the long queen

poem context? 3 points

• first poem in the anthology

• relates to all aspects of womanhood

• references queen elizabeth i - long reigning monarch who never married

structure and its significance?

lines gradually increase in length like a queen building up power

use of language?

3rd-person narrator - formal, instructional tone

what is asyndetic listing? significance of its use?

• listing without conjunctions (and, but)

• emphasizes the queen’s power

significance of the line ‘the long queen couldn’t die’? 2 points

• references queen elizabeth without naming her, implies her significance

• immortality as a universal queen to women

significance of ‘[bowing] her head/ for the cold weight of the crown’? 2 points

• ‘bowing’ - female submission in the patriarchy

• ‘cold weight’ - loneliness and responsibility

‘she’d looked at the second son of the earl, the foreign prince…then taken time for a husband’ significance? 3 points

• ‘time’ - metaphor for her intelligence

• ‘time’ also represents her immortality - still discussed to this day

• asyndetic list - shrewdness 

technique in ‘long live the queen’? significance?

motif - reinforces her special status

‘[she was queen of] women, girls, spinsters and hags…mothers of all these’ significance? 2 points

• insults like ‘hags’ reclaimed to represent acceptance of all women

• ‘mothers of all these’ - feminist themes 

‘her word of law was in their bones…’ significance? (3 points)

• tricolon in full line

• queen present throughout their lives

• ‘wild kicks’ defies patriarchal expectations for women

‘no girl born who wasn’t the long queen’s always child’ significance?

reflects religious teachings of ‘god’s children’

‘unseen, she ruled and reigned; some said in a castle…’ significance? 2 points

• ‘ruled and reigned’ - both active and passive power

• fairytale imagery in ‘castle’, 'tower’, etc

techniques used in stanza starting ‘what were the laws?’ significance? 2 points

• nursery rhyming - relates to female childhood

• biblical reference in ‘apple of the long queen’s eye’ - characterizes her as protective

significance of ‘blood: proof [of intent] in the long queen’s color’? 

relates periods to the queen - defies stigma around periods

significance of relating periods to the moon?

the moon is associated with femininity

significance of ‘tears:…bright jewels/for the long queen’s fingers to weigh’?

acknowledges value in grief

relevance of the stanza starting ‘childbirth: most to lie/on the birthing beds’?

recognises the harsh reality about childbirth

techniques in ‘screamed scarlet’? 2 points

• synesthesia - relates red royal color to the sound of childbirth

• alliteration and sibilance - emphasis

significance and technique in ‘sore flowers’? 3 points

• oxymoron

• coldly refers to female genitals - patriarchy’s view of women

• acknowledges pain of childbirth  

significance of ‘the pain was worth it./no mother bore daughter not named to honor the queen’?

emphasizes how revered the queen is 

technique used in ‘the light music of girls, the drums of women, the faint strings of the old, long queen’? meaning behind this technique? (2 points)

• metaphor

• ‘light music’ is innocence, ‘drums’ are struggles ‘faint strings’ are memories

significance of final line ‘all her possessions for a moment of time’? 3 points

• references queen elizabeth’s final words

• ironic when compared to the first stanza

• conveys that the queen’s legacy lives on after her death