'Havisham' by Carol Ann Duffy

When I was told that we would be creating a Miss Havisham period look, I remembered a poem that I had studied for my GCSE's.  The poem is called Havisham and was written by Carol Ann Duffy in 1993.  I like this poem because it has been Duffy has written it very cleverly, with her use of metaphors and the stuttering effect at the end of the poem, making it sound as though the character is about to start crying.  I also like how Duffy has written the poem as if she is Miss Havisham and is experiencing her pain.  This is quite different to a lot of other things I have found about Miss Havisham, as many of them describe her rather than put themselves in her position and describe how she might have felt.

The poem is shown below:

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then 

I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it
so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,
ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.

Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days

in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress

yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;

the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, who did this

to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words.

Some nights better, the lost body over me,

my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear

then down till I suddenly bite awake. Love’s 

hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting
in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake.

Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon.
Don’t think it’s only the heart that b-b-b-breaks.

References:

http://www.thegrid.org.uk/learning/english/ks3-4-5/ks4/prose/documents/HavishambyCarolAnnDuffy.doc