The Full Text of “Penelope”
The Full Text of “Penelope”
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“Penelope” Introduction
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"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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“Penelope” Summary
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The poem's speaker, Penelope, recalls that she used to look wistfully down the road hoping that her wandering husband, Odysseus, would come strolling back home through the olive groves, whistling for their pet dog (who sat sadly with its head on Penelope's knee, wishing for Odysseus too). After six months of longing, though, Penelope realized that she'd stopped counting the days since Odysseus had disappeared.
Bored, she gathered her sewing kit—and rather than just finding a way to keep herself busy, she discovered her life's work. She began by sewing a picture of a little girl running after a ball beneath a silvery star. She carefully chose the best colors of thread: the right green for the grass, and pinks and greys for the light and shadow in an image of a snapdragon with a bee in its throat. She picked out walnut-colored thread to sew a tree, and felt as if her thimble were an acorn, the seed from which the tree grew onto the cloth.
In the shade of that tree, she embroidered a pair of young lovers like she and her husband once were, finding herself carried away by all the memories of romance and growth she called up as she worked. Finally, she embroidered the young man sailing away into an embroidered sunset.
Later, she remembers, other men came and tried to get her attention, getting in the way of her quiet art-making. So she put them off, behaving like a faithful, mournful widow; she made her embroideries in the daytime and undid them at night. She got into a rhythm, knowing when the real moon would set and she could undo her embroidered moon in the dark.
She kept on making art, using grey and brown thread to make a river, her needle leaping through it like a fish—even though that river couldn't reach the ocean. She was just starting to create a self-portrait: a smiling woman completely contented with herself and her art, no longer waiting for her husband to return. But just then, she heard his familiar footsteps at the door—too late. Without missing a beat, she threaded her needle and prepared to sew on.
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“Penelope” Themes
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Women's Art, Creativity, and Independence
Through a twist on Homer's Odyssey, "Penelope" explores the idea that women’s creativity can be a source of power, freedom, and joy.
In Homer's original story, Penelope, the wife of the wandering Odysseus, cleverly uses her artwork to fend off unwanted suitors while she waits for her husband (presumed dead) to come home: she promises she’ll choose a new husband when she finishes weaving, but then unravels her work secretly in the night. In Duffy's version of the story, however, Penelope embroiders not because she wants to stay loyal to her husband, but because she falls in love with the work of embroidery!
By the time Odysseus comes home, the poem's Penelope has found so much meaning and freedom in her artwork that she barely looks up from her needle and thread. A tale of wifely fidelity thus turns into a tale of artistic independence. For women artists, the poem suggests, creativity can be liberating and revolutionary.
After "six months" of "look[ing] along the road" to see if Odysseus is coming hope, Penelope picks up a needle and thread in order to "amuse [her]self"—then discovers that she absolutely loves embroidery. That's in part because, through her art, she's able to express and work through her feelings. For instance, she embroiders a picture of a "maiden in a deep embrace / with heroism’s boy" that recalls her own youth with her husband and helps her to mourn his disappearance.
More than that, though, she’s able to create a whole new world, complete with "sun," "moon," and "rivers." She gets to make every decision about this world, "cho[osing] between three greens for the grass" and deciding exactly where trees will root. Her artwork doesn't just console her, then: it makes her feel powerful!
Penelope's art also helps her to remain independent. Much as she does in the Odyssey, this poem's Penelope puts off her suitors by constantly sewing and then unraveling her work, "play[ing] for time." But here, she does this not so she can remain loyal to her husband, but so nothing will take her away from her art. She becomes "self-contained, absorbed, content"—and, importantly, she's "most certainly not waiting." In other words, she’s no longer counting on Odysseus to come home, but living her own life. Embroidery thus gives her power in more ways than one. Not only can she control what happens in her art, she can control what happens to her through her art.
Penelope's creativity becomes the center of her world to the point that, when Odysseus at last returns, she doesn't even look up from her stitching, but aims her thread "surely at the middle of the needle's eye once more"—an image that recalls how Odysseus blinds the one-eyed Cyclops in the Odyssey. This allusion suggests that Penelope has become her own hero. She's not just a supporting character, the loyal wife, but the center of her own story.
Women's artwork, the poem thus suggests, can be a source of independence, joy, and power even in sexist and limiting circumstances. Through the traditionally female art form of embroidery, Penelope makes a meaningful life for herself, becoming the mistress of a domain that's all her own.
