“Pilate's Wife” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Pilate's Wife”

“Pilate's Wife” Summary

“Pilate's Wife” Themes

• 

  Marriage and Women's Oppression

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-24
• 

  Masculinity, Power, and Desire

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-4
  • Lines 9-12
  • Lines 14-16
  • Lines 19-24

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Pilate's Wife”

• Lines 1-4

  Firstly, his hands—a ...
  ... me flinch. Pontius.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-7

  I longed for ...
  ... the frenzied crowd.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 8-12

  I tripped, clutched ...
  ... to the gates.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  The night before ...
  ... sweating, sexual, terrified.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  Leave him alone ...
  ... up his sleeves

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 21-24

  and slowly washed ...
  ... believed he was.

  

  

  

  

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“Pilate's Wife” Symbols

• 

  Hands

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-4: “Firstly, his hands—a woman's. Softer than mine, / with pearly nails, like shells from Galilee. / Indolent hands. Camp hands that clapped for grapes. / Their pale, mothy touch made me flinch.”
  • Lines 14-16: “His brown hands touched me. Then it hurt. / Then blood. I saw that each tough palm was skewered / by a nail.”
  • Lines 19-21: “Pilate saw me, / looked away, then carefully turned up his sleeves / and slowly washed his useless, perfumed hands.”

“Pilate's Wife” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Juxtaposition

  

  

  

  

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  Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “a woman's”
  • Line 3: “Indolent hands. Camp hands that clapped for grapes.”
  • Line 4: “pale, mothy touch,” “made me flinch”
  • Line 5: “I longed for Rome, home, someone else”
  • Line 6: “I crept out”
  • Line 13: “I dreamt of him.”
  • Line 14: “brown hands”
  • Line 15: “tough palm”
  • Line 16: “I woke up, sweating, sexual,”
  • Lines 19-20: “Pilate saw me, / looked away”
  • Line 21: “his useless, perfumed hands.”
  • Line 23: “My maid knows all the rest.”

• Imagery

  

  

  

  

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  Where imagery appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “pearly nails”
  • Line 4: “pale, mothy touch”
  • Line 12: “rough men shouldering”
  • Line 14: “Then it hurt.”
  • Lines 15-16: “each tough palm was skewered / by a nail. ”
  • Line 21: “perfumed hands.”

• Irony

  

  

  

  

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  Where irony appears in the poem:

  • Lines 19-21: “Pilate saw me, / looked away, then carefully turned up his sleeves / and slowly washed his useless, perfumed hands.”
  • Lines 22-23: “They seized the prophet then and dragged him out, / up to the Place of Skulls.”

• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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  Where repetition appears in the poem:

  • Line 1: “hands”
  • Lines 10-10: “He looked at me. I mean he looked at  / me / .”
  • Line 14: “hands”
  • Lines 14-15: “Then it hurt. / Then blood.”
  • Line 21: “hands”

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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  Where allusion appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “Galilee”
  • Line 4: “Pontius”
  • Lines 5-6: “When the Nazarene / entered Jerusalem,”
  • Line 13: “The night before his trial, I dreamt of him.”
  • Lines 18-23: “the Nazarene was crowned with thorns. / The crowd was baying for Barabbas. Pilate saw me, / looked away, then carefully turned up his sleeves / and slowly washed his useless, perfumed hands. / They seized the prophet then and dragged him out, / up to the Place of Skulls. ”

“Pilate's Wife” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Galilee
• Indolent
• Camp
• Pontius Pilate
• The Nazarene
• Jerusalem
• Ass
• Barabbas
• Place of Skulls
• The Prophet

• (Location in poem: Line 2: “pearly nails, like shells from Galilee.”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Pilate's Wife”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Pilate's Wife” Speaker

“Pilate's Wife” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Pilate's Wife”

More “Pilate's Wife” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to "Pilate's Wife" read aloud.

  • A Brief Biography — Read a short biography of Carol Ann Duffy.

  • The World's Wife — Read more poems from The World's Wife, the collection in which "Pilate's Wife" was published.

  • Duffy as Laureate — Watch a brief interview with Duffy in which she discusses becoming the first woman Poet Laureate of the UK.

  • Pontius Pilate — Learn more about Pontius Pilate, one of the central characters of the poem.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

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