Carol Ann Duffy's "Mrs Aesop" is a poem about an ancient Greek storyteller famous for his fables, or short tales that teach a moral lesson. The poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue from the imagined perspective of Aesop's long-suffering wife, who portrays her famous husband as a condescending, impotent bore whose incessant moralizing has ruined their marriage. The poem implies that Aesop's holier-than-though attitude actually stems from deep insecurities about his masculinity, and cheekily suggests that audiences take the teachings of famous men with a grain of salt. "Mrs Aesop" first appeared in Duffy's 1999 book The World's Wife, a collection of poems told from the perspective of the female counterparts of famous men.
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The Full Text of “Mrs Aesop”
The Full Text of “Mrs Aesop”
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“Mrs Aesop” Summary
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“Mrs Aesop” Themes
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The Tedium of Moralizing
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-25
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Fragile Masculinity and Pride
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-3
- Lines 9-10
- Lines 14-15
- Lines 17-25
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Mrs Aesop”
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Line 1
By Christ, he ... bore for Purgatory.
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Lines 1-5
He was small, ...
... the bush. Tedious. -
Lines 6-10
Going out was ...
... to be lions. -
Lines 11-15
On one appalling ...
... . Asshole. -
Lines 16-19
What race? What ...
... moral of itself. -
Lines 19-21
...
... was diabolical. -
Lines 21-25
I gave him ...
... laughed last, longest.
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“Mrs Aesop” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Lines 1-3
- Lines 4-5
- Line 6
- Line 7
- Line 8
- Lines 9-10
- Lines 11-12
- Lines 13-15
- Lines 16-17
- Lines 19-20
- Line 23
- Lines 24-24
- Line 25
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Irony
Where irony appears in the poem:- Line 1: “By Christ, he could bore for Purgatory.”
- Lines 2-3: “Dead men, / Mrs Aesop / , he'd say, / tell no tales / .”
- Lines 14-15: “Slow / but certain, Mrs Aesop, wins the race / .”
- Lines 19-20: “Action, Mrs A., speaks louder / than words / .”
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Colloquialism
Where colloquialism appears in the poem:- Lines 1-25
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Rhetorical Question
Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:- Lines 16-17: “What race? What sour grapes? What silk purse, / sow's ear, dog in a manger, what big fish?”
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “By,” “bore,” “Purgatory”
- Line 2: “prepossess,” “impress”
- Line 3: “tell,” “tales”
- Line 6: “Going,” “was worst,” “gate,” “look,” “leap”
- Line 7: “scour,” “fields”
- Line 8: “for,” “sly,” “fox,” “sky,” “swallow”
- Line 9: “summer”
- Line 11: “appalling,” “passed”
- Line 14: “Slow”
- Line 15: “certain”
- Line 16: “sour,” “silk”
- Line 17: “sow's”
- Line 22: “cock,” “crow”
- Line 23: “kettle”
- Line 24: “cut”
- Line 25: “laughed last, longest”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “By Christ,” “bore for Purgatory”
- Line 2: “prepossess”
- Lines 2-2: “impress. / Dead men”
- Line 3: “tell,” “Well let,” “tell”
- Line 4: “that,” “shat”
- Line 5: “less,” “Tedious”
- Line 7: “shy”
- Line 8: “sly,” “sky”
- Line 10: “envied,” “eagle”
- Line 11: “On,” “appalling,” “stroll,” “old”
- Line 12: “stopped,” “note”
- Line 14: “slow”
- Lines 14-14: “road. / Slow”
- Line 15: “Asshole”
- Line 16: “race,” “grapes”
- Line 17: “days”
- Line 18: “awake”
- Line 19: “towards,” “moral”
- Line 21: “gave,” “fable”
- Line 22: “razor,” “axe”
- Line 23: “blacker,” “pot,” “called”
- Line 24: “save,” “face”
- Line 25: “laughed last”
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“Mrs Aesop” 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.
- Purgatory
- Prepossess
- Hedgerow
- Jackdaw
- Appalling
- Diabolical
- Cock
- Tail
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “By Christ, he could bore for Purgatory.”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Mrs Aesop”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Mrs Aesop” Speaker
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“Mrs Aesop” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Mrs Aesop”
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More “Mrs Aesop” Resources
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External Resources
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Aesop's Fables — Read an illustrated selection of Aesop's Fables presented by the Library of Congress.
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Duffy on Sylvia Plath — Read an article by Duffy on how Sylvia Plath has influenced her.
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On Aesop — Learn more about Aesop's life, with illustrations from a rare 1687 manuscript.
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On Fables — Learn more about fables as a genre, including how to write one of your own.
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Duffy's Life and Work — Learn more about Duffy in this biography from the Poetry Foundation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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