hoot » Ss o ‘STANDING FEMALE NuDE > The text SrocrING STAR conned ‘CONTEXT ‘This poem is a contemplation upon the Jewish vicsims of the Holocaust in the Second World War, and it warns us about the h More than six : mrilion jews were | | dangers of forgetting such a crime. The star of David isa potent in murdered inthe | | national symbol for Jews. A yellow sar of David was used by the death camps Nazis a an identification badge on Jewish prisoners’ clothing. a heh — ‘This had the effect of appropriating a cherished emblem of cultural ° caja identity for horrific purposes. Even more horrific was the tatooing though for of people with the symbol as an easy means of identification. As c prisoners to be Shylock in The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare says, fd) shoton the whim | | ‘suffrance isthe badge of ll our tribe’ (13.105). The sory of the Bp sey neal Jewish people has been one of almost unremitting persecution. | (COMMENTARY ie emia ‘The ambiguity ofthe ttle is important. The stars on the prisoners’ | & Durinetheserends| | lothing and bodies are one obvious signifiation, whilethereisalsoa | ¥ World War the sense of the temporary nature of life in the metaphorical comparison | German Nazis ‘of people to meteors that we call shooting stars. There is a third R implemented inerpreton ht owstndig indivi ave fen anne, | a systematic programme of 4 ‘The first stanza presents the words ofa vitim of the Nazis who will ic way of saying that she is dead. The tnurder on an industrial scale in | | “m0 longer speak’, aeuphemis their death camps | | poem, of course, resnimates her dead voice, The woman's wedding suchas Auschovite. | | sing is salvagel4)’, indicating that her tormentors value her hfe less than the gold ring. She, however, values the ring fer its symbolic and personal significance and not for the money itmight fetch, Her em fingers are broken in order to achieve this salvaging, creating the impression of scrap heap being picked over. She says that there are stars of David tattooed on the prisoners foreheads these provide shocking target forthe soldiers who will livrally be shooting stars. She can protest for ever as the poem gives her voic> eternal life. The list of Jewish forenames, possibly her children, draws attention to their cultural identity and reinforces the ide that there is no need {for further identifying marks to be applied to ther: by their antagonists. Here, then, isa stark contrast berween the simple dignity of names proclaiming the individual, and the stripping away of that dignity. gered Stanzas 2 and 3 explore further the atrocities visited on the victims ‘of war and the heroic bravery of the women who saffered at the 86 Cirol Ann Duly: Selected Poems keThe text hands of the Nazis. Their stoical endurance allowed them to wait for their deaths ypriphc as sasues’ but theres also a clear implication that they could be frozen with teeror. We ae famine with the word ‘petrified’ to describe extreme fear; it derives from the Greek word petros, meaning rock. Statues, being generally made ‘of stone, ft the scene Duffy is exploring most effectively. ‘The woman addresses her frend, reminding her of how she faced death, how she ‘el! This word simultaneously conjures up the pieture of her friend stumping to the ground after being shot and, also reminds us of its frequent use as a euphemism in time of war “Toll in wartime isto die in batle. This is horrific enough in itself but we are presented here with women who were not even combatants; they were defenceless and powerless. The woman, whose voice sounds throughout the poem, is emphatic about the foet that she wants such atrocity to be remembered! 'I sy, Remember. / Remember these appelling days which make the world / forever bac’ Duffy uses repetition for emphasis but, more subtly, captalises ‘Remember’ atthe end of a sentence as she is drawing attention to the vital status of cultural collective memory. Also, the crucial need for the whole world to avoid a repetition of the Holocaust is paramount. From the persona’s perspective, however, there is no redemptive possiblity, s the world is perceived as forever bad’. ‘The third stanza deals with the crime of rape. The sheer terror of the woman is vividly conveyed through Carol Ann Duffy’s concentration on its physical effects: "My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear! The word “gape” is often used to describe a facial expression, and this makes the effacement of the woman's identity, | by such brutality even more shocking. The hopeless surrender to fear is momentarily mediated, though, in the glimpsed child through the ‘gap” the woman can see between ‘corpses’. The child, embodiment of life and hope fr the future, is wickedly murdered “They shot her in the eye?’ These events are no more than amusement for the soldiers, who are intoxicated by power which ‘expresses itself in sexual ateacks and the indiscriminate execution of civilians. Of course itis a recurring feature of war that occupying armies use rape of women and the murder of children as a means of ___ STANDING Femate NUDE Primo Levis If This s 4 Man is required reading (1947), Init Levi writes about his harrowing experiences in Auschwitz. Sadly, he committed suicide con 11 April 1987, Cro Ann Df: Slesed Poems #7STANDING FEMALE NUDE The text “SHOOTING Sans continued \cHECK THE BOOK Thomas Keneally’s novel Schindler's ‘Ark (1982) and Steven Spielberg's film based on it, ‘Schindler’ List (1993), staring Liam Neeson, Ben. Kingsley and Ralph Fiennes, are moving Insights into this terrible period in history 8 el Ann Daily. Sled Foes inflicting shame on another culture. Reports of atrocities in Kosovo in 1999 tell us that Serbian soldiers enjoyed killing and raping just as the Germans referred to in the poem ‘laughed’. The time frame ‘referred to in this stanza therefore has eerie connestions with the political climate in parts of Europe at the close ofthe twentieth century, and jn the Middle East atthe opening ofthe twenty-first. ‘The woman's observation that ‘Only 2 mater of days separate / this from acts of vorture now" suggests both eyewitness involvement at the time~ this" and ‘now’ reinforce the sense of immediacy ~ and an awareness that memory is very short in historical terms. If only “days seperate’ one atrocity from another, then the passage of years ‘will make the repetition of such atrocities more possible. The ‘woman's words assume a prophetic status when we consider the countless examples of war erimes since the close ofthe Second ‘World War in 1945, Stanza 4 explicitly poses a question already implicit in the previous three: How would you prepare to die 2” The eounterpointed impulses of lfe and death are presented in the season of spring in nature, ‘s perfect April evening’ and the ominous ‘graves. The fear ‘of rape is replaced by the fear of being shot. The sadistic soldier toys swith his vitime hese the click. Not vet. A trick.’ This sees Carol ‘Ann Duty uring short sentences at the end of the line to create both tension and sense of the real experience of the woman and the power wielded by the soldier The internal >hyme ~‘wicles’, ‘click’ and ‘rick’ ~ rolls easily off the tongue, and recreates the ‘unexpected near silence surrounding the moment. This heightens the impression of mental torture and emphasises the complete contrast with the soldier who can view such an appalling actas a game. The woman’ ‘bare fect felt che eavth’, indicating that she ‘was sensitive tit in direct contrast to the jackbooted, unfeling and desensitsed aggressors Stanza 5 invites us to question how any real normality can ‘return after such horrdr but also co remember that it does, and frighteningly quickly. The use of anaphora i strising, the repetition of After’ emphasising that terrible things have actually happened but are almost immediately effaced. People can soon return to such familiar domesticity associated witi tes oi te baw" SHER TAS ore Oreos BRPSHSRT SSE RTjust sa ‘boy’ can wash a uniform. This could be an ambiguous use ofthe words as many soldiers were little more than boys anda uniform can be worn by schoolboys, too. Whatever the case, there isa clear sense that the memory of ‘errible moans representative ofall the suffering in wa can be washed away, cleansed as simply as the Nazis thought they could erase the Jews. Children may be taught about the war in school but they ‘ran to their toys". As childcen, they might be forgiven for this bu there is no excuse for a world that ‘turns in ts sleep’, wilfully ignoring the truth of a past that we ignore at our peril. The alliteration of sbilants phonically represents sleeping forgetfulness, while the reintroduction of Jewish forenames reminds us thatthe Holocaust was real. The ellipsis at the end of the stanza is a further stark reminder that the ist of names could