Carol Ann Duffy published "Thetis" in The World's Wife, her 1999 collection of dramatic monologues that retell famous stories and myths from the perspectives of female characters. In Greek mythology, Thetis was a sea nymph who was forced to marry the mortal Peleus, with whom she had a son (Achilles, the great hero of the Trojan War). In Duffy's poem, Thetis describes her attempts to evade Peleus's persistent advances by transforming herself into a series of animals and natural elements. Yet whatever form Thetis takes, Peleus finds a way to capture her. Through Thetis's transformations and Peleus's relentless pursuit, the poem illustrates women's adaptability as well as the pervasive nature of patriarchal oppression.

• Read the full text of “Thetis”

• “Thetis” Summary

• “Thetis” Themes

  • 

    Women's Adaptability vs. Patriarchy's Persistence

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-48
  • 

    Motherhood

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 46-48
  • 

    Humankind's Destruction of the Environment

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3
    • Line 6
    • Lines 7-8
    • Lines 11-12
    • Line 14
    • Lines 16-18
    • Line 19
    • Lines 23-24
    • Lines 25-26
    • Lines 29-30
    • Lines 31-33
    • Lines 34-35
    • Lines 37-38
    • Lines 40-42
    • Lines 43-44
    • Lines 44-45
    • Lines 46-48

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Thetis”

  • Lines 1-6

    I shrank myself ...
    ... of his fist.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-12

    Then I did ...
    ... a crossbow's eye.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 13-18

    So I shopped ...
    ... at my nape.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 19-24

    Next I was ...
    ... the gun. Twelve-bore.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 25-30

    I sank through ...
    ... and his sinker.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 31-36

    I changed my ...
    ... Stuff that.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 37-42

    I was wind, ...
    ... a fighter plane.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 43-48

    Then my tongue ...
    ... child burst out.

    

    

    

    

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• “Thetis” Symbols

  • 

    Thetis

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “I shrank myself / to the size of a bird”
    • Lines 7-8: “Then I did this: / shouldered the cross of an albatross”
    • Lines 13-14: “So I shopped for a suitable shape / Size 8. Snake.”
    • Lines 19-22: “Next I was roar, claw, 50 lb paw, / jungle-floored, meateater, raw, / a zebra's gore / in my lower jaw.”
    • Lines 25-28: “I sank through the floor of the earth / to swim in the sea. / Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, / whale, the ocean's opera singer.”
    • Lines 31-33: “I changed my tune / to racoon, skunk, stoat, / to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat.”
    • Lines 37-39: “I was wind, I was gas, / I was all hot air, trailed / clouds for hair.”
    • Lines 43-44: “Then my tongue was flame / and my kisses burned,”
    • Lines 46-48: “So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out—or that's / how it felt when the child burst out.”
  • 

    Peleus

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-6: “Sweet, sweet, was the small song / that I sang, / till I felt the squeeze of his fist.”
    • Lines 11-12: “But I felt my wings / clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.”
    • Lines 16-18: “Coiled in my charmer's lap, / I felt the grasp of his strangler's clasp / at my nape.”
    • Lines 23-24: “But my gold eye saw / the guy in the grass with the gun. Twelve-bore.”
    • Lines 29-30: “Over the waves the fisherman came / with his hook and his line and his sinker.”
    • Lines 34-35: “The taxidermist sharpened his knives. / I smelled the stink of formaldehyde.”
    • Lines 40-42: “I scrawled my name with a hurricane, / when out of the blue / roared a fighter plane.”
    • Line 45: “but the groom wore asbestos.”

• “Thetis” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Alliteration

    

    

    

    

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    Where alliteration appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “Sweet,” “sweet,” “small,” “song”
    • Line 5: “sang”
    • Line 6: “squeeze”
    • Line 12: “clipped,” “crossbow's”
    • Line 13: “So,” “shopped,” “suitable,” “shape”
    • Line 14: “Size,” “Snake”
    • Line 23: “gold”
    • Line 24: “guy,” “grass,” “gun”
    • Line 25: “sank”
    • Line 26: “swim,” “sea”
    • Line 28: “ocean's”
    • Line 29: “Over”
    • Line 30: “his,” “hook,” “his,” “his”
    • Line 32: “skunk,” “stoat”
    • Line 35: “smelled,” “stink”
    • Line 36: “Stuff”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Lines 7-12: “Then I did this: / shouldered the cross of an albatross / up the hill of the sky. / Why? To follow a ship. / But I felt my wings / clipped by the squint of a crossbow's eye.”

