sub

• form

  complete regularity within the poem could be a reflection of how women have been excluded from these historic events, the monotony of form reflecting the unchanging exclusion. One could argue that using a 7 stanza structure bears reference to the 7 days of the week, Duffy uses this idea to suggest that female exclusion from history is an occurrence that happens every day.
• title 


  Sub’ is polysemous. On one hand, it plays into the narrative of sport, ‘Sub’ is a contraction of ‘substitution’, a term for switching one player out for another. This is the main idea that Duffy uses when writing the poem, switching a man from history out for herself. Yet, the use of ‘Sub’ could also be a reference to the fact that women are left on the sidelines of history. 
• stanza 1

  begins personal pronoun ‘I’ sets fight against patriachal society, ‘my breasts’ at a focal point, the meter of the line falling upon the word ‘breasts’. This, too, places the feminine experience in plain sight, Duffy making clear the female body in her narrative depiction of a new history. a tone of melancholy sets into the poem, Duffy not celebrating ‘with the lads’, instead of washing in the ‘solitary shower’.  sibilance  melancholy
• stanza 2

  Duffy references the semantics of fertility, carrying the rugby ball ‘precious egg’ motif natrual processes. While having to achieve greatness, she has to also balance the needs and demands of her body, While the first stanza’s bleeding was hidden from the ‘lads’, the ‘broken teeth’ of the rugby boys is in plain view, the disparity between how male and female injury is treated revealing a bias in society. Men are allowed to look damaged and broken, while women must conceal and bleed behind closed doors.
• stanza 4


  Duffy filling in for Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon buries ‘Emily Dickinson’s’ poetry on the moon, establishing the constant presence of a female writer upon a symbol of man’s achievement.
• sixth stanza of the poem explores ‘Motherhood’, with this confining Duffy till her daughter ‘started school’. This exposes the notion of parental duties often falling upon the mother, with Duffy hanging up her sporting career in order to care for her child. Yet, although putting her energy towards bringing up her child, Duffy also suggests that she is capable of doing both.
• stanza 7

  caesura ‘looking back

  final line poem is polysemous, ‘I think to myself this:’ colon could symbolize  women are excluded from history being represented through the lack of poetry. blank space lack women’s voices or erased OR everything Duffy does in her life beacon of female history, becoming the first poet laureate of the U.K. and creating a poetic legacy that outstretches many that have come before her. Everything that comes afterwards is what she thinks, her achievements and actions speaking for themselves. progress yet not fufilled