Carol Ann Duffy's "Salome" is titled after its speaker, an ancient princess of Galilee. In the bible, Salome asks her stepfather, the ruler Herod Antipas, to execute the imprisoned prophet John the Baptist and bring her his head "on a platter."
In Duffy's version of this tale, John the Baptist is one of Salome's many one-night stands (and perhaps one of many men she's bumped off). The poem opens with Salome waking up in the morning to find John in her bed. She describes him as "a head on the pillow," cheekily foreshadowing what readers familiar with the Salome story might already expect: that at some point in the poem, John the Baptist will be decapitated. Also, by reducing John to a single body part—his head—Salome dehumanizes him. It seems like she sees him as an object and not a real, entire person.
It's clear John isn't special to Salome. In fact, he's merely one in a long line of sexual conquests: "I've done it before," she admits in the poem's opening line, "and doubtless I'll do it again." What's more, Salome can't remember John's name or identity. She interrupts herself to ask "whose" head is lying beside her, then quickly brushes away her curiosity with a rhetorical question: "What did it matter?" Apparently, Salome doesn't care about the men she sleeps with as individual people.
This careless detachment defies Western gender stereotypes. Lack of commitment and the objectification of sexual partners are issues typically associated with toxic masculinity. By embodying these problematic behaviors, Salome takes on a kind of cold, sexual power often reserved only for men.
These opening lines use rhyme to create an upbeat, musical sound: "later" (line 1) and "matter" (line 4) form a slant rhyme. Throughout the poem's 35 lines and four stanzas, this irregular end rhyming on "-ter" and "-tter" words will continue. In this way, the poem uses sound to playfully hint at, and build toward, the most memorable part of Salome's story: the "platter" on which she receives John's severed head.