Carol Ann Duffy published "Pygmalion's Bride" in her 1999 collection The World's Wife, a book of dramatic monologues spoken by the female counterparts of famous (and infamous) men from history, literature, and folklore. Pygmalion was a skilled sculptor from Greek mythology who fell in love with his own statue—an image of a beautiful woman whom he named Galatea. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, fulfilled Pygmalion's wishes by bringing Galatea to life, and the couple were married. "Pygmalion's Bride" offers Galatea's perspective. According to her, Pygmalion's advances are entirely unwelcome. She tries to dissuade him by acting uninterested—but, ironically, he stops only pursuing her once she pretends to respond to his attentions with pleasure. Indeed, the moment Galatea transforms from an inanimate object into a human being with thoughts and desires of her own, Pygmalion loses interest in her entirely. This, the poem hints, might be a dynamic that plays out in a lot of heterosexual relationships.
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The Full Text of “Pygmalion's Bride”
The Full Text of “Pygmalion's Bride”
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“Pygmalion's Bride” Summary
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“Pygmalion's Bride” Themes
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Male Desire, Dominance, and Control
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-38
- Lines 50-51
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Gender & Sexual Hypocrisy
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-51
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Pygmalion's Bride”
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Lines 1-3
Cold, I was, ...
... but he did. -
Lines 4-8
He kissed my ...
... my marbled eyes. -
Lines 9-13
He spoke— ...
... stone-deaf shells. -
Lines 14-16
I heard the ...
... heard him shout. -
Lines 17-22
He brought me presents, ...
... girly things. -
Lines 23-25
He ran his ...
... played statue, shtum. -
Lines 26-33
He let his ...
... scrape, no scar. -
Lines 34-38
He propped me ...
... talked white black. -
Lines 39-43
So I changed ...
... began to moan, -
Lines 44-49
got hot, got ...
... all an act. -
Lines 50-51
And haven't seen ...
... Simple as that.
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“Pygmalion's Bride” Symbols
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The Statue
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 1: “Cold, I was, like snow, like ivory.”
- Lines 4-8: “He kissed my stone-cool lips. / I lay still / as though I'd died. / He stayed. / He thumbed my marbled eyes.”
- Lines 12-15: “My ears were sculpture, / stone-deaf shells. / I heard the sea. / I drowned him out.”
- Lines 19-20: “I didn't blink, / was dumb.”
- Lines 24-25: “I didn't shrink, / played statue, shtum.”
- Line 28: “I would not bruise.”
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“Pygmalion's Bride” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 4: “stone”
- Line 5: “still”
- Line 7: “stayed”
- Line 12: “sculpture”
- Line 13: “stone”
- Line 14: “sea”
- Line 17: “presents, polished pebbles”
- Line 18: “bells”
- Line 19: “blink”
- Line 24: “shrink”
- Line 25: “shtum”
- Line 26: “fingers,” “flesh”
- Line 33: “scratch,” “scrape,” “scar”
- Line 34: “propped,” “pillows”
- Line 40: “warm,” “wax”
- Line 50: “seen,” “since”
- Line 51: “Simple”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “I,” “like,” “like”
- Line 2: “I”
- Line 4: “kissed,” “lips”
- Line 5: “still”
- Line 6: “I'd died”
- Line 13: “deaf shells”
- Line 15: “drowned,” “out”
- Line 16: “shout”
- Line 17: “presents,” “pebbles”
- Line 18: “bells”
- Line 21: “pearls”
- Line 22: “girly”
- Line 23: “ran,” “clammy hands”
- Line 26: “let,” “fingers sink,” “flesh”
- Line 29: “marks”
- Line 30: “hearts”
- Line 31: “stars”
- Line 40: “candle wax”
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Caesura
Where caesura appears in the poem:- Line 1: “Cold, I,” “was, like,” “snow, like”
- Line 10: “endearments, what”
- Line 17: “presents, polished”
- Line 25: “statue, shtum”
- Line 27: “squeezed, he”
- Line 31: “stars, for”
- Line 33: “scratch, no,” “scrape, no”
- Line 36: “ice, was”
- Line 37: “gravel, hoarse”
- Line 40: “warm, like”
- Line 42: “soft, was”
- Line 44: “hot, got”
- Line 45: “arched, coiled, writhed”
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Colloquialism
Where colloquialism appears in the poem:- Lines 22-22: “He called them / girly things.”
- Line 25: “played statue, shtum.”
- Line 35: “jawed all night.”
- Line 39: “So I changed tack,”
- Line 44: “got hot, got wild,”
- Line 48: “screamed my head off—”
- Line 51: “Simple as that.”
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Lines 12-13: “My ears were sculpture, / stone-deaf shells.”
- Lines 29-31: “He looked for marks, / for purple hearts, / for inky stars, for smudgy clues.”
- Line 32: “His nails were claws.”
- Line 36: “My heart was ice, was glass.”
- Line 37: “His voice was gravel, hoarse.”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Line 1: “Cold, I was, like snow, like ivory.”
- Line 40: “grew warm, like candle wax,”
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“Pygmalion's Bride” 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.
- Ivory
- Blunt
- Endearments
- Dumb
- Clammy
- Shtum
- Jawed
- Changed tack
- Pliable
- Writhed
- Climax
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “Cold, I was, like snow, like ivory.”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Pygmalion's Bride”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Pygmalion's Bride” Speaker
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“Pygmalion's Bride” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Pygmalion's Bride”
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More “Pygmalion's Bride” Resources
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External Resources
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About the Poet — Learn more about Carol Ann Duffy's life and work by reading this short biography, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.
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On the Myth of Pygmalion and Galatea — Read about the myth of Pygmalion and Galatea and its subsequent adaptations in this brief reference entry, courtesy of Encyclopedia Brittanica.
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“Pygmalion and Galatea” by Jean-Léon Gérôme — Visualize the poem using this famous artistic rendition of Pygmalion and Galatea by French painter Jean-Léon Gérôme.
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Ovid's Pygmalion and the Statue — Read an early version of the story of Pygmalion and his statue from Ovid's Metamorphoses, as translated by A.S. Kline.
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An Interview with Duffy — In this interview with the Independent, Carol Ann Duffy discusses The World's Wife shortly after its publication.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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