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."Penelope," like all the dramatic monologues in Carol Ann Duffy's collection The World's Wife, retells a familiar story from the perspective of its once-voiceless female characters. Here, that character is the titular Penelope:
- Penelope was the wife of Odysseus—the legendary hero of The Odyssey, a man cursed to wander the seas for 20 years after the Trojan War.
- Penelope was left at home to wait for him, raise their son Telemachus, and fend off the suitors who started sniffing around once the man of the house had been gone a few years.
- Homer's heroine uses her weaving skills to keep those suitors at bay, promising to choose one of them to marry once she finishes a weaving project, then secretly unraveling her work every night.
- This Penelope will also turn to fabric art—but for rather different reasons.
As the poem opens, Penelope remembers the early days of Odysseus's absence. Back then, she says, she spent most of her time gazing down the road and "hoping to see him saunter home." The image makes her sound as loyal as the dog who likewise "mourned" his master at her knee.
These first lines characterize both Penelope and Odysseus. Penelope's fond memory of Odysseus's jaunty "saunter" suggests that she knows and loves her husband—a figure notable for his cool head, cleverness, and general cockiness. If Odysseus were to return home after a long absence, Penelope feels, he'd stroll up just as casually as if he'd ducked out to the corner store, and that's just what she misses about him.
Already, then, the poem's world feels more intimate and personal than sweeping and epic. This will be a right-up-close story of how a woman in Penelope's predicament might really feel and behave.
The poem's informal shape supports that tone. While this poem does use an overarching structure—five stanzas of nine lines apiece—those stanzas are all written in casual, approachable free verse, making Penelope sound as natural as if she were speaking to a friend.
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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
Needlework is an art form with a feminist history: women have long used sewing and embroidery to express thoughts, feelings, and ideas that might otherwise have been taboo. Penelope's sewing plays just this role here—and because it's so strongly associated with women, it also symbolizes women's creativity in general. The narrative pictures Penelope embroiders might just as easily suggest the work of a woman painter, novelist, or poet.
Through images of a traditionally female art, the poem thus suggests that women's art in particular can be subversive and liberating.
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
"Penelope" is one big allusion to Homer's Odyssey, the ancient Greek tale of the clever Odysseus's wanderings after the Trojan War. Penelope, Odysseus's patient and loyal wife, is a relatively minor character in that story. By foregrounding Penelope here, Duffy suggests that women often get short shrift in classic art—and that it therefore behooves them to make art of their own.
In the original tale, Penelope cleverly uses her skill as a weaver to fend off a crowd of suitors during Odysseus's long absence. Faithful to her husband and unwilling to give up on his return, she tells the suitors that she'll marry one of them as soon as she's done weaving a burial shroud for her father-in-law—then unweaves each day's work every evening when they're not looking.
In Duffy's version of the tale, Penelope sews and unpicks her embroideries, not so that she can wait for Odysseus, but so she can buy herself more time to sew! Her dutiful "widow's face" is just a cover for her desire to dedicate herself to her own artistry.
That idea gets even clearer when Odysseus returns home at last. But this "far-too-late" return doesn't even make Penelope look up from her work. Instead, she "lick[s her] scarlet thread" and pokes it right through "the middle of the needle's eye." This image of a pierced eye alludes to one of Odysseus's own feats: the gory blinding of the terrible Cyclops, a carnivorous one-eyed monster. Through her creativity, then, Penelope has become her own capable, clever hero; she doesn't need Odysseus around anymore.
The poem's allusions to the Odyssey (and its transformation of that old story) suggest that women's creativity can give them subversive power and freedom. Not only does Penelope get to tell her own version of her story, she gets to embroider a whole new life for herself.
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
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Imagery
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Asyndeton
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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”)
Stroll—especially cheerfully, casually, or jauntily.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Penelope”
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Form
"Penelope," like most of the poems in Duffy's collection The World's Wife, is a monologue spoken in the voice of its title character. The poem is built from five stanzas of nine lines apiece. Aside from that, there's not too much regular structure here: Penelope speaks in flexible free verse, with no meter or steady rhyme scheme. These choices make her voice sound natural and conversational, as if readers were really listening to her describing how her life changed when she took up embroidery.
However, flashes of rhyme give this tale of artistic liberation some artful flair—and remind readers that the poem, like the embroidery it describes, is the work of a craftswoman.
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Meter
"Penelope" is written in free verse, with no set meter. That choice helps to make Penelope's voice feel natural and immediate. As she tells the tale of her development from mourning wife to liberated artist, she speaks to the reader as if to a friend; the poem's unpredictable rhythms help to evoke her feelings.
