History

• personifies history as a woman, highlighting women’s overlooked roles across time and demanding their recognition.
• form

  several cases of internal rhyme. subtle form of rhyme, Duffy is pointing to the subtextual or hidden history of women, often not remembered but absolutely important. The internal rhyme creates a connection between lines, the subtle ringing of syllables reflecting the connected nature of history. The rhyme creates a link between words, emblematic of the connection between women that spans across history, women present at every major historical event – a testament to their perspective.
• stanza 1,2

  ‘She’, instantly establishing the female perspective. status of being ‘alone’ reflects how women’s perspective is often forgotten in history.

  Duffy rallies against the patriarchal notion mouth is ‘tooth[less]’, looking ‘half-dead’ as she ‘limped downstairs’. The use of verbs within these two stanzas, ‘limped’, ‘slurped’, ‘wheezed and coughed’, ‘dozed, snored’ all graceless presentation of the woman. Going against the patriarchal archetype of women, ‘smelling of pee’ is finished by an end stop. blunt nature shock the reader women are left unattended as they grow old.
• stanza 3,6

  through different events in history, each one being witnessed by women. It is interesting to note that the verbs that Duffy uses, ‘been’, ‘seen’, ‘watched’, ‘witnessed’, ‘observed’, are all passive instead of active. could suggest that women are silent observers in history. including plosive ‘b’ across ‘blew out his brains’ to further the horror of this imagery, horrific imagery within ‘burnt at the stake’, and enjambment to reflect the movement of the children way on the trains while they ‘waved/their little hands’.
• stanza 7

  withdrawing from memories of the past to explore the ‘empty house’. Her home has been vandalized, ‘Bricks through the windows…fresh graffiti sprayed'

  final image, ‘shit wrapped in a newspaper posted/onto the floor’ cements the terrible treatment of women. representing all of the women throughout history, is neglected and abused by society, undermined by a society that does not care about the female perspective. By writing this poem, Duffy gives a voice to those forgotten