M E L I S S A A N D G E M M A

HOUR

IMAGERY AND LANGUAGE

• Hour has many references to money and riches, contrasting the concept of material wealth and possessions against love and time spent with a loved one. Line three puns on the word "spend", and is typical of the way in which the poem investigates the themes of love and money:

• We find an hour together, spend it not on flowers Or wine, but the whole of the summer sky and a grass ditch.

• As the poem's title suggests, time is an important consideration for the lovers. "For thousands of seconds we kiss" is a striking phrase, offering the idea of excess - "thousands" - with the limitation of available time, measured in seconds. This precise measurement indicates how precious time is to the speaker, a "treasure" to be carefully counted.

• The writer compares the ideas of having time for love as having money its just a currency – material wealth vs. the invaluable time spend with a lover.

IMAGERY AND LANGUAGE

• The pleasure and riches that the couple gather in an hour allow them to feel as if they are frozen in time: "Time slows, for here/we are millionaires, backhanding the night". The hour spent together in the golden light gives them a sense of power. This makes them feel as if they can bribe the darkness to hold back, giving the lovers immense joy and wealth.

• There is a contrast between images traditionally seen as romantic but can be associated with wealth and the ordinary: "Flowers" and "grass ditch" compare to a "jewel" and "cuckoo spit" (insect eggs left on long grass); "sunlight" contrasts with a "chandelier"; "gold" contrasts with "straw". These contrasts emphasise the romance of the lovers' time together. Ideas are shown to be unimportant compared to the personal experience of the two characters.

• Hour also makes frequent references to images of light in contrast to the night and the darkness of inevitable separation. These include: "Bright", "summer sky", "Midas light", "shining hour", "candle", "chandelier or spotlight". Duffy uses light to suggest a positive, warm, optimistic liaison. Rather than dwelling on the darkness of separation the lovers make the most of the time they have together.

• In the final stanza there is a single-word sentence "Now.". It is simple, like the lovers' situation, and yet has a strong sense of being complete; nothing more is needed. It celebrates the moment rather than dwelling on the future or the past.

THEMES

• The battle of love versus time is presented in the poem: "Time hates love". The poem questions the assumption that time will triumph, forcing a separation. Instead "love spins gold, gold, gold from straw". Duffy refers to the fairy tale character Rumpelstiltskin, able to transform straw into gold. This reference adds a magical feel to the closing lines. It is an image that sums up the key theme: love can find riches in anything - "straw" or even "a grass ditch".

• The poem is about enjoying the intimacy of a moment in time rather than thinking about the world beyond. The simple nature of the experience is a reminder that material possessions cannot replace something as magical and powerful as time spent with a loved one.

• The opening words "Love's time's beggar" echo another poem in the 'Relationships' section of the AQA Anthology, Shakespeare's Sonnet 116 "Love's not Time's fool", which also explores the relationship between love and the passage of time.

THEMES

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CONTENT

• Carol Ann Duffy is the first female Poet Laureate (2009), and probably the best known female poet working in Britain today. Her poetry often engages with the grittier and more disturbing side of life, using black humour like a weapon to make social and political points.

• Hour is about feeling and about the poet spending only an hour with her loved one.

• The poet personifies time as loves enemy. • Love almost manages to make time stand still.

STRUCTURE

• Hour follows the structure of a Shakespearean sonnet, it has fourteen lines and a predictable rhyme scheme (a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g). Sonnets often use a final rhyming couplet to offer a 'turn' in the meaning; however, Duffy only offers a partial turn, which is confirmation of the idea that love will always triumph by finding unlikely sources of value.

• It has an irregular rhythm, the narrator is talking directly to her lover which makes it more intimate.

MEANING

• The title means how precious just an hour with a loved one can be and that time is an obstacle for loved ones.