Havisham

Last updated

"Havisham" is a poem written in 1993 by Carol Ann Duffy. It responds to Miss Havisham, a character in Charles Dickens' novel Great Expectations , looking at her mental and physical state many decades after being left standing at the altar, when the bride-to-be is in her old age. [1] It expresses Havisham's anger at her fiancé and her bitter rage over wedding-day trauma and jilted abandonment. Duffy's use of language is very powerful and passionate. Throughout the poem oxymorons and juxtaposition such as "Beloved sweetheart bastard" and "Love's hate" portrays the ambivalence and restless uncertainty of the character, while a sexual fantasy reveals both the unrequited love and the passion that remains within Havisham following the wedding, a devastation from which her heart has never recovered.

The poem is featured in the examining board AQA's English Literature Anthology for its GCSE qualification in English Literature. It is featured alongside works by Duffy, and three other contemporary writers: Simon Armitage, Seamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke. This poem is also featured in the Scottish Qualifications Authority's National 5 and Higher English Critical Reading paper, in the Scottish Texts section. Candidates study Anne Hathaway, War Photographer, Originally, Valentine and Mrs Midas alongside this poem.


"Havisham"

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.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Song of Songs</span> Book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament

The Song of Songs, also called the Canticle of Canticles or the Song of Solomon, is an erotic poem, one of the five megillot ('scrolls') in the Ketuvim ('writings'), the last section of the Tanakh. It is unique within the Hebrew Bible: it shows no interest in Law or Covenant or the God of Israel, nor does it teach or explore wisdom like Proverbs or Ecclesiastes ; instead, it celebrates sexual love, giving "the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Ann Duffy</span> Scottish poet and playwright

Dame Carol Ann Duffy [] is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She was the first female poet, the first Scottish-born poet and the first openly lesbian poet to hold the Poet Laureate position.

<i>Die schöne Müllerin</i> Song cycle by Franz Schubert

Die schöne Müllerin, is a song cycle by Franz Schubert from 1823 based on 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the first of Schubert's two seminal cycles , and a pinnacle of Lied repertoire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miss Havisham</span> Fictional character in Charles Dickens Great Expectations

Miss Havisham is a character in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations (1861). She is a wealthy spinster, once jilted at the altar, who insists on wearing her wedding dress for the rest of her life. She lives in a ruined mansion with her adopted daughter, Estella. Dickens describes her as looking like "the witch of the place". In the novel, she schemes to have the young orphan, Pip, fall in love with Estella, so that Estella can "break his heart."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Be Thou My Vision</span> Christian hymn

"Be Thou My Vision" is a traditional Christian hymn of Irish origin. The words are based on a Middle Irish poem that has traditionally been attributed to Dallán Forgaill.

Estella (<i>Great Expectations</i>) Dickens novel character

Estella Havisham is a significant character in the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations.

Pip (<i>South Park</i>) 14th episode of the 4th season of South Park

"Pip" is the fourteenth episode in the fourth season of the American animated television series South Park. The 62nd episode of the series overall, it first aired on Comedy Central in the United States on November 29, 2000. Going by production order, it is the fifth episode of the fourth season instead of the fourteenth. The episode is a parody and comedic retelling of Charles Dickens's 1861 novel Great Expectations, and stars the South Park character Pip, who assumes the role of the protagonist of the novel, who is his eponym. "Pip" features no other regular characters from the show. The story is narrated in a live action parody of the anthology television series Masterpiece Theater, with the narrator played by Malcolm McDowell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bloodshy & Avant</span> Duo of songwriters and producers

Bloodshy & Avant are a Swedish songwriting and production duo consisting of Christian "Bloodshy" Karlsson and Pontus "Avant" Winnberg. They have worked with many prominent artists, including Britney Spears, Kylie Minogue, Ms. Dynamite, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Katy Perry, Kelis, Girls' Generation, Christina Milian, Sky Ferreira, Hikaru Utada and BoA. In addition to their production work, Karlsson and Winnberg are also members of the synth-pop group Miike Snow, alongside lead vocalist Andrew Wyatt.

<i>Dichterliebe</i> Song cycle composed by Robert Schumann

Dichterliebe, "A Poet's Love", is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann. The texts for the 16 songs come from the Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as part of Heine's Das Buch der Lieder. Along with the song cycles of Franz Schubert, Schumann's form the core of the genre in musical literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Imtiaz Dharker</span> Pakistan-born British poet, artist, and video film maker

Imtiaz Dharker is a Pakistan-born British poet, artist, and video film maker. She won the Queen's Gold Medal for her English poetry and was appointed Chancellor of Newcastle University from January 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AQA Anthology</span>

The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance has produced Anthologies for GCSE English and English Literature studied in English schools. This follows on from AQA's predecessor organisations; Northern Examinations and Assessment Board (NEAB) and Southern Examining Group (SEG).

John Agard FRSL is a Guyanese playwright, poet and children's writer, now living in Britain. In 2012, he was selected for the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He was awarded BookTrust's Lifetime Achievement Award in November 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington</span> Traditional song

"The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" is a traditional English folk song. It is numbered as Child ballad 105, and as Roud number 483.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond</span> Traditional Scottish folk song

"The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond", or "Loch Lomond" for short, is a Scottish song. The song prominently features Loch Lomond, the largest Scottish loch, located between the council areas of West Dunbartonshire, Stirling and Argyll and Bute. In Scots, "bonnie" means "attractive", "beloved", or "dear".

"Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes" is a popular old song, the lyrics of which are the poem "To Celia" by the English playwright Ben Jonson, first published in 1616.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophie Hannah</span> British poet and novelist (born 1971)

Sophie Hannah is a British poet and novelist.

<i>Little Red Cap</i> (poem)

"The Little Red Cap" is a poem by Carol Ann Duffy published by Picador as a part of her 1999 collection of poetry titled The World's Wife. The book consists of poems that are based on old stories and tales in which she reshapes in terms of modern day culture. Duffy is known for her trait to take previous stories, tales, etc. and change them into her own "What you can do as a poet is take on a story and make it new" she once said to Barry Wood in an interview. Duffy's Little Red Cap is a great model of her style of poetry in the collection. The World's Wife was created based on stories of heroes that were an inspiration to her. Duffy also believed that these tales and stories did not interpret the truth. Duffy's belief in feminist literary criticism is apparent as she believed that in order to find the truth, the female character was to be dominant. Most of Duffy's poetry has feminist interest. She found that the original Little Red Cap fairy tale was an example of feminism in both fairy tales and English literature. She then found a personal connection within the original story line to help form a dominant female character in her writing.

"Knocks Me Off My Feet" is a song written and performed by American recording artist Stevie Wonder, from his 1976 album Songs in the Key of Life. It was not released as a single, though it was released as a B-side to "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It" four years later, in 1980. The song has also been covered by numerous artists, including R&B singer Donell Jones, who released his version as a single in 1996. Other notable recordings include those by Tevin Campbell and Luther Vandross, both also released in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">You Know My Name (Courtney Love song)</span> 2014 single by Courtney Love

"You Know My Name" is a song by the American alternative rock musician Courtney Love. It was released on May 4, 2014 on Cherry Forever Records, packaged as a double A-side single with the song "Wedding Day".

The Coolin, or The Coolun, is an Irish air often characterised as one of the most beautiful in the traditional repertoire.

References

  1. "Some text analysing the poem". Archived from the original on 2009-03-05. Retrieved 2009-05-24.