Andrew ("Wally")
The poem “Salome” by Carol Ann Duffy caught my interest when I was picking my group because I recognized her name from many Sunday school lessons that I had when I was a child. The story of Salome is a gruesome tale that depicts elements of greed, manipulation, and lust. In the Bible story, Salome was the daughter of Herodias and danced for King Herod on his birthday. King Herod was so pleased with Salome’s performance that he offered her anything she wanted. Upon hearing the offer, Salome went to her mother and asked her what she wanted. Her mother told her to ask for the head of John the Baptist (who was held in prison at the time) on a silver platter. The king, unwillingly, followed through with his promise and executed John the Baptist to have his head put onto a silver platter.
I think that Duffy wrote this poem to portray the disturbing, sex crazed, death obsessed mind of Salome.
The poem is written in first person through the view of Salome herself. This allows the reader to listen to her thoughts and even transfer themselves into Salome’s perspective. We get to get an up front and unfiltered view of Salome’s thoughts and her disturbing views.
Carol Ann Duffy paints a picture in the reader’s mind in the beginning of the poem when she describes Salome’s surroundings and her thought process. She starts off with an abrupt thought, “I’d done it before...”, which implies that she is awake and is examining a situation. Then Duffy gives us a little more description of Salome’s surroundings when she describes John the Baptist’s head on a pillow. This description allows us to realize that she is in fact, in her bed (a symbol that is often associated with sex), with a head that has a reddish beard with matted hair (suggests blood on the head).
Duffy uses symbols and descriptions to depict the disturbing persona of Salome. Duffy highlights Salome’s obsession with sex by referring to the color red (a color often associated with romance. In the first stanza, she describes the head as having a “reddish beard” and a “beautiful crimson mouth”. Then she describes her sheet as sticky and red, which again implies sex or murder.
The free verse structure of the poem adds on to the effect of the first person perspective. This kind of structure allows the reader to really put themselves in the shoes of Salome. In the poem, Salome’s thoughts are disjointed and have a sort of manic quality to them.
I think that Duffy wrote this poem to portray the disturbing, sex crazed, death obsessed mind of Salome.
The poem is written in first person through the view of Salome herself. This allows the reader to listen to her thoughts and even transfer themselves into Salome’s perspective. We get to get an up front and unfiltered view of Salome’s thoughts and her disturbing views.
Carol Ann Duffy paints a picture in the reader’s mind in the beginning of the poem when she describes Salome’s surroundings and her thought process. She starts off with an abrupt thought, “I’d done it before...”, which implies that she is awake and is examining a situation. Then Duffy gives us a little more description of Salome’s surroundings when she describes John the Baptist’s head on a pillow. This description allows us to realize that she is in fact, in her bed (a symbol that is often associated with sex), with a head that has a reddish beard with matted hair (suggests blood on the head).
Duffy uses symbols and descriptions to depict the disturbing persona of Salome. Duffy highlights Salome’s obsession with sex by referring to the color red (a color often associated with romance. In the first stanza, she describes the head as having a “reddish beard” and a “beautiful crimson mouth”. Then she describes her sheet as sticky and red, which again implies sex or murder.
The free verse structure of the poem adds on to the effect of the first person perspective. This kind of structure allows the reader to really put themselves in the shoes of Salome. In the poem, Salome’s thoughts are disjointed and have a sort of manic quality to them.
Eunnie
To me, this poem is a reflection of 'monsters', both inner and outer. The darkness of the tone in “Salome” elicits mixed responses from me. On one hand, I am deeply disturbed by the nonchalance with which the speaker regards her lifestyle of “the booze and the fags and the sex” and her anticlimactic reaction to her finding a “head on a platter” in her bed. On the other hand, though, in some sick way, with “what did it matter?” and “clean up my act”, I can almost see Salome as a victim of a dismissive society and even see facets of me in her.
The way in which she begins her dramatic monologue seems to be innocent enough at the start, with a description of his physical appearance, but then the macabre tone of the poem starts to sneak in from when she says his hair is “matted”, using various words for the color red like “crimson” as a foreboding sign of the presence of blood.
The fact that she didn’t even remember his name and brushed off his presence so easily adds to my perception of how very demented Salome is. The sense of normalcy given in “tea, dry toast, no butter” and ringing “for the maid” after the macabre twist in tone further demonstrates that this is no strange occurrence, either. She herself says that she had “done it before (and doubtless [would] do it again”.
The lack of mention of killing when she says that she needs to “cut out the booze and the fags and the sex” is also perturbing. When I first read it, I assumed that killing was implicitly included in ‘cleaning up her act’, but then I read the poem through again, and I was shocked to find that she had no remorse for killing, as shown by her wry statement of “ain’t life a bitch”.
This juxtaposition of normalcy and grotesque violence throughout the poem combined with the free verse magnifies the manic mannerisms of Salome and again highlights just how twisted she is. This can be seen to a lesser extent when she uses says she needs to clean up her act, and then goes more into detail on her sex life through “The beater or biter”, which implies that she had been with men who had various habits in bed. The use of alliteration in plosives and colloquialisms in the same semantic field of “sex” gives readers the impression that she is a nymphomaniac.
The use of irony, though, seems to have two purposes to me. One appears to be to demonstrate how habitual murder is for Salome, as shown by “lamb to the slaughter” and “ain’t life a bitch”, but at the same time, the irony seems to have a biting undertone that demonstrates her resentment towards society.
