beautiful (WIP)

title significance?

irony as the beautiful women face difficult lives

women referenced in the poem? 4 points

• helen of troy

• cleopatra

• marilyn monroe

• princess diana

themes in the poem? 3 points

• women’s suffering through history

• misogyny

• exploitation

who is the 1st part of the poem about?

helen of troy

‘divinely fair, a pearl, drop-dead gorgeous, beautiful…’ significance?

amusing lyrical list with anachronistic adjectives - sets tone 

significance of stanza starting ‘she won the heart of every man she saw…’?

indicates power

‘every other mother’s son’ significance?

focus on mothers indicates female dominance 

‘perfume of her breath’ significance?

contrasts ‘history’s stinking break in [princess diana’s] face’

meaning of ‘her skin’s celebrity’?

reflects the fake personas of celebrities

‘the small coin of her wedding ring/left on the bedside table like a tip’ significance? 2 points

• compares wedding to a transaction, emphasises helen’s independence

• anachronism for humor 

significance of ‘it was War’?

War capitalised implies her importance

'‘each seeing her as…a princess with the common touch, queen of his heart, pin-up, superstar’ significance? 2 points

• references the other women in the poem

• links women’s experiences and identities together

technique and significance in ‘loved and loved and loved again’? 3 points

• tricolon

• implies sex

• also relates to her many admirers 

significance of ‘beauty is fame’?

repeated throughout the poem - cyclical narrative

technique and significance of ‘stylish shroud? 2 points

• oxymoron

• critiques the media only seeing women for their appearance even in death

significance of ‘her maid, who loved her most, refused to say one word…’?

common literary theme of female relationships

‘but [the maid] lived alone and kept a little bird inside a cage’ significance?

bird imagery represents all of the women as they are trapped in the cage of fame

who is the 2nd part of the poem about?

cleopatra

references in ‘she never aged…she sashayed up the river in a golden barge’?

taken from shakespeare’s cleopatra

‘tough beauty’ technique and significance?

oxymoron emphasizing her power

significance of cleopatra’s ‘gambling hand’?

implies she might lose one day

‘her lipstick smeared on his mouth'…’ significance?

emphasizes cleopatra’s dominance by putting the man into a feminine role

‘she matched him glass for glass in drinking games…until the big man slid beneath the table, wrecked’. significance?

implies women are only taken serious when they adhere to standards for men

‘…of cities lost forever in the sea, of snakes’ significance?

refers to cleopatra’s death by suicide

who is the 3rd part of the poem about?

marilyn monroe

‘adored the waxy pouting of her mouth, her sleepy, startled gaze’. implications?

implies fake appearance and drugging

‘they filmed her famous, filmed her beautiful.’ technique and significance?

• repetition

• obsessive intrusion and objectification

‘the US whooped’ and its variations at the end of each stanza is an example of…

line-end refrain

‘they filmed her harder, harder’ implications?

innuendo - implies rape

‘her eyes sapphires pressed by a banker’s thumb’. technique and significance? 2 points

• metaphor

• ‘ pressed’ and ‘banker’s thumb’ implies she is being abused for money 

‘her skin investors’ gold’?

shows how she was objectified as a money-maker for men

‘painted the beauty on’ significance?

implies facade she must put on to appeal to men

‘dumped what they couldn’t use’ significance?

monroe’s true personality was discarded

‘quiet please, action, cut, quiet please…action, cut, till she couldn’t die when she died’ technique and meaning? 3 points

• repetition implies routine 

• ‘cut’ before her death implies her entire life was like a faked movie

• ‘she couldn’t die’ as her image was exploited after her death

‘the smoking cop who watched’ significance?

can’t escape male gaze even in death

‘as they zipped her into the body bag [he[ noticed her…resemblance to herself…the dark roots of her pubic hair’

her real self had to be kept private to her death