anon

• what is 'anon' about?

  female anonymity , women have been unforgotten throughout history , talents go unnoticed.
• form and structure


  4 unequal stanzas - each stanza = 6 and 9 lines. Variance in structure = women undervalued in society.

  • moments of rhyme - represent few female writers that were allowed to exist within male dominated canon
• 'Anon - had but packed it all in, in the best verb , the right noun , for a life in the sun.'


  • girl pressured to abandon her writing due to female writers being undervalued
  • cliche of 'life in the sun' = ironic , women's ambitious careers often curtailed by expectation of domesticity
• Anon


  many women had to undertake pseudonyms e.g George Elliot to avoid unbiased publishers , separate public life from private life
• 'A women I knew kept her skull on a shelf in a room'


  skull = symbol of voiceless women who have been lost to history

  • 'clear its throat' - represents women's desire to express selves , not done talking
  • 'it' - dehumanisation , kept on a shelf - seen not heard
• 'how she passed on her pen like a baton'


  female writers pass on intangible female experience

  • simile , phallic implications , men still hold some power
  • Duffy representing all female writers who come after her
• final line being Anon

  fight for equality not over , loss of identity and voice still remains