The way in which she begins her dramatic monologue seems to be innocent enough at the start, with a description of his physical appearance, but then the macabre tone of the poem starts to sneak in from when she says his hair is “matted”, using various words for the color red like “crimson” as a foreboding sign of the presence of blood.
The fact that she didn’t even remember his name and brushed off his presence so easily adds to my perception of how very demented Salome is. The sense of normalcy given in “tea, dry toast, no butter” and ringing “for the maid” after the macabre twist in tone further demonstrates that this is no strange occurrence, either. She herself says that she had “done it before (and doubtless [would] do it again”.
The lack of mention of killing when she says that she needs to “cut out the booze and the fags and the sex” is also perturbing. When I first read it, I assumed that killing was implicitly included in ‘cleaning up her act’, but then I read the poem through again, and I was shocked to find that she had no remorse for killing, as shown by her wry statement of “ain’t life a bitch”.
This juxtaposition of normalcy and grotesque violence throughout the poem combined with the free verse magnifies the manic mannerisms of Salome and again highlights just how twisted she is. This can be seen to a lesser extent when she uses says she needs to clean up her act, and then goes more into detail on her sex life through “The beater or biter”, which implies that she had been with men who had various habits in bed. The use of alliteration in plosives and colloquialisms in the same semantic field of “sex” gives readers the impression that she is a nymphomaniac.
The use of irony, though, seems to have two purposes to me. One appears to be to demonstrate how habitual murder is for Salome, as shown by “lamb to the slaughter” and “ain’t life a bitch”, but at the same time, the irony seems to have a biting undertone that demonstrates her resentment towards society.
Erika
When I first read “Salome”, by Carol Ann Duffy, I found the poem very disturbing, yet really interesting and grabbed my attention. Despite Salome’s important biblical figure, Duffy depicted as her as a modern figure who is a crazy murderer and grotesque woman which greatly engaged me into the poem.
The way Salome is depicted in the poem is very shocking and unpleasant. The first line “I’d done it before (and doubtless I’ll do it again, sooner or late)” frightened me by how Salome is claiming herself that she has murdered someone several times and will probably repeat this action. Because of the use of first person “I”, I could imagine the brain process going through in Salome’s head and I could put my self in her shoes. The line follows with “woke up with a head on the pillow beside me –whose?-“ shows how she does not care who she has "killed" and this incident did not bother her. Salome is portrayed as a cold hearted woman, not caring what is going around her and does not understand what she has done. In addition, she mentions “Never again!” in lime 24, which I first assumed to be a response to the killing. However, the line is followed by “I needed to clean up my act, get fitter, cut out the brooze and the fags and the sex”, meaning that she was talking about her bad habits, not the killing.
The imageries used in the poem were very powerful. Line 16 states “for tea, dry toast, no butter”, meaning that she is having a breakfast right next to the dead-head. The juxtaposition with this everyday activity and the grotesque image disgusted me and made me question the human nature of Salome. How could she be so normal with this unusual situation and even have an appetite?
I found the Salome portrayed in the poem as a modern character by the anachronism in the poem by the mentioning of “for tea, dry toast, no butter" in line 16 and the use of the word “bitch” and “ain’t” "in line 35. In a way, it was easy for me to understand the poem because I do not have a lot of knowledge about the biblical story and the characters by Duffy depicting Salome as a “modern-figure”. Salome is portrayed as women who is obsessive and has too much affection for the head that in a way seems psychotic. I saw the character as a stereotypical woman who is slovenly and odd, but greatly exaggerated to have an effect of hyperbole, which can be interpreted from line ““I needed to clean up my act, get fitter, cut out the brooze and the fags and the sex”.
The way Salome is depicted in the poem is very shocking and unpleasant. The first line “I’d done it before (and doubtless I’ll do it again, sooner or late)” frightened me by how Salome is claiming herself that she has murdered someone several times and will probably repeat this action. Because of the use of first person “I”, I could imagine the brain process going through in Salome’s head and I could put my self in her shoes. The line follows with “woke up with a head on the pillow beside me –whose?-“ shows how she does not care who she has "killed" and this incident did not bother her. Salome is portrayed as a cold hearted woman, not caring what is going around her and does not understand what she has done. In addition, she mentions “Never again!” in lime 24, which I first assumed to be a response to the killing. However, the line is followed by “I needed to clean up my act, get fitter, cut out the brooze and the fags and the sex”, meaning that she was talking about her bad habits, not the killing.
The imageries used in the poem were very powerful. Line 16 states “for tea, dry toast, no butter”, meaning that she is having a breakfast right next to the dead-head. The juxtaposition with this everyday activity and the grotesque image disgusted me and made me question the human nature of Salome. How could she be so normal with this unusual situation and even have an appetite?
I found the Salome portrayed in the poem as a modern character by the anachronism in the poem by the mentioning of “for tea, dry toast, no butter" in line 16 and the use of the word “bitch” and “ain’t” "in line 35. In a way, it was easy for me to understand the poem because I do not have a lot of knowledge about the biblical story and the characters by Duffy depicting Salome as a “modern-figure”. Salome is portrayed as women who is obsessive and has too much affection for the head that in a way seems psychotic. I saw the character as a stereotypical woman who is slovenly and odd, but greatly exaggerated to have an effect of hyperbole, which can be interpreted from line ““I needed to clean up my act, get fitter, cut out the brooze and the fags and the sex”.