A Reading of "Warming Her Pearls"

Please listen to our reading of Carol Ann Duffy's poem by clicking HERE

Warming Her Pearls

Next to my own skin, her pearls. My mistress 

bids me wear them, warm them, until evening 

when I'll brush her hair. At six, I place them 

round her cool, white throat. All day I think of her,

resting in the Yellow Room, contemplating silk 

or taffeta, which gown tonight? She fans herself 

whilst I work willingly, my slow heat entering 

each pearl. Slack on my neck, her rope.

She's beautiful. I dream about her

in my attic bed; picture her dancing

with tall men, puzzled by my faint, persistent scent

beneath her French perfume, her milky stones.

I dust her shoulders with a rabbit's foot, 

watch the soft blush seep through her skin 

like an indolent sigh. In her looking-glass 

my red lips part as though I want to speak.

Full moon. Her carriage brings her home. I see 

her every movement in my head.... Undressing, 

taking off her jewels, her slim hand reaching 

for the case, slipping naked into bed, the way

she always does.... And I lie here awake, 

knowing the pearls are cooling even now 

in the room where my mistress sleeps. All night 

I feel their absence and I burn.

Duffy, Carol Ann. "Warming her Pearls". Poetry Foundation, 1987. Web. 29 Apr. 2015.

Introduction

When a friend of Carol Ann Duffy’s described the traditional practice of maids wearing their mistresses’ pearls during their day’s work so that their body heat might improve the pearls’ appearance, she anticipated Duffy to feel indignation at mistresses’ shameless treatment of their inferiors. Indeed, in Duffy’s dramatic monologue, which most likely takes place in Victorian or Edwardian England, there is a clear political undertone about class division. For although the maid desires to speak, she has no voice because of her subordinate status: ‘In her looking-glass / my red lips part as though I want to speak.’ (15-16) Therefore, the maid could be viewed as fantasizing about being of a higher class without these class restrictions that leave her unfulfilled and frustrated. This is in contrast to the mistress’s sense of entitlement, as one could consider her as objectifying the maid as a tool to warm her pearls so that they look more beautiful when she wears them. 

Despite this reading, Duffy also interpreted the concept as a beautifully sensual, erotic image of desire and sexual attraction: for while the maid does her appointed task, she falls in love. The maid expresses, however, a desire and love that is unconventional and homoerotic. This is particularly related by the concept that it is the maid’s body heat from working that is expected to give the pearls their lustre, which has strong sexual overtones: ‘She fans herself / whilst I work willingly, my slow heat entering / each pearl’(6-8), this suggests that the maid desires to be very intimate with her mistress. It could be suggested that the maid simply feels deep admiration and fascination towards her mistress, rather than sexual lust. However, the maid’s voice consistently seems impassioned and erotically explicit, particularly when she envisages her mistress ‘Undressing, / taking off her jewels, her slim hand reaching / for the case, slipping naked into bed’ (18-20), which creates a vivid picture of the maid yearning for her mistress. 

Nevertheless, the maid would have to suppress these passions, not only because of her inferior social position, but also because of its illegality and the antipathy felt by society towards lesbianism. This makes her lust supremely illicit because in the early modern period these homosexual and class-crossing thoughts would be considered highly transgressive: many contemporaries viewed this behaviour as female servants corrupting their innocent mistresses (Hallett 40). Indeed, Kristina Straub asserts that there was a noticeable intensification in complaints about the insubordination and corruption of servants in 18^th and 19^th century Britain known as “the servant problem” (5), thus Duffy could be viewed as exploring the period’s new household anxiety. But Duffy could also be depicting, through the use of beautiful imagery and enjambment, the way that the maid would benefit from a society where concepts of identity are more fluid and malleable, rather than a society that rigidly binds people into certain classes and acceptable sexualities. These themes of social hierarchy and illicit desire and sexuality will be developed by later blog posts that will further elucidate the context surrounding the poem, as well as a thoroughly analyse its form, symbols and imagery.  

Imogen Grandon-White

Bibliography 

Duffy, Carol Ann. "Warming her Pearls". Poetry Foundation, 1987. Web. 28 Apr. 2015.

Hallett, Nicky. “Did Mrs. Danvers Warm Rebecca's Pearls? Significant Exchanges and the Extension of Lesbian Space and Time in Literature.” Feminist Review No. 74, Fiction and Theory: Crossing Boundaries (2003), pp. 35-49. Web.

Sansom, Peter. Writing Poems (Bloodaxe Poetry Handbooks). Northumberland: Bloodaxe Books Ltd; First Edition, 1994. Print.

