“Thetis” Introduction

• Read the full text of “Thetis”

“Thetis” Summary

“Thetis” Themes

• 

  Women's Adaptability vs. Patriarchy's Persistence

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-48
• 

  Motherhood

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 46-48
• 

  Humankind's Destruction of the Environment

  Where this theme appears in the poem:

  • Lines 2-3
  • Line 6
  • Lines 7-8
  • Lines 11-12
  • Line 14
  • Lines 16-18
  • Line 19
  • Lines 23-24
  • Lines 25-26
  • Lines 29-30
  • Lines 31-33
  • Lines 34-35
  • Lines 37-38
  • Lines 40-42
  • Lines 43-44
  • Lines 44-45
  • Lines 46-48

Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Thetis”

• Lines 1-6

  I shrank myself ...
  ... of his fist.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-12

  Then I did ...
  ... a crossbow's eye.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-18

  So I shopped ...
  ... at my nape.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 19-24

  Next I was ...
  ... the gun. Twelve-bore.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 25-30

  I sank through ...
  ... and his sinker.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 31-36

  I changed my ...
  ... Stuff that.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 37-42

  I was wind, ...
  ... a fighter plane.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 43-48

  Then my tongue ...
  ... child burst out.

  

  

  

  

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“Thetis” Symbols

• 

  Thetis

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “I shrank myself / to the size of a bird”
  • Lines 7-8: “Then I did this: / shouldered the cross of an albatross”
  • Lines 13-14: “So I shopped for a suitable shape / Size 8. Snake.”
  • Lines 19-22: “Next I was roar, claw, 50 lb paw, / jungle-floored, meateater, raw, / a zebra's gore / in my lower jaw.”
  • Lines 25-28: “I sank through the floor of the earth / to swim in the sea. / Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, / whale, the ocean's opera singer.”
  • Lines 31-33: “I changed my tune / to racoon, skunk, stoat, / to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat.”
  • Lines 37-39: “I was wind, I was gas, / I was all hot air, trailed / clouds for hair.”
  • Lines 43-44: “Then my tongue was flame / and my kisses burned,”
  • Lines 46-48: “So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out—or that's / how it felt when the child burst out.”
• 

  Peleus

  Where this symbol appears in the poem:

  • Lines 4-6: “Sweet, sweet, was the small song / that I sang, / till I felt the squeeze of his fist.”
  • Lines 11-12: “But I felt my wings / clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.”
  • Lines 16-18: “Coiled in my charmer's lap, / I felt the grasp of his strangler's clasp / at my nape.”
  • Lines 23-24: “But my gold eye saw / the guy in the grass with the gun. Twelve-bore.”
  • Lines 29-30: “Over the waves the fisherman came / with his hook and his line and his sinker.”
  • Lines 34-35: “The taxidermist sharpened his knives. / I smelled the stink of formaldehyde.”
  • Lines 40-42: “I scrawled my name with a hurricane, / when out of the blue / roared a fighter plane.”
  • Line 45: “but the groom wore asbestos.”

“Thetis” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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  Where alliteration appears in the poem:

  • Line 4: “Sweet,” “sweet,” “small,” “song”
  • Line 5: “sang”
  • Line 6: “squeeze”
  • Line 12: “clipped,” “crossbow's”
  • Line 13: “So,” “shopped,” “suitable,” “shape”
  • Line 14: “Size,” “Snake”
  • Line 23: “gold”
  • Line 24: “guy,” “grass,” “gun”
  • Line 25: “sank”
  • Line 26: “swim,” “sea”
  • Line 28: “ocean's”
  • Line 29: “Over”
  • Line 30: “his,” “hook,” “his,” “his”
  • Line 32: “skunk,” “stoat”
  • Line 35: “smelled,” “stink”
  • Line 36: “Stuff”

• Allusion

  

  

  

  

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  Where allusion appears in the poem:

  • Lines 7-12: “Then I did this: / shouldered the cross of an albatross / up the hill of the sky. / Why? To follow a ship. / But I felt my wings / clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.”

