The Long Queen Essay- Carol Ann Duffy 3to6v

'Write an analysis on the long queen.' Lucy Brumby The collection of poems from which we are given 'The Long Queen' is named 'Feminine Gospels'. Roughly translated as the teachings of feminism, or a collection of feminine beliefs, aiming to give the reader visions of female identity. This title clearly gives the impression that the collection of poems are going to have a common theme of womanhood, female opinion and identity and the power of a woman. 'The Long Queen' is the first poem in the collection, and immediately captures the attention of the reader with its opening line - 'The long queen couldn't die.', this opening line is very statement like, and the use of the word couldn't plants the question in the readers mind of whether the long queen (whoever she is at this point) wants to die and cant, or whether she is immortal. Which is essentially the difference between being a regular human, or having an element of fantasy and being a myth. The first stanza then progresses to make references to royal figures, and explains that the long queen has had many offers of a male partner, however has declined them all. Suggesting maybe a link to Queen Elizabeth I, who never married when she ruled as queen. The stanza concludes with the idea that the long queen to Time for a husband, the word 'Time' has a capital letter at the front, meaning that it has almost been personified having been written like a name, suggesting that the long queen 'married' time, that time was her partner. It then finishes on 'Long live the Queen', reaffirming the idea in the readers head that the Queen is powerful, and wil rule for a long time. Stanza 2 begins with a rhetorical question, followed by a list of roles typically

occupied by females, showing to the reader that the long queen is essentially queen of all things female, and womanhood as a whole.There is use of alliteration in the list, with 4 words beggining with W, which places emphasis on the roles that women play, and that the Long Queen is ruler of them all. We then progress to stanza 3, which tells us that the long queen is Unseen, suggesting that she is a force acting upon us, opposed to an actual person, and that maybe Duffy is refering to the strength of womankind. The 'ruled' and 'reigned', are both elongated words, emphasising to the reader the extent at which she is in power, and also linking to the theme of time that is clearly present in the poem. Within this stanza, Duffy also makes several references to what appears to be fairytales, and fantasy. She mentions a castle, tower and 'out and about in rags'. This can be interpreted as references to different fairytale stories, again touching on the fantasy aspect of the poem. Stanza 4 introduces us to the long queens 'laws' supposedly of womanhood. The four laws are named Childhood, Blood, Tears and Childbirth. These laws represent the journey throughout a wommans life, and symbolize growth and maturity which allows the reader (if female) to relate to Duffy/ The Long Queen with whatever stage in their life they may be at. Each of the laws are described in extremely graphic ways, using dynamic words to grip the reader, and to allow images to be produced in the readers head. For example the tears are described as salt pearls and bright jewels, suggesting that a womans tears are rare and precious, and are almost sacred and special. The childbirth is described using very vocal words such as screamed and bawled, to intensiify the effect on the reader which is to allow them to sympathize.

Throughout all of this Duffy manages to present the Long Queen in an extremely powerful way, another clear theme of the poem. Finally in the last stanza Duffy paints the long queen to be somebody of high power, as she is watching over things from a high window. This could symbolize a hierarchy of power, as the long queen is at the top, meaning that she watches over from an above position, as she is superior to everybody else. This stanza lists actions of females such as gossip, confession and scandal, and suggests that the long queen is 'tuned in' to the women of the world, Duffy then reinforces this metaphor by refering to the actions of the women as light music, drums and strings, clearly symbols of music. The poem then finishes with a contrasting line 'The old. Long Queen.' this shows word play, and creates a sense of finality which is juxtaposed with the final image of the last line 'her posessions for a moment of time', which highlights the short amount of time that we as humans have on earth, in comparison to earth itself.