Straub, Kristina. ‪Domestic Affairs: Intimacy, Eroticism, and Violence between Servants and Masters in Eighteenth-Century Britain. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 2008. Print.

Context

Carol Ann Dufy (1955-present) is one of the most celebrated modern British poets. She was made Poet Laureate in 2009, and seriously considered for the role a decade earlier in 1999 after the death of Ted Hughes. Duffy’s background, particularly her sexuality, made her a controversial choice for Poet Laureate and has had an important impact on her work. It has been argued that Duffy’s bisexuality is significant in contributing to her ability at presenting the erotic other. Some have stated that it gives her poems, and the subtext of female desire in ‘Warming Her Pearls’ would be an example of this, greater emotional and thematic range. Having been educated in a convent, repressed desire is a theme frequently explored. Indeed the form of ‘Warming Her Pearls’, that of a dramatic monologue focussed on love, is similar to much of Duffy’s poetry. Her ability to inhabit different voices is highly regarded. Her partner at the time of writing ‘Warming Her Pearls’, Jackie Kay, was also a poet and Duffy has commented on the influence they had on each other. Though now separated, Duffy remained with Kay for a long period and the two had a child together.

Perhaps more important is Duffy’s political background. Born in Glasgow to two radicals, Duffy has always been associated with the left. Her father was a trade unionist and Duffy herself as been described by Danette DiMarco as the poet of “post-post war England: Thatcher’s England” (Qtd. Poetry Foundation). The England which Duffy wrote much of her earlier poetry in provides a vital context for her frequent theme of class. Many of the speakers in her poems – including the maid in ‘Warming her Pearls’ – come from the margins of society. 

It was in 1999 that the watershed in her career came with the publication of The World’s Wife where she significantly widened her audience and appeal. She became a frequent feature on school syllabuses. ‘Warming Her Pearls’ was published prior to this breakthrough, in 1987, in the anthology Selling Manhattan. Interestingly Duffy argues states that the poem “Was very important to me” and it marked a stage in her career where she felt she “could walk across the tightrope on [her] own” (Qtd in Telegraph). The poem is critically acclaimed and provided the inspiration for Sarah Water’s best selling novel Fingersmith. The historical context of the poem is vague – the speaker is clearly a 19^th century servant, but whether this is in the Victorian or Edwardian period is unclear. The exact historical setting of the poem is inconsequential compared to the themes, however. Crucially the poem shows the power the upper class had over the lower classes in 19^th century society – the speaker sees the pearls as a rope around her neck. It is here where the context of Duffy’s contemporary society comes into play. Written as Thatcher entered her third term as Prime Minister, the poem can also be used to comment on the inequality that was rife in Thatcherite society. 

Gee Jones

"Carol Ann Duffy." Poems & poets. Poetry Foundation n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

“Carol Ann Duffy Interview” John Preston. Telegraph. 11 May 2010. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

Language

Linguistically speaking, this is an exceedingly rich and involving poem. Duffy utilises fairly simple terms; indeed, “contemplating”, the longest word to appear, is the only one that exceeds three syllables. Nonetheless she succeeds in wringing fresh meaning out of all manner of fairly well-used poetic language, partially by leaning on the reader’s familiarity with the traditional tropes of love poetry whilst simultaneously relying upon certain key ambiguities - first and foremost that surrounding the eponymous pearls. So doing, she creates a complex and intricate structure of symbolic self-expression.

The main conceit of the poem, that of an hierarchical relationship between two women defined in terms of service, seems gradually and gracefully to dissolve, only to slyly re-assert itself. The word “mistress”, whose double meaning has been exploited for poetic effect since at least Shakespeare’s day, presents itself at first as light, nearly humorous, especially considering that it has long been a cliché. However, its connotations of superiority never quite fade away. Indeed, I would suggest that the central tension of the poem lies in a lingering sense of inequality between the speaker and the subject.

The “pearls”, referred to alternately as “jewels” and “milky stones”, can be taken to represent status, both societal and interpersonal. The interchangeability of the terms used reflects a striking sense of fluidity of identity between the two characters. This, however, is marked as impermanent by the end of the poem: it is the felt “absence” of the pearls which, perhaps standing for the absence of their owner but nonetheless carrying a subtly different set of connotations to mere love-loneliness, which leaves the speaker inflamed and the tension unresolved in the poem’s parting words. The phrase “milky stones” robs the pearls of a great deal of their romantic mystique by rendering them in Anglo-Saxon whilst simultaneously alluding to breasts and the obvious connection between self-adornment and sexuality. A similar double-meaning could be read into the parted red lips of stanza four.