• Idiom

  

  

  

  

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  Where idiom appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “a bird in the hand”
  • Line 8: “shouldered the cross”
  • Line 30: “his hook and his line and his sinker.”
  • Line 31: “I changed my tune”

• Enjambment

  

  

  

  

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  Where enjambment appears in the poem:

  • Lines 1-2: “myself / to”
  • Lines 2-3: “hand / of”
  • Lines 4-5: “song / that”
  • Lines 8-9: “albatross / up”
  • Lines 11-12: “wings / clipped”
  • Lines 13-14: “shape / Size”
  • Lines 17-18: “clasp / at”
  • Lines 21-22: “gore / in”
  • Lines 23-24: “saw / the”
  • Lines 25-26: “earth / to”
  • Lines 29-30: “came / with”
  • Lines 31-32: “tune / to”
  • Lines 38-39: “trailed / clouds”
  • Lines 41-42: “blue / roared”
  • Lines 43-44: “flame / and”
  • Lines 47-48: “that's / how”

• Asyndeton

  

  

  

  

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  Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

  • Lines 19-22: “roar, claw, 50 lb paw, / jungle-floored, meateater, raw, / a zebra's gore / in my lower jaw.”
  • Lines 27-28: “Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, / whale, the ocean's opera singer.”
  • Lines 32-33: “to racoon, skunk, stoat, / to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat.”
  • Lines 37-39: “I was wind, I was gas, / I was all hot air, trailed / clouds for hair.”
  • Lines 46-47: “So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out”

• Assonance

  

  

  

  

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  Where assonance appears in the poem:

  • Line 2: “hand”
  • Line 3: “man”
  • Line 8: “cross,” “albatross”
  • Line 9: “sky”
  • Line 10: “Why,” “ship”
  • Line 12: “clipped,” “by,” “squint,” “crossbow's,” “eye”
  • Line 13: “shape”
  • Line 14: “8,” “Snake”
  • Line 15: “Mistake”
  • Line 16: “lap”
  • Line 17: “grasp,” “strangler's,” “clasp”
  • Line 18: “nape”
  • Line 19: “roar,” “claw,” “paw”
  • Line 20: “floored,” “raw”
  • Line 21: “gore”
  • Line 22: “lower,” “jaw”
  • Line 23: “gold,” “eye,” “saw”
  • Line 24: “guy,” “bore”
  • Line 26: “sea”
  • Line 27: “me,” “eel”
  • Line 28: “ocean's,” “opera,” “singer”
  • Line 29: “Over,” “waves,” “came”
  • Line 30: “sinker”
  • Line 31: “tune”
  • Line 32: “racoon”
  • Line 33: “bat,” “rat”
  • Line 34: “knives”
  • Line 35: “formaldehyde”
  • Line 36: “that”
  • Line 38: “air,” “trailed”
  • Line 39: “hair”
  • Line 40: “name,” “hurricane”
  • Line 42: “plane”
  • Line 43: “flame”
  • Line 44: “burned”
  • Line 46: “changed,” “learned”
  • Line 47: “out”
  • Line 48: “out”

“Thetis” 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.

• Albatross
• Shouldered the cross
• Size 8
• Nape
• Twelve-bore
• Stoat
• Taxidermist
• Formaldehyde
• Stuff that
• Asbestos

• (Location in poem: Line 8: “shouldered the cross of an albatross”)

Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Thetis”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Thetis” Speaker

“Thetis” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Thetis”

More “Thetis” Resources

• External Resources

  • On Thetis — Learn more about Thetis's role in Greek mythology from this reference entry, courtesy of Britannica. 

  • Carol Ann Duffy's Biography — Learn more about the poet's life and work from this brief biography, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

  • The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis — Take a closer look at Joachim Wtewael's famous painting, "The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis," courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

  • An Interview with Carol Ann Duffy — Listen to Duffy discuss The World's Wife and her perspective on poetry in this interview with the Lincoln Review.

  • What Is Ecofeminism? — Learn more about the relationship between feminism and environmentalism.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

  • A Child's Sleep

  • Anne Hathaway

  • Before You Were Mine

  • Circe

  • Death of a Teacher

  • Demeter

  • Education For Leisure

  • Elvis's Twin Sister

  • Eurydice

  • Foreign

  • Havisham

  • Head of English

  • In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

  • In Your Mind

  • Little Red Cap

  • Mean Time

  • Medusa

  • Mrs Aesop

  • Mrs Darwin

  • Mrs Faust

  • Mrs Icarus

  • Mrs Lazarus

  • Mrs Midas

  • Mrs Sisyphus

  • Originally

  • Penelope

  • Pilate's Wife

  • Pope Joan

  • Prayer

  • Pygmalion's Bride

  • Queen Herod

  • Quickdraw

  • Recognition

  • Salome

  • Standing Female Nude

  • Stealing

  • The Darling Letters

  • The Dolphins

  • The Good Teachers

  • Valentine

  • Warming Her Pearls

  • War Photographer

  • We Remember Your Childhood Well

  • Work