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Havisham - Structuralist

Wilson, Michael, Kitty, Hei Kiu


Title Of The Poem
Refers to Miss Havisham from Great Expectations
Wealthy spinster
Driven mad with loss and rejection
Lives in the past
Title Of The Poem
Leaves out the Miss
Takes Miss Havishams gender out of the title
Drawing attention to her maiden name
Where the line breaks?
- Theres no consistent rhyme scheme in the poem. However,
theres a lot of slant rhymes or near rhymes.
- Some slant rhymes in the poem are "dress" (end of line 6)
and "this" (end of line 8) or "Puce" and "curses" (in
line 9).
Where the line breaks?
- Many poets end their lines with a natural pause
signaled by the end of a sentence or phrase, or by some
kind of punctuation mark.
- Duffys line endings seem unnatural, often occurring in
the middle of the phrase.
Division of the poem

- written in free verse, in that it has no regular pattern


of metre or rhyme
- arranged in four stanzas of equal length, which suggests
some control in its speaker, undermining the madness the
character is known for, which is one of the points of the
poem.
- contains 4 stanzas consistent of 4 lines each.
- incorporation of both of short, one-worded sentences and
long sentences to show the disjointed mental state of
Miss Havisham.
Enjambment
- Enjambments occur when a poet breaks up a sentence or
phrase in a strange place.
- Often, those enjambments give the poem new, unexpected
layers of meaning.
Enjambment in Havisham
1) Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since Effect:
then - Evokes a sense of lack of control of the speaker.
2) I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it - Allows for a creation of changes of pace where
3) so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes, there are contrasts with short, shop pithy end
4) ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle stopped parts and short sentences.
with. - her, myself, who did this/to me? The character
5) Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days is struggling to deal with the fact that it has
6) in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress happened her on the first line. It then splits over
7) yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe; into the next stanza suggesting that it has finally
8) the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, hit her that she is the victim.
who did this - Loves/hate It is another example of contrast
9) to me? Puce curses that are sounds not words. and suggests that the character can no longer trust
10) Some nights better, the lost body over me, love as the character believes that it can only
11) my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear hurt her. It also shows how the character is stuck
12) then down till suddenly bite awake. Love's between loving and hating the man who left her.
13) hate behind a white veil; a red balloon 14 - Also, an example of bursting/in my face allows
bursting in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding for a rise and fall of tonal progression, a kind of
cake. crash down to earth scenario.
14) Give me a male corpse for a long slow
honeymoon.
15) Don't think it's only the heart that
b-b-b-breaks.
End-Stops (Caesura)
- Poetry also pauses in the lines. One of such
pauses is known as caesura, which is a rhythmical
pause in a poetic line or a sentence.
- It often occurs in the middle of a line, or
sometimes at the beginning and the end. At times,
it occurs with punctuation; however, at other
times it does not.
- Poets indicate it with a parallel symbol thus:
||.
- Caesura can be medial (occurring in the middle of
line), initial (occurring at the beginning of
poetic line), or terminal (occurring at the end
of a poetic line).
End-stops (caesura) in havisham - There are numerous appearances of
caesurae in "Havisham".
- When caesurae appear to end short
1) Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then sentences such as "Bang." (14), it
2) I haven't wished him dead. Prayed for it is done to emphasize the word. It
3) so hard I've dark green pebbles for eyes,
4) ropes on the back of my hands//I could strangle
also tells the reader a certain way
with. to read the sentence.
5) Spinster. I stink and remember. Whole days - The semicolons in lines 6 and 13
6) in bed cawing Nooooo at the wall; the dress
7) yellowing, trembling if I open the wardrobe;
tell the readers to pause before
8) the slewed mirror, full-length, her, myself, moving onto a different point in
who did this the poem.
9) to me? Puce curses that are sounds//not words.
10) Some nights better, the lost body over me,
- The caesura in "Havisham" helps the
11) my fluent tongue in its mouth in its ear readers when reading the text
12) then down till suddenly bite awake. Love's because they can hear the pauses
13) hate behind a white veil; a red balloon 14
bursting in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding
and hesitant speech of Miss
cake. Havisham. This expresses the
14) Give me a male corpse for a long slow disjoined and unstable mind of Miss
honeymoon.
15) Don't think it's only the heart that
Havisham who has been greatly
b-b-b-breaks. disturbed from her past event.

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