Carol Ann Duffy's "Mrs Sisyphus" presents the mythical Sisyphus, a Greek king whose punishment for trying to trick the gods was to roll a boulder up a hill for eternity, as a modern-day workaholic: he's so invested in succeeding that he can't be bothered to spend time with his lonely wife, who's fed up with her husband's irrational devotion to an impossible task. The poem pokes fun at contemporary corporate culture, suggesting that the obsession with work robs people of the ability to actually enjoy their lives. In highlighting Sisyphus's neglect of his wife, the poem also implies that women have often had to pay the price for men's vanity and pride. "Mrs Sisyphus" was published in Duffy's 1999 collection The World's Wife, alongside other poems written from the perspective of female counterparts of famous men from history and myth.
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The Full Text of “Mrs Sisyphus”
The Full Text of “Mrs Sisyphus”
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“Mrs Sisyphus” Summary
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“Mrs Sisyphus” Themes
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Absurd Devotion to Work
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-32
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Masculine Pride and Women's Lack of Choices
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-32
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Mrs Sisyphus”
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Lines 1-5
That's him pushing ...
... with a dirk. -
Lines 6-9
Think of the ...
... in the park? -
Lines 10-14
He's a dork. ...
... nearer the mark. -
Lines 15-19
He might as ...
... the way down. -
Lines 20-24
And what does ...
... Mustn't shirk! -
Lines 25-28
But I lie ...
... Johann Sebastian Bach. -
Lines 29-32
My voice reduced ...
... to his work.
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“Mrs Sisyphus” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Line 1: “That's him pushing the stone up the hill, the jerk.”
- Lines 17-19: “that feckin' stone's no sooner up / than it's rolling back / all the way down.”
- Lines 25-28: “But I lie alone in the dark, / feeling like Noah's wife did / when he hammered away at the Ark; / like Frau Johann Sebastian Bach.”
- Lines 31-32: “while, up on the deepening murk of the hill, / he is giving one hundred percent and more to his work.”
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “stone”
- Line 2: “stone,” “size”
- Line 3: “started”
- Line 6: “perks”
- Line 7: “perk”
- Line 8: “pop”
- Line 9: “park”
- Line 11: “Folks,” “flock”
- Line 13: “lark”
- Line 14: “load,” “mark”
- Line 15: “might”
- Line 16: “moon”
- Line 17: “stone's,” “sooner”
- Line 21: “shirk”
- Line 23: “shark”
- Line 24: “shirk”
- Line 29: “squawk”
- Line 30: “smile,” “smirk”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “That's,” “stone,” “jerk”
- Line 2: “call,” “stone,” “size,” “kirk”
- Line 3: “first started,” “just,” “irk”
- Line 4: “incenses,” “absolute,” “berk”
- Line 5: “dirk”
- Line 6: “perks”
- Line 7: “perk,” “shriek”
- Line 8: “pop,” “open,” “cork”
- Line 9: “walk,” “park”
- Line 10: “dork”
- Line 11: “Folks,” “flock,” “from,” “gawk”
- Line 12: “think,” “quirk”
- Line 13: “lark”
- Line 14: “old,” “bollocks,” “mark”
- Line 15: “well,” “bark”
- Line 16: “moon”
- Line 17: “feckin,” “stone's,” “sooner”
- Line 18: “back”
- Line 19: “down”
- Line 21: “shirk”
- Line 22: “keen,” “hawk”
- Line 23: “lean,” “shark”
- Line 24: “shirk”
- Line 25: “lie,” “alone,” “dark”
- Line 27: “he,” “hammered,” “Ark”
- Line 28: “Sebastian,” “Bach”
- Line 29: “voice,” “reduced,” “squawk”
- Line 30: “smile,” “to,” “twisted,” “smirk”
- Line 31: “up,” “deepening,” “murk”
- Line 32: “work”
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Diacope
Where diacope appears in the poem:- Line 1: “stone”
- Line 2: “stone”
- Line 6: “perks”
- Line 7: “perk”
- Line 21: “Mustn't shirk”
- Line 24: “Mustn't shirk”
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Onomatopoeia
Where onomatopoeia appears in the poem:- Line 8: “pop”
- Line 15: “bark”
- Line 29: “squawk”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Line 2: “I call it a stone—it's nearer the size of a kirk.”
- Lines 22-23: “keen as a hawk, / lean as a shark”
- Line 26: “feeling like Noah's wife did”
- Line 28: “like Frau Johann Sebastian Bach.”
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Rhetorical Question
Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:- Lines 7-9: “What use is a perk, I shriek, / when you haven't the time to pop open a cork / or go for so much as a walk in the park?”
- Line 20: “And what does he say?”
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Colloquialism
Where colloquialism appears in the poem:- Line 1: “the jerk”
- Line 2: “the size of a kirk”
- Line 4: “the absolute berk”
- Line 5: “vicious to him with a dirk”
- Line 13: “a bit of a lark.”
- Line 14: “A load of old bollocks is nearer the mark.”
- Lines 15-16: “He might as well bark / at the moon—”
- Line 17: “that feckin' stone's”
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“Mrs Sisyphus” 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.
- Kirk
- Irk
- Incenses
- Berk
- Dirk
- Perk
- Pop open a cork
- Gawk
- Lark
- A load of old bollocks
- Nearer the mark
- Feckin'
- Shirk
- Keen
- Noah's wife
- Ark
- Frau Johann Sebastian Bach
- Murk
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “I call it a stone—it's nearer the size of a kirk.”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Mrs Sisyphus”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Mrs Sisyphus” Speaker
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“Mrs Sisyphus” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Mrs Sisyphus”
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More “Mrs Sisyphus” Resources
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External Resources
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Listen to a Reading of the Poem — A lively performance of the poem by Elizabeth Whittome for Cambridge University.
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A Look at the Poet's Life — An introduction to the poet's life and work from the Poetry Foundation.
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A History of the Dramatic Monologue — An overview of the dramatic monologue (a form Duffy often turns to in her poetry) and how it has been used over time.
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A Review of The World's Wife — Author Jeanette Winterson reviews Duffy's fifth collection of poetry, in which "Mrs Sisyphus" appeared.
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An Introduction to the Myth of Sisyphus — A breakdown of the mythology surrounding Sisyphus, including how his wife, Merope, played into his scheme to cheat death.
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Who Was Frau Johann Sebastian Bach? — An interesting article about Bach's second wife, Anna Magdalena, who may have written some of his most famous pieces.
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The World's Oldest Story — Check out an article on the Pleides star cluster, and how the myth of "Seven Sisters" might date back 100,000 years.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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