Mean Time

Context of ‘Mean Time’ by Carol Ann Duffy

We will discuss the context of the poem as well as the anthology that it's a part of.

Biographical context

Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet who has spent the majority of her adult life writing. Her first job after graduating was writing for television shows. Between 1982 and 1984 Duffy worked as a writer-in-residence in East End schools of London after receiving a C. Day Lewis Fellowship.

In 1983 Duffy won the National Poetry Competition and in 2009 she was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, becoming the first woman to receive the position since its creation in 1616.

Mean Time anthology

The poem 'Mean Time' is part of the collection of the same name. The collection was published in 1993 and received the Whitbread Poetry and Forward Prizes.

Mean Time is Carol Ann Duffy’s fourth poetry collection, consisting of 39 poems. The dominant theme in the collection is relationships. This theme is explored in both positive and negative lights, often in a reflective style as the narrator looks back at past events.

Analysis of ‘Mean Time’ by Carol Ann Duffy

Title

The title of the poem is polysemic and its meaning is ambiguous. The title could refer to the phrase ‘in the meantime’, the period of time when one is waiting for something to happen. It could also refer to Greenwich Mean Time, the measurement of time in London. Or, if you want to be more literal in how you interpret the title, it may be a personification of time itself, giving the abstract noun the attribute of being ‘mean’.

Form

The poem is written in free-verse contrasting with its regular stanzaic structure made up of four quatrains. The use of free-verse creates a rhythm which flows naturally, as though the narrator is processing and expressing their emotions in the moment.

Structure

‘Mean Time’ consists of four stanzas each made up of four lines, also known as a quatrain. While the stanzaic structure of the poem is regular, the poem as a whole is written in free-verse with an irregular rhyme scheme.

A number of meters are used in the poem, creating a sense of detachment, as if the narrator is lost and trying to find their place. Anapaestic meter mixed with iambic meter dominates the poem, and occasionally the lines begin with a trochaic meter or falling rhythm.

The use of consonant and assonant rhymes throughout the poem creates a sense of cohesion amongst the varied line length, varied meters, and enjambment. The variety in the poem's structure underpins the state of emotional uncertainty and rawness the narrator finds themself in.

Stanza one

The opening stanza provides some clarity to the poem's ambiguous title, with a reference to the end of Daylight Savings. The narrator proceeds to compare the ending of a relationship, and the sense of loss they feel, to there being less light in the evening. This comparison indicates that the loss of the relationship has caused disruption and wrongness in the narrator's life, leaving them walking through the wrong part of town, mourning love.

Stanza two

The second stanza has the same sense of loss and despair present in the first. Pathetic fallacy is utilized to emphasize the pessimistic mood and tone of the poem:

The image of the narrator walking in the rain while contemplating their heartbreak parallels cliché images of lost love used in romantic movies. The bleak setting underpins the poet’s feelings of hopelessness.

Alongside this, there is a consonant rhyme between the second and final lines of the stanza with ‘streets’ and ‘mistakes’. The consonant rhyme of ‘s’ creates a sense of displacement and emptiness. We expect the rhyme to be full, yet it is incomplete, underpinning the narrator’s own feelings of loneliness.

Stanza three

In this stanza, there is a shift in the narrative. Rather than resenting their current circumstances, the narrator considers a different future:

The conjunction 'if' combined with the modal verb 'could' creates a sense of wonder, a ‘what if’. The narrator ponders whether things could have been different in the relationship if they didn’t say or do certain things. This adds an element of regret to the poem’s pessimistic tone.

Stanza four

The fourth and final stanza of the poem progresses from a tone of regret to one of resignation. The narrator accepts the 'shortened days' and 'endless nights', acknowledging that they can't change how things are. The monosyllabic language used throughout the poem supplements this tone of resignation: the narrator’s stance is clear and resolved. This is emphasised by the half rhyme of ‘light’ and ‘nights’ in the second and final line of the stanza. There is a sense of finality to the poem as the narrator continues to walk into the ‘night’ knowing that they can't return to the ‘light’ of their relationship.

Poetic devices

Let's study the poetic devices in the poem.

Enjambment

Duffy’s use of enjambment fragments the poem. The narrator’s thoughts are considered, but not entirely fluid. This lack of fluidity, combined with the use of a free-verse form, highlights how the narrator is struggling to process their feelings and hurt.

For instance, in the third stanza enjambment is used throughout:

Here, the use of enjambment creates pauses between each line, suggesting that the narrator is hesitant to consider how things could have been. These pauses produce a regretful tone as the narrator reflects on their actions.

End-stopped lines

Each stanza of ‘Mean Time’ ends with an end-stopped line. The end-stopped lines create pauses between each stanza, enhancing the slight shifts in the narrative across the different stanzas.

For instance, while the second stanza focuses on the narrator's action of walking through ‘the bleak streets’ in ‘unmendable rain’, the third stanza centres on the narrator wondering if things could have been different if they never ‘said’ or ‘heard’ their partner say certain words.

