Work

• Borders insanity


  • Duffy explores women providing for others in society
  • The role of the mother expanding to unmanageable proportions
  • Women have learnt to take on responsibility in society
  • The role of providing food and nurturing become a core part of women's perceived identity
• Sharp consonants coupled with asyndetic listing of dynamic verbs

  • Emblematic of the continued and progressive multiplication of the population
• Abbreviated language of "PCs/DVDs/CDS/TVs"

  • Maintains the quick pacing of the stanzas
  • Combined with enjambment speeds up the meter of the poem
• Work is split into nine equal quatrain stanzas


  • Each stanza measuring four lines
  • The structure stays the same
  • But the content of each demands more and more space
  • Reflecting the huge expectations placed on women to provide for those relying on them
• Role of Duffy


  • Suggests how humanity begins to destroy the world
  • Comments on the raging capitalism which drives people to ruin the environment for material gain
• Destruction of the environment

  • Cow industry "grazed beef"
  • Deforestation in "felled trees"
  • Overfishing in "hoovered fish"
• "hoovered"


  Extreme speed of destruction, using technology to pillage the seas
• The final line of the poem, "twenty-four seven" is emblematic of the total devotion of women's lives to supporting others, women put in roles of service throughout their whole lives
• Polysemic nature


  A text having multiple possible meanings
• Postmodern literature


  • Readers are encouraged to interpret the text in their own way with multiple meanings
• The polysemic nature of the poem is a typical sentiment expressed in postmodern literature
• Enjambment


  Polysemous, can reflect rapidly developing world or symbolise chaos within women's lives
• Elaine Feinstein: 'There is nothing cosy about her vision, however. This is a dark book, for all the jokes, exposing equally the trash of our aspirations and the crumbling urban landscape around us'
• Tragic narrative of the speaker


  Represents mother nature and mother nature's demise as a result of society