Tall

• Duffy’s ‘Tall’ critiques gender inequality through a woman’s metaphorical growth and societal constraints.
• form 


  17 stanzas long, represents the Tall woman. The small stanzas making up a larger whole could also be understood as a representation of the feminist movement, many people binding together into a cohesive whole to fight against inequality.
• 1-4

  woman is now only identified by her sizes identity revolves around her height.

  Duffy uses caesuras surrounding the event of catcalling. Indeed, ‘Downtown. Somebody whooped. She’, the meter of the poem disrupted by this event. Duffy states that women’s lives are interrupted by male outbursts like these, shaming those who participate in catcalling. In response, now she has height (and therefore power), the woman of the poem ‘started at his scared face’. She emasculates him, Duffy infantilising him as ‘a boy’, showing the weakness of those who catcall
• 5-8

  height, she is seen as powerful in society. Due to this, Duffy presents her entering traditionally masculine atmospheres. The reference to ‘stiff drink’ and ‘passed out or fainted’ are typically dead-beat masculine traits. Duffy suggests that women are only allowed in these masculine atmospheres when they themselves are intimidating. Considering that size is the only thing that is changed about the woman, this shows the ridiculous nature of how gender inequality has stemmed from biological factors such as these.

  The internal rhyme across ‘chin’ and ‘gin’ woman growing
• 9-13

  woman ‘cured no one’, followed by a harsh caesura. Duffy emphasizes this moment, pointing out how ridiculous it is to single someone out in society because they are different.

  Duffy presents the woman using ‘The moon’ as an ‘old mirror’. The use of ‘mirror’ and ‘moon’ could be referencing how the moon is often used as a feminine symbol. Now, pushed away from her female identity into just being ‘Taller’, the woman references the ‘moon’ as an ‘old mirror’, her femininity now being something distanced from herself.
• 14-17

  weather women ‘What could she see up there?’ undermines her gift in society. reduced to a menial role in society

  Far away from society now, she loses her sense of identity. Duffy uses ‘holwled’, reducing the character to animalism. The dehumanization stems from her distancing from society,

  9/11, tries to catch ‘their souls’ as ‘they fell’. This final stanza could represent the empathy that women hold. This woman tries to help humanity, even after they scorn her. When women are granted power, they use it for good, saving others from ‘the burning towers’.
• A03


  The final stanza in the poem makes reference to ‘the burning towers’. In this phrase, Duffy is discussing the events of 9/11 in America. The attacks of September 11th 2001 saw passenger airliners crash into the World Trade Center. The attack resulted in 2,977 fatalities and over 25,000 injuries.