In The World’s Wife, Carol Ann Duffy offers myth poems that are also myths for today in the form of a poem. These poems converse with old myths and stories AND they are stories in themselves. They express a deep appreciation for the poignancy of the old tales and a wicked, dark humor.
I love them.
As the title suggests, Duffy tells her myths from the perspective of the women who are largely silent in the older and more popular versions. This episode includes a handful of my favorites from the collection, accompanied by a bit of background about the relevant myth or fairytale.
Transcript of The World’s Wife, Contemporary Myth Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
Hello, and welcome to Myth Matters, storytelling and conversation about mythology and what myth can offer us today. I’m your host and personal mythologist Dr. Catherine Svehla. Wherever you may be in this wide, beautiful, crazy world of ours, you are part of this story circle.
At the end of the last episode, I mentioned a collection of poetry by Carol Ann Duffy titled The World’s Wife. Today I want to share some of those poems with you. Duffy’s poems converse with old myths and stories AND they are stories in themselves. These are myth poems and myths for today in the form of a poem, a re-working or mythopoesis of the predecessors undertaken with loving fascination, a deep appreciation for the poignancy of these myths, and a wicked, dark humor.
As the title suggests, Duffy tells these myths from the perspective of the women who are largely silent in the older and more popular versions. In her review of The World’s Wife, Jeanette Winterson observes:
“Men and women alike know that more than half the world is female but men and women alike forget it every day. It takes a poet to jog our memory.”
I love that. It takes a poet to jog our memory about many things, in my opinion.
I find the poems in this particular collection interesting as they add freshness to the old stories without trespassing against their inherent logic. These poems add dimension and display the complexity in myth, revealing something new, even in myths that are short, fragmented, or have been well worked over the centuries. And I think they’re funny. I hope you like them too.
I’ll give you a little bit of background about the myth or fairy tale– because a couple of these are about fairy tales– before I read the poem. And now, I invite you to sit back and sink in to Duffy’s storied poems. I recommend the entire collection and hope you enjoy the handful of poems that I’ve plucked out to share with you today.
This is first poem is called “Circe.” I know this gloriously ambiguous witch from Homer’s Odyssey has many fans out there.
As the story goes, Odysseus and his men land on the shore of Circe’s island after some years of hard travel and a number of frightening adventures. Many of their companions have been lost. Imagine their relief when they discovered a beautiful woman, all alone on the island and willing to serve them good food and drink.
Now, Circe is deservedly famous for turning Odysseus’ men into pigs. She did turn them back again– or so we’re told– and she and the hero Odysseus got along, some say very well. She helped him make a trip to the underworld, where he gathered information necessary to complete his long, wandering journey home.
I’ll let Duffy’s Circe take it from here. She’s telling her story to a gathering of nereids and nymphs which are other semi-divine females in the Greek pantheon.
“Circe” by Carol Ann Duffy
This next poem is derived from another Greek myth that involves an underworld journey: Orpheus and Eurydice.
In the best-known version of this myth, Orpheus is a poet and musician whose beautiful songs move the whole world to join in. Everything– the rocks, the trees– everything sings along with him. Eurydice is his beautiful young wife, who dies from a snake bite on their wedding day. Bad luck, right.
Orpheus is crushed with grief. Against all odds and advice, he makes a journey to the underworld to beg the god Hades and the goddess Persephone to let him take Eurydice back to the land of the living for a little while longer. Orpheus sings this prayer and the beauty of his song moves them to agree, on one condition. Eurydice must walk behind Orpheus and he must not turn around to look at her until they are back in the sunlight.
At the last minute, Orpheus caves and he turns and looks. Eurydice disappears back into the darkness.
Why, why did Orpheus turn around? This is the question we’ve asked for centuries.We know how Orpheus felt about this situation. Let’s hear from Eurydice as Duffy imagines this young woman.
“Eurydice”
That was “Eurydice” by Carol Ann Duffy, giving us a view of a Eurydice who is apparently tired of being “the Muse” and the inspiration of the “world’s most famous poet.”
In this next poem, Duffy explores the ancient Greek myth of King Midas. King Midas. According to Ovid, the Roman poet who gave us so many of our most popular versions of the ancient Greek myths, Silenus, who was the dear friend and companion of the god Dionysus, strayed from the retinue as the group was traveling through Phrygia and he was found by some peasants. They didn’t recognize Silenus and brought him as a captive to their King Midas.
Midas had been initiated into the mysteries. He recognized Silenus, treated with him honor, and took him to rejoin Dionysus. In thanks and recognition of the King’s reverent, good deed, Dionysus offered to grant one wish for the king. Midas ased for the ability to turn everything that he touches into gold. With some misgivings, the god Dionysus complies.
At first Midas is delighted with his gift and experiments with turning common objects into solid gold treasures. But… he quickly realizes his mistake.
Duffy reflects on this king who makes everything gold, from the perspective of the queen, the wife whose life is also upended. Here is Duffy’s story, according to Mrs. Midas.
“Mrs. Midas” link to the text of poem online
The next poem that I have for you today is a commentary on a well-known theme in fairy tales, the beauty and the beast. The beauty and the beast and the fate of fairy tale women and girls who become cultural symbols of beauty and love. Cultural symbols that surpass or overtake the reality of who they actually are,and of their individuality. This poem is called “Mrs. Beast.”
“Mrs. Beast” by Carol Ann Duffy.
I hope you enjoyed Duffy’s poetry today and found her take on the old stories refreshing. If you are finding some delight in a particular poem or poet these days, please email me and share it. A poem is a great gift and reading poetry is a wonderful practice. National Poetry month is almost over but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to stop reading poems. In fact, the mythologist Joseph Campbell writes:
“How does the ordinary person come to an experience of the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message.”
I really like the way that Campbell highlights the fact that the poet can write about something that you haven’t lived yourself, that you may not completely understand, and yet the poem can still be an opening.
Now, Campbell speaks of the transcendent. I’ll speak on behalf of poetry and the quest for joy.
A poem is a portal to joy, presence and aliveness. Like so many profound things, it sounds too simple. Try it. Find a poem that moves or intrigues you and read it out loud. Read the poem several times and let the energy of the words fill you.
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I want to read one more poem for you. Another one that is based on a fairy tale. This is “Little Red-Cap.” “Little Red- Cap,” draws on the famous story of Little Red Riding Hood and others of that ilk. There are quite a few variations that involve an innocent young girl and a meeting with a wolf in the woods.
“Little Red-Cap”
If we have a better understanding of our need for myth, and all that our old stories offer, we can live more satisfying lives. We can inhabit a better story and create a more beautiful, just and sustainable world.
And that’s it for me, Catherine Svehla and Myth Matters. Thank you so much for listening. Take good care of yourself and until next time, keep the mystery in your life alive.
If you’d like more information about The World’s Wife:
The World’s Wife on good reads
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