For instance, listen to what happens when Penelope begins her embroidery:
I sorted cloth and scissors, needle, thread,
thinking to amuse myself,
but found a lifetime’s industry instead.
I sewed a girlAfter a sequence of longish lines, Penelope's first creative act is just four words long. That short, sharp, simple line suggests her wonder at her newfound creativity. It only takes a few words for her to start a whole new life for herself—an idea reflected in the "girl" she sews, a girl who seems a lot like a young version of herself, a fresh beginning.
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Rhyme Scheme
While there's no steady rhyme scheme in "Penelope," scattered moments of rhyme help to create drama.
For example, take a look at what happens when Odysseus finally returns at the end of the poem:
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.Both the end rhyme of door and more and the internal rhyme of tread and thread underscore Penelope's dramatic transformation. Once a heartsore, mourning widow, she now has so rich a creative world of her own that her husband's return barely registers! Nothing, this last rhyme emphasizes, will keep Penelope from her own work now.
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“Penelope” Speaker
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The poem's speaker is a version of Penelope, Odysseus's patient wife in Homer's Odyssey. In Homer's tale, Penelope is a weaver who uses her skills to hold unwanted suitors at bay while she waits for her wandering husband to come home. She promises the suitors that she'll marry one of them as soon as she's done weaving a shroud for her father-in-law, but secretly undoes her work every night.
This poem's Penelope is different in several important regards:
- she's an embroiderer, not a weaver, making pictures rather than a practical object;
- she's making art for herself, not for a male relative;
- and she's keeping suitors at bay, not because she's loyal to Odysseus, but because she's loyal to her art!
This Penelope is thus a woman artist finding independence, power, and joy through her creativity. Once she discovers that she can embroider whole worlds of her own, she's "most certainly not waiting" for her husband anymore: she's living her own life.
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“Penelope” Setting
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While readers can guess that this poem takes place in Ithaca—the Greek island where Homer's Penelope was queen—the really important landscape here is the one inside Penelope's imagination. As she embroiders trees, flowers, animals, and an evolving series of self-portraits, Penelope makes her inner world into art. Her embroideries reflect what's happening to her: when she begins to embroider, for instance, the first picture she makes is of a young "girl," a vision of herself starting out on a whole new life as an artist. Her artwork becomes a place of its own, a kingdom over which she alone rules.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Penelope”
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Literary Context
The Scottish-born Carol Ann Duffy (1955-present) is the first (and so far, the only) woman to serve as Poet Laureate of the UK. A working-class writer and an out lesbian, she brought fresh air and new perspectives to a laureateship historically dominated by (mostly) straight, white, middle-class men.
This poem is one of many in arguably her most famous collection, The World's Wife (1999), that reflects on the joys and difficulties of being a creative woman in a sexist world. The poems in The World's Wife are monologues in the voices of mythological and historical women from Medusa to Frau Freud to Mrs. Midas. Giving these silent figures their own say, Duffy offers feminist critiques of myth, history, and literature.
In her fondness for dramatic monologues, Duffy follows in the footsteps of writers like Robert Browning, but she also fits into the contemporary poetry scene around her. Margaret Atwood, for example, has used the form for similar feminist purposes. Duffy is also one of many 20th-century poets to embrace free verse. She sees herself as a descendent both of more recent free verse poets like Sylvia Plath and of Romantics like John Keats. In turn, she has influenced (and championed) writers like Alice Oswald, Kate Clanchy, and Jeanette Winterson.
Historical Context
Carol Ann Duffy's poetic career took off during the age of Margaret Thatcher, whose long tenure as Prime Minister of the UK was marked by class struggle, poverty, and the dismantling of post-war welfare institutions. Thatcher rose to power in the aftermath of the turbulent 1970s, and her libertarian economics and conservative social policies (as well as her prominent role as the first woman Prime Minister of the UK) made her a divisive and much-reviled figure. Many working-class people took a particular dislike to Thatcher for her union-busting and her failure to support impoverished families in industrial fields like coal mining.
Perhaps in response to a growing social conservatism, the '70s and '80s in England were also marked by a rise in feminist consciousness. Books like Susan Faludi's Backlash examined the subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways in which society was reacting against the women's movement, and third-wave feminism, focused on identity and political power, began to emerge out of the second-wave feminism of the '60s. Duffy's work, with its interest in women's inner lives and in corners of working-class life often neglected by the literary world, reflects the tumultuous political world in which she came of age.
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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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