"Penelope" is Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy's feminist take on a classical heroine. In this poem, Penelope (wife of Homer's Odysseus) takes up embroidery to distract herself from her grief while her husband wanders the world, only to find that she's stumbled onto her life's passion. The artistry of sewing gives Penelope joy, power, and independence, offering her a world of her own rather than a life dependent on a husband. The poem first appeared in Duffy's 1999 collection The World's Wife.
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The Full Text of “Penelope”
The Full Text of “Penelope”
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“Penelope” Summary
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“Penelope” Themes
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Women's Art, Creativity, and Independence
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-45
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Penelope”
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Lines 1-5
At first, I ...
... on my knees. -
Lines 6-11
Six months of ...
... lifetime’s industry instead. -
Lines 12-14
I sewed a girl ...
... childhood’s bouncing ball. -
Lines 15-20
I chose between ...
... through umber soil. -
Lines 21-27
Beneath the shade ...
... of the sun. -
Lines 28-32
And when the ...
... night unpicked it. -
Lines 33-39
I knew which ...
... I tried it. -
Lines 39-43
I was picking ...
... outside the door. -
Lines 44-45
I licked my scarlet ...
... eye once more.
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“Penelope” Symbols
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Sewing
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 9-27
- Lines 32-42
- Lines 44-45
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“Penelope” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Lines 1-5: “At first, I looked along the road / hoping to see him saunter home / among the olive trees, / a whistle for the dog / who mourned him with his warm head on my knees.”
- Lines 28-32: “And when the others came to take his place, / disturb my peace, / I played for time. / I wore a widow’s face, kept my head down, / did my work by day, at night unpicked it.”
- Lines 39-45: “I was picking out / the smile of a woman at the centre / of this world, self-contained, absorbed, content, / most certainly not waiting, / when I heard a far-too-late familiar tread outside the door. / I licked my scarlet thread / and aimed it surely at the middle of the needle’s eye once more.”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Lines 19-20: “my thimble like an acorn / pushing up through umber soil.”
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Imagery
Where imagery appears in the poem:- Lines 4-5: “a whistle for the dog / who mourned him with his warm head on my knees.”
- Lines 12-13: “I sewed a girl / under a single star—cross-stitch, silver silk—”
- Lines 16-20: “a smoky pink, a shadow’s grey / to show a snapdragon gargling a bee / I threaded walnut brown for a tree, / my thimble like an acorn / pushing up through umber soil.”
- Lines 26-27: “then watched him sail away / into the loose gold stitching of the sun.”
- Lines 36-38: “Grey threads and brown / pursued my needle’s leaping fish / to form a river that would never reach the sea.”
- Lines 44-45: “I licked my scarlet thread / and aimed it surely at the middle of the needle’s eye once more.”
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 12: “sewed”
- Line 13: “single star,” “stitch,” “silver silk”
- Line 14: “bouncing ball”
- Line 15: “greens,” “grass”
- Line 16: “smoky,” “shadow’s,” “grey”
- Line 17: “show,” “snapdragon,” “gargling”
- Line 20: “up,” “umber”
- Line 25: “love, lust, lessons learnt”
- Line 26: “sail”
- Line 27: “stitching,” “sun”
- Line 28: “place”
- Line 29: “peace”
- Line 30: “played”
- Line 31: “wore,” “widow’s”
- Line 32: “work”
- Line 40: “centre”
- Line 41: “self,” “contained,” “content”
- Line 42: “certainly”
- Line 43: “far,” “familiar”
- Line 44: “scarlet”
- Line 45: “surely”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “road”
- Line 2: “hoping,” “home”
- Line 5: “mourned,” “warm”
- Line 9: “thread”
- Line 11: “industry,” “instead”
- Line 13: “silver silk”
- Line 15: “chose,” “three greens”
- Line 16: “smoky,” “shadow’s”
- Line 17: “show,” “bee”
- Line 18: “tree”
- Line 20: “up,” “umber”
- Line 21: “shade”
- Line 22: “maiden,” “embrace”
- Line 26: “sail away”
- Line 28: “take,” “place”
- Line 30: “played”
- Line 31: “face,” “down”
- Line 32: “day,” “unpicked”
- Line 34: “fray”
- Line 35: “stitched”
- Line 36: “Grey,” “brown”
- Line 37: “needle’s leaping”
- Line 38: “sea”
- Line 39: “tried”
- Line 40: “smile”
- Line 42: “waiting”
- Line 43: “late,” “door”
- Line 45: “more”
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Asyndeton
Where asyndeton appears in the poem:- Line 9: “scissors, needle, thread,”
- Line 13: “cross-stitch, silver silk”
- Line 16: “a smoky pink, a shadow’s grey”
- Line 25: “love, lust, lessons learnt”
- Lines 31-32: “I wore a widow’s face, kept my head down, / did my work by day, at night unpicked it.”
- Lines 41-42: “self-contained, absorbed, content, / most certainly not waiting,”
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“Penelope” 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.
- Saunter
- A lifetime's industry
- Cross-stitch
- Snapdragon
- Umber
- Tread
- Scarlet
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(Location in poem: Line 2: “hoping to see him saunter home”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Penelope”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Penelope” Speaker
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“Penelope” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Penelope”
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More “Penelope” Resources
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External Resources
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An Interview with Duffy — Watch an interview with Duffy in which she discusses her election as Poet Laureate and the importance of women's poetry.
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Penelope in the Odyssey — Learn more about the fictional character Duffy gives voice to in this poem.
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Duffy's Recent Work — Read an article in which Duffy discusses her Pandemic Poetry project, an effort to offer artistic comfort in troubled times.
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Duffy's Influence — Read an article by novelist Jeanette Winterson on her love of Duffy's poetry.
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A Brief Biography — Learn more about Duffy's life and work at the Poetry Foundation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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