Anne Hathaway

 

Theme: Love, Literature and Writing, Death

Annotations:

The poem is written from Anne Hathaway’s point of view. It begins and ends in bed, a metaphor for their love. 

The bed is said to be a “spinning world”, suggesting that their love was full of frenzy and passion, and it made her dizzy. She is transported to a mystical world of forests, castles, etc. which mirrors Shakespeare’s writings. The speaker is as amazed by his writings as she is in love with him. They find something valuable in their love as suggested by “pearls”. Anne Hathaway is seduced by her lover’s language and poetry. There is also extended use of metaphor in the language – used to describe the intimacy between them. 

Anne assumes she is a product of her husband’s imagination. The reference to the bed links to the opening line to the poem. Use of sensory imagery – “by touch, by scent, by taste”. Anne says their guests slept in the other bed, "dribbling their prose". Prose is the language used in everyday life. By comparison, it is conventional, pragmatic and unexceptional like the guests. Meanwhile, poetry symbolises the most skilful and artistic use of language. Anne preferred poetry, which her husband excelled in.

The poem moves over to the time of Shakespeare's death. Though her husband is no more, Anne keeps him alive in her memories as her "living, laughing love". She holds him in her memories the way he held her in the second-best bed. 

Symbolism: 

1. Bed - a symbol of their love.
2. Mystical world - Shakespeare's writings that became his identity which amaze the speaker

Stylistic Devices:

1. Imagery: "The bed we loved in was a spinning world/of forests, castles, torchlight, cliff-tops, seas/where he would dive for pearls."
2. Enjambment: "Some nights I dreamed he’d written me, the bed/a page beneath his writer’s hands."
3. Metaphor: "my body now a softer rhyme/to his, now echo, assonance; his touch
4. Alliteration and Assonance: "My living laughing love"

Global Issues: