This poem comes from The World’s Wife, Duffy’s first collection of poems.
In this poem, Duffy take in consideration both the real and the fictional characters, stories, histories and myths that focus on men, and gives voice to the women associated with them.
Anne Hathaway was the wife of William Shakespeare. She was seven years his senior and already pregnant when the 18-year-old, Shakespeare married her.
Starting analyze the first quatrain the reader is immediately transported to a magical landscape filled with metaphor. The bed suggesting the love that made Anne dizzy and was all encompassing.
Interestingly, despite bearing him three children, the persona of Anne created by Duffy makes no reference to this aspect of her marriage focusing on their relationship as lovers rather than as parents.
The “forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas” recalls the setting of some of Shakespeare’s more famous works such as Macbeth, Hamlet and The Tempest. This suggesting a link, together are echoes of the excitement that took place in this bed. In their lovemaking, the couple found something precious and valuable, as implied by the “pearls” in line three. This intimate, sensual tone is continued in the metaphor comparing her lover’s words to “shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses.”
Hathaway was seduced by her lover’s language and poetry. In this opening quatrain Duffy clearly illustrates the intensity of the romantic, passionate relationship of the two lovers.
Going on with the second quatrain Duffy extends the language metaphor - Anne's body is a softer rhyme to her husband's harder, more masculine body, while the erotic touch of his hand on her body is described as “a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.” This deliberate comparison elevates the sensuality.
Anne imagines too that Shakespeare has 'written her', suggesting that it is only when she regards herself through his eyes. The reference again to the bed at the end of line eight creates a link to the opening line of the poem and reinforces the symbolic significance of the bed as a representation of their love.
The third quatrain started with an enjambment, and this extended the metaphor from the previous quatrain as the bed is compared the passion and excitement so associated with the playwright was written. The word “romance” is deliberately placed at the end of line nine to emphasize that this is what she most associates with their relationship. The senses “touch”, “scent”, and “taste” are used to reinforce how she can still recall their lovemaking, as though through immersing herself in these memories she can experience this passion once more At the end of this quatrain, Duffy uses an assonance in the phrase “My living laughing love” to emphasize again how vividly and clearly the speaker can recall their passion, suggesting that her lover continues in some ways to exist and survive in her memory
The final couplet ends with the masculine full rhyme of “head” and “bed” to provide a defined conclusion to the poem. The metaphor of holding her lover in the protective “casket” of her imagination reiterates the idea presented in the previous line that our memory of a deceased loved one allows their continued existence.
Duffy seems to suggest that this is much more fitting than an urn or coffin which, although they may contain the physical remnants of a body, can never capture the energy or vitality of the person's character.
By remembering her husband, and replaying her memories of their passion, the speaker is really honouring his true legacy and repaying him for the way that he held her in “that next best bed.”
Themes
This poem deals has three main themes: passion, sensual erotic love, death and remembrance.