... and/or occasionally the character is rewritten as a woman. clever and funny. some made me laugh out loud 😆
I think my favourite is still 'Queen Kong' 😃♥🦍
tho so many great ideas, turns of phrase, subversions, inversions, endings/outcomes.
accessed as an audiobook from RNIB library, really nicely read by Lizzy Hoply 🙂
I think my favourite is still 'Queen Kong' 😃♥🦍
tho so many great ideas, turns of phrase, subversions, inversions, endings/outcomes.
accessed as an audiobook from RNIB library, really nicely read by Lizzy Hoply 🙂
Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,159 reviews