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Transcript

Voice

  • sensual
  • ironic
  • tense
  • desperate
  • obsessive/possessive

Central themes

  • class distinction
  • "barrier" between upper and lower class
  • power
  • desire for something unattainable
  • sexuality
  • "self-deception"

THANK YOU!

Stanza 2

  • relationship between maid and mistress
  • desire and desperation

resting in the Yellow Room, contemplating silk

or taffeta, which gown tonight? She fans herself

whilst I work willingly, my slow heat entering

each pearl. Slack on my neck, her rope.

Stanza 1

Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress

bids me wear them, warm them, until evening

when I'll brush her hair. At six, I place them

round her cool white throat. All day I think of her,

Context

Carol Ann Duffy's "Warming Her Pearls"

  • published as part of the collection of poems Selling Manhattan in 1987
  • Carol Ann Duffy
  • about a 19th century maid

Structure and style

  • 6 stanzas, 4 lines each
  • enjambment
  • imagery

Flow of presentation

  • context
  • structure
  • annotation
  • voice
  • theme(s)

Stanza 5

Stanza 6

Full moon. Her carriage brings her home. I see

her every movement in my head…Undressing,

taking off her jewels, her slim hand reaching

for the case. Slipping naked into bed, the way

she always does…And I lie here awake,

knowing the pearls are cooling even now

in the room where my mistress sleeps. All night

I feel their absence and I burn.

IB ENGLISH A HL

Stanza 3

She's beautiful. I dream about her

in my attic bed; picture her dancing

with tall me, puzzled by my faint, persistent scent

beneath her French perfume, her milky stones.

  • class distinction
  • longing
  • obsession
  • lust

Stanza 4

I dust her shoulders with a rabbit's foot,

watch the soft blush seep through her skin

like an indolent sigh. In her looking glass

my red lips part as though I want to speak.

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