Demeter (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note

This study guide to Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Demeter’ contains:

• Overview

• Authorial purpose

• Authorial choices and textual features

• Themes

• Connections to other Duffy poems

Overview

• The poem was first published in 1999 in the collection The World’s Wife

• The collection consists of poems from the perspectives of women connected to, or reimagined from, famous men in myth, history, literature, film and popular culture

• Duffy offers a retelling of their experiences to challenge the dominant male perspective

• ‘Demeter’ gives voice to the goddess of harvest and fertility from Greek mythology:

  • In the original myth, Hades takes Demeter’s daughter, Persephone to the Underworld

  • In her grief, Demeter refuses to let anything grow: a long winter ensues

  • An agreement allows Persephone to return for part of the year: Spring returns with her as Demeter is happy to have her daughter home

• In Duffy’s poem, Demeter is the speaker:

  • She details a mother’s love

Authorial purpose

• Duffy’s aim with the collection is to challenge dominant male perspectives and narratives

• She offers multiple and complex versions of womanhood

• ‘Demeter’ explores motherhood:

  • The poem connects a mother’s love to nature

  • The relationship between mother and daughter is elevated to art

Authorial choices and textual features

Form 

• ‘Demeter’ is  a 14-line poem, mimicking a sonnet in some ways:

  • However, it has four three-line stanzas and a rhyming couplet

• The poem breaks with the traditional rhyme scheme of a sonnet:

  • In parts, it is free verse and does not follow a regular meter

  • The break with tradition, but keeping elements of it, makes it seem like a mother’s love is akin to art

• Frequent use of caesura and enjambment makes the poem flow like a conversation or stream of memory

Structure

• The title alludes to the goddess of fertility and harvests in Greek mythology

• The poem does not retell the myth:

  • Rather, it focuses on the mother’s perspective

• The speaker is Demeter:

  • As with other poems in the collection, the female voice and perspective is dominant

Language

• The seasons of winter and spring are juxtaposed 

• The seasons become an extended metaphor for the mother’s grief and joy

• The speaker uses imagery (opens in a new tab) (opens in a new tab)and metaphors to describe her emotions:

  • Many of these are linked to nature

  • A mother’s love is compared to the power of nature to restore, regenerate, grow and nourish

• Alliteration, consonance and assonance emphasise the contrasting emotions in the two halves of the poem:

  • The grief/winter section has harsher sounds

  • The joy/spring section has softer sounds 

Themes

The power of maternal love 

Duffy often explores love as a source of suffering in her poetry. Here, although the mother suffers when missing her daughter, the joy at her return is powerful. The poem finishes on a positive, joyous note of reunion and balance. Duffy has written about her own mother in her poetry (e.g., see Before You Were Mine and The Way My Mother Speaks). She celebrates the power of a mother’s love and elevates it to art. 

Connections to other Duffy poems

When studying Duffy’s poetry, it is important to make connections across her work, as many poems explore similar ideas through different speakers and situations.
Representation

Duffy seeks to represent the plurality of the female experience in her work. She is concerned with giving voice to those who may not traditionally have been heard. Duffy frequently aims to represent the truth of the female experience. In this poem, she strives to represent the power of a mother’s love. The poem celebrates and elevates maternal love to the level of high art. It links it to the natural and eternal cycles of nature and reminds us that it is life-giving and regenerative.

Sources:

‘Demeter’ by Carol Ann Duffy https://www.poetryinternational.com/en/poets-poems/poems/poem/103-23656_Demeter (opens in a new tab)