  • Idiom

    

    

    

    

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    Where idiom appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “a bird in the hand”
    • Line 8: “shouldered the cross”
    • Line 30: “his hook and his line and his sinker.”
    • Line 31: “I changed my tune”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “myself / to”
    • Lines 2-3: “hand / of”
    • Lines 4-5: “song / that”
    • Lines 8-9: “albatross / up”
    • Lines 11-12: “wings / clipped”
    • Lines 13-14: “shape / Size”
    • Lines 17-18: “clasp / at”
    • Lines 21-22: “gore / in”
    • Lines 23-24: “saw / the”
    • Lines 25-26: “earth / to”
    • Lines 29-30: “came / with”
    • Lines 31-32: “tune / to”
    • Lines 38-39: “trailed / clouds”
    • Lines 41-42: “blue / roared”
    • Lines 43-44: “flame / and”
    • Lines 47-48: “that's / how”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Lines 19-22: “roar, claw, 50 lb paw, / jungle-floored, meateater, raw, / a zebra's gore / in my lower jaw.”
    • Lines 27-28: “Mermaid, me, big fish, eel, dolphin, / whale, the ocean's opera singer.”
    • Lines 32-33: “to racoon, skunk, stoat, / to weasel, ferret, bat, mink, rat.”
    • Lines 37-39: “I was wind, I was gas, / I was all hot air, trailed / clouds for hair.”
    • Lines 46-47: “So I changed, I learned, / turned inside out”

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “hand”
    • Line 3: “man”
    • Line 8: “cross,” “albatross”
    • Line 9: “sky”
    • Line 10: “Why,” “ship”
    • Line 12: “clipped,” “by,” “squint,” “crossbow's,” “eye”
    • Line 13: “shape”
    • Line 14: “8,” “Snake”
    • Line 15: “Mistake”
    • Line 16: “lap”
    • Line 17: “grasp,” “strangler's,” “clasp”
    • Line 18: “nape”
    • Line 19: “roar,” “claw,” “paw”
    • Line 20: “floored,” “raw”
    • Line 21: “gore”
    • Line 22: “lower,” “jaw”
    • Line 23: “gold,” “eye,” “saw”
    • Line 24: “guy,” “bore”
    • Line 26: “sea”
    • Line 27: “me,” “eel”
    • Line 28: “ocean's,” “opera,” “singer”
    • Line 29: “Over,” “waves,” “came”
    • Line 30: “sinker”
    • Line 31: “tune”
    • Line 32: “racoon”
    • Line 33: “bat,” “rat”
    • Line 34: “knives”
    • Line 35: “formaldehyde”
    • Line 36: “that”
    • Line 38: “air,” “trailed”
    • Line 39: “hair”
    • Line 40: “name,” “hurricane”
    • Line 42: “plane”
    • Line 43: “flame”
    • Line 44: “burned”
    • Line 46: “changed,” “learned”
    • Line 47: “out”
    • Line 48: “out”

• “Thetis” 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.

  • Albatross
  • Shouldered the cross
  • Size 8
  • Nape
  • Twelve-bore
  • Stoat
  • Taxidermist
  • Formaldehyde
  • Stuff that
  • Asbestos
  • (Location in poem: Line 8: “shouldered the cross of an albatross”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Thetis”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Thetis” Speaker

• “Thetis” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Thetis”

• More “Thetis” Resources

  • External Resources

    • On Thetis — Learn more about Thetis's role in Greek mythology from this reference entry, courtesy of Britannica. 

    • Carol Ann Duffy's Biography — Learn more about the poet's life and work from this brief biography, courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.

    • The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis — Take a closer look at Joachim Wtewael's famous painting, "The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis," courtesy of the National Gallery of Art.

    • An Interview with Carol Ann Duffy — Listen to Duffy discuss The World's Wife and her perspective on poetry in this interview with the Lincoln Review.

    • What Is Ecofeminism? — Learn more about the relationship between feminism and environmentalism.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy

    • A Child's Sleep

    • Anne Hathaway

    • Before You Were Mine

    • Circe

    • Death of a Teacher

    • Demeter

    • Education For Leisure

    • Elvis's Twin Sister

    • Eurydice

    • Foreign

    • Havisham

    • Head of English

    • In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

    • In Your Mind

    • Little Red Cap

    • Mean Time

    • Medusa

    • Mrs Aesop

    • Mrs Darwin

    • Mrs Faust

    • Mrs Icarus

    • Mrs Lazarus

    • Mrs Midas

    • Mrs Sisyphus

    • Originally

    • Penelope

    • Pilate's Wife

    • Pope Joan

    • Prayer

    • Pygmalion's Bride

    • Queen Herod

    • Quickdraw

    • Recognition

    • Salome

    • Standing Female Nude

    • Stealing

    • The Darling Letters

    • The Dolphins

    • The Good Teachers

    • Valentine

    • Warming Her Pearls

    • War Photographer

    • We Remember Your Childhood Well

    • Work

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