Through creating pauses in the poem’s rhythm at structurally obvious points (the end of the stanza) a considered element is added to the poem’s pessimistic tone. The narrator may be going through the motions of their breakup, but they’re also pondering how to express those feelings.

Assonance

Assonance is used throughout the poem to create partial rhymes between words. For instance, in the second stanza, the line

contains the repetition of the 'e' sound; 'fell', 'bleak', 'streets'. This assonance contributes to the poem's rhythm, allowing it to flow, as though the narrator is going through the motions of their day and the grief they are experiencing.

Language devices

The language devices of the poem include:

Monosyllabic language

The poem uses simplistic language to create a blunt and direct tone, underpinning the grief one may feel upon the ending of a relationship. For instance, in the third stanza, Duffy writes:

In the final three lines of this stanza, there is one word with more than one syllable, 'never'. The use of monosyllabic, simplistic language provides a sense of clarity to the narrative poem. The language used, and the connotations it holds, are clear.

Moreover, these short simplistic words add to the poem's blunt tone by creating a steady, almost monotone rhythm. The bluntness, and apparent lack of emotion, in place of wobbling grief or lengthy complex sentences, could suggest that the narrator is struggling to get their words out, or is trying to not reveal how hurt they really are.

Personification

The personification of time is a key device in the poem. By bringing the abstract noun of time to life, the narrator makes it the antagonist of their love story, the source of their troubles. In the first stanza, the narrator says:

It is likely that they are referring to the clocks going back in the United Kingdom each October, causing the daylight hours to end earlier. However, by personifying 'the clocks', the narrator places the blame for this change on time itself. It is the clocks who have 'slid back an hour' and they who have 'stole light' from their life. The verb 'stole' frames time as a criminal who has selfishly taken something from the narrator.

The imagery and tone of ‘Mean Time’ by Carol Ann Duffy

Let's explore the use of imagery and tone in the poem.

Imagery

The imagery focuses on darkness and endings.

Darkness

A semantic field of darkness is evident in the poem; 'bleak', 'gnaw', 'dead', 'beyond all light', 'mourning', 'nights' and 'darkening'. This semantic field contributes to the poem's melancholic mood, creating a sense of hopelessness, as though the narrator can not bear to see the positive things in life anymore.

The bleak imagery underpins the grief and despair the author feels regarding the failure of the relationship.

Endings

The poem’s narrative has a strong sense of finality to it, underpinned by Duffy’s use of regular stanzas and end-stopped lines, preventing the poem from flowing in a completely natural manner. The imagery associated with endings (‘unmendable rain’, ‘we will be dead’, ‘endless nights’) contributes to it.

The line ‘unmendable rain’ is particularly effective at expressing this sense of finality. The rain is not something that we usually try to fix yet, to the narrator, everything feels so wrong after the ending of their relationship that even the rain itself appears to be a problem they can't solve. The negative connotations of rain emphasise this, although the narrator may want to escape or mend the wet weather, they are unable to, paralleling how they may feel about being unable to mend their relationship.

Tone

There is an overarching pessimistic tone in the poem with elements of regret and resignation. The pessimistic tone of the poem is produced through Duffy’s use of blunt, monosyllabic language. The dominance of monosyllabic words creates an almost empty rhythm, as though the narrator can not bring themselves to express their feelings to a great extent.

The pessimistic tone can be divided into two parts: at first, the narrator is regretful, wondering what might have been. However, by the poem's close, the narrator is resigned to ‘the shortened days’ and ‘the endless nights’, accepting the end of their relationship.

Themes in ‘Mean Time’ by Carol Ann Duffy

The two main themes in the poem are time and loss of love.

Time

Time is the dominant theme in the poem, as highlighted by the title ‘Mean Time’ which most likely relates to Greenwich Mean Time and Daylight Savings.

There is a sense that time is love's enemy, as highlighted by the personification of time in the first stanza:

However, by the poem's close, the narrator is resigned to time’s defeat of love:

The repetition of light at the poem's opening and close, in relation to the theme of time, underpins the poem’s arch from regret to resignation. Time may have stolen the lights from the narrator's life, but they now accept this.

Loss of love

Romantic love, as with many of Duffy’s poems, is prevalent in ‘Mean Time’. However, the dominant theme is the loss of this romantic love. A sense of loss emerges in the first stanza through the use of the verb 'mourning'. The association of 'mourning' with death and the loss of a person highlights the narrator's feeling that they no longer have the love of another and must now take the time to mourn its loss.

The emptiness of losing love is further emphasised by Duffy’s use of personification in the poem's second stanza:

Here the verb 'gnaw' evokes imagery associated with hunger and desperation, as though the heart is chewing on the final few scraps of the couple's mistakes, trying to work out what went wrong.

This theme of a loss of love contributes to the poem’s pessimistic tone. The narrator doesn't ponder on happy memories. Instead, they are overwhelmed by the regret and realisation that their relationship has come to an end.