light gatherer

• Duffy’s ‘The Light Gatherer’ celebrates motherhood, depicting her daughter’s growth and joy through the motif of light, symbolizing love.
• A03: 1995 Duffy gave birth to Ella. anthology was published in 2002, 7 years after the birth of Duffy’s daughter, which explains the observations that span over many years within the poem.
• stanza 1: ‘under your skin’ daughter is producing this light herself, metaphor for bringing happiness to the world. The caesura within the first line in the form of a comma places emphasis on ‘small’, rhyme of ‘skin’ and ‘begin’ daughter’s light starts from within, personal pronoun addressing her daughter directly,
• stanza 2 and 3 internal rhyme ‘grew’ and ‘you’ she begins to gather more ‘light’. multi-sensory descriptions of the light to further the intricacy of the image, ‘warm pearls’ of light being comforting images.
• stanza 4 ‘your kissed feet glowed’ biblical imagery jesus washed peoples feet importance of faughter . quantity of the semantics of light within the poem furthers the idea of happiness.similie, ‘lit like a stage set’, the child bringing light wherever
• stanza 5 new milestone in life: speech. ‘When language came, it glittered like a river’ depicting light encompassing even the words she uses. The luxurious and beautiful image of ‘silver, clever with fish’ depicts the harmonious sound of the daughter’s words. iamgery of possibilities challenging ie catching a fish
• stanza 6 and 7 sleeping, captures the ‘whole moon’ an image that provides comfort to Duffy in other poems, such as within Sub, Duffy returning every image to the daughter’s presence. poem idolizes the daughter, presenting the beautiful side of motherhood.

  ‘fell from a star’ depicts an almost angelic quality, ‘star’ playing into the semantics of light while also bearing religious connotations.

  ‘soft lamp’ furthers this idea, all the light within the poem being delicate and ‘soft’, rather than abrasive and expository.
• stanza 8 similie ‘shine like a snowgirl’, purity of snow reflecting the metaphorical lightcoupled with the brilliant yellow fo a ‘buttercup’, Duffy also playing into the childhood game of putting a buttercup under your chin. happy images 
• stanza 9 polysyndeton within the final lines of the poem to present the endless possibilities the daughter has. She flows from ‘turquoise and diamond and gold’, the valuable items being placed as representing the future of Duffy’s daughter.

  By starting and finishing the poem with an idea of time ciclical element , ‘small’ and ‘years’, Duffy presents the growth of the child, moving from a baby into a young girl over the course of the poem.