go on and on and almost amounts to another world. ‘There i a depressing presentation of a world that finds it easy toforget ‘The final stanza takes us back to the interior of a concentration camp. The woman addresses her ‘Sister’, term more of cultural and religious significance thatthe simply familial, Her reference to singing ‘inside the wire’ indicates her bravery and defiance, She champions the culture she was born into and will not be subject to ‘ethnic cleansing’, «term that has unfortunately become widely used and, worse, validated by the media. The ‘ancient psalins’ referred toate from the Old Testament in the Bible. They have particular significance forthe Jewish people. In the first place a psalm is a song, and communal singing is an imporsane aspect of cultural assertion, Second, many of the psalms share themes of forbearance and strength in the face of adversity, as wel a absolute faith in God as deliverer. The idea ofa promssed land is well known, and Moses is reputed to have led his people to such a place. Carol Ann Duffy chooses to end the poem with a quotation suggestive of anything but hope and deliverance. The twenty-fifth psalm, one of King David's, pleads with God for deliverance from affliction, shame and death ‘let not my enemies exul over'me’ (verse 2) ‘Oh guard my life, and deliver me; / let me not be put to shame, for I/ take refuge inthe’ (verse 20) ‘The woman keeps faith with her religion and tradition but her words at the end of the poem articulate the most desperate facet of the psalm she quotes from. In many ways we @ cue, THE NET Search a comprehensive online encyclopedia suchas httpzsen. ‘wikipedia.org for Useful information and links on Primo Lew Cool Ann uly Sted PoemsSTANDING FEMALE NuDE The text SHOOTING STARS consid right view the world today as ‘desolate and lost’ because its 0 riven with war and factionalism, Persecution of minorities seems no less prevalent now than inthe days during which the ‘ancient polis’ were written, cataloguing as they do the travails and hopes ‘of a nation, The final lines of Psalm 25: ‘Redeem Israel, O God, / ‘out of all his troubles’ ace rendered deeply ironic given the benefit of historic hindsight. The attribution of masculinity to the country is enough to alert us to the obvious point that women are oppressed and certainly not delivered from pain by men. ‘SELLING MANHATTAN ‘The tile of Carol Ana Duffy’ second collection signals a concern for the way in which selfish pursuit of wealth by colonists swamps and effaces culture, Although Manhattan Island is today a favoured part of New York to live for successful artists, waiters, filmmakers and musicians, it was originally the dwelling place of native American Indians. The Dutch settee Peter Minuit reputedly bought Manhattan from the Indians in 1626 for twenty-four dollars’ worth of glass beads, a grossly exploitative act. One of the prominent themes in “The Conservative administration elected in 1979 was in power until 1997, Margaret ‘Thatcher resigned on 22 November 1990 followin disputes within this collection is the way some people with a great deal of money her Cabinet abuse the power it spuriously confers on them, Tae capitalist regarding Britains position in the European Union, Thatcher was fearful of British sovereignty being ceded to Brussels. She was succeeded by John Major. Tony Btair won the 1997 general election for his attitude to economics is clearly criticised by the poet in ‘Money ‘Talks’ and ‘Selling Manhattan’. The British politcal climate of the 1980s is important to consider in relation to such poems. In many ‘ways the monetatist policy of Margaret Thatcher government paid homage to the American preference for letting the market regulate the economy. It became almost a Conservative aticle of faith that ‘wealth was morally good and that ‘profi is not ality word’, Many people, including Carol Ann Duffy, did not object to the idea of a healthy economy but questioned the realty ofthe increasing gap between those with a grest deal of money and these with lite or ‘New tabour sone. Individualism and conspicuous consumpten characterised Party. Politics and the London of the 1980s. Duily’s critique of the Conservative peveaenee’ | | ministration is overtin Selling Manhattan and becomes more pervasive in her tied collection, The Ocher Cownery. There isa clear political dimension to this collection. Manhattan, Daffy: Selected Pooms