What’s more, that these lips only seem to “want to speak” (“as though…”) could suggest a reluctance on the part of the poet to make her meanings and allusions entirely clear. The symbols appear to want to tell us what they actually mean, but perhaps they don’t. Ambiguity, after all, would appear to be the only constant factor in this poem, which seems more than fair enough considering just how ambiguous love and desire tend to be.

The servant-mistress motif also remains throughout the poem, however it never really stands up. We are invited to consider the servant picturing her mistress returning to her own, presumably superior, room while she herself lies somewhere far removed, whereas she simultaneously reveals herself to know intimate details concerning the manner in which the beloved goes to bed “as she always does”. This being the case, the separation between the two begins to reveal itself as more illusory and conceitful than the pearls themselves.

S.L. Davidson

Symbolism

The mistress’s pearls are the focus of Duffy’s poem. As the maid is forced to wear the pearls each day, she is constantly reminded of her mistress, and the class divide between them. However, various symbols reveal the greater significance of the pearls as emblematic of the potential illicit relationship between maid and mistress.

In the first two stanzas, the pearls are a symbol of wealth and status. They are a decoration available to prosperous citizens to distinguish them from their subordinates. The possessive pronoun 'her' in the line 'Next to my own skin, her pearls' (1) emphasises the maid's economic separation from her mistress, having no claim on the pearls, despite their proximity.

The hierarchy created by the maid and mistress's disparity of wealth is emphasised in the maid's metaphor for the pearls: a rope. The statement ‘slack on my neck, her rope’ (8) suggests a master-slave relationship, or even the tethering of an animal. However, a ‘slack’ rope suggests the maid's lack of resistance: a willingness to remain bound to her mistress. This undermines the notion that the poem is solely antagonising the subject of inequality.

By the third stanza, the maid's erotic desire has become apparent as she declares her mistress is 'beautiful' (9) and fantasises about her as she lies 'in [her] attic bed' (9-10). The depiction of the pearls as ‘milky stones’ (12) is therefore ironic, as 'milk' connotes lactation. The 'milky stones' as a symbol of childbirth highlights the maid’s inability to provide the mistress with the objects of her ambition: a husband and a family. This contributes to the tone of frustration, which culminates in the declarative statement ‘I burn’ (24), as the maid is incapable of satisfying her illicit desire due to both social and economic restraints.

The question of the mistress reciprocating the maid’s desire remains ambiguous. As the maid’s ‘slow heat enter[s]each pearl’ (7-8), the mistress ‘fans herself’ (6). The inclusion of these phrases in the same sentence suggests a connection between the maid's action and the mistress's response. The maid’s sexual arousal implied by her ‘slow heat’ is transferred to the ‘pearl’. In this instance, the 'pearl' could symbolise the mistress, who is reciprocally aroused and attempts to cool herself with her fan.

Yet, there are numerous examples which suggest the maid’s desire is unrequited. In the symbol of the rope, for example, the adjective ‘slack’ suggests the mistress has little interest in ensuring her maid’s loyalty. The ‘slow heat [of the maid] entering each pearl’ through arousal is contrasted in the final stanza by the mistress's ‘cooling’ (22) pearls. As the pearls will supposedly be cold when they are returned to the maid in the morning, an absence of affection and desire is suggested. An instance similar to the ‘slow heat entering each pearl’ is the ‘soft blush seep[ing] through [the mistress’s] skin’ (14). However, rather than being evoked by arousal, the blush has to be physically forced by the maid as she 'dust[s]' (13) her mistress, pressing against her skin.

Symbolism allows the themes of social hierarchy and illicit desire to coexist in the poem, and contributes to the depiction of the maid’s frustration. The symbols exemplify the maid’s psychological condition, projecting her uncertainties and desires onto the dominant symbol of the poem: her mistress’s pearls.

Cara Ludlow

Imagery

“Warming Her Pearls” is a poem laced with sensual imagery, focusing on the body, creating a visual journey of a maid’s unusual task to warm her mistress’ pearls. Ultimately this displays the maid and mistress as completely inseparable.

From the outset, proximity is established, both of the maid and the pearls, “next to my own skin” (1), and the maid and the mistress through the personal task, “I’ll brush her hair” (3). By ascertaining this closeness, senses, especially touch, are immediately brought into play laying the foundations of the sensuality throughout. This also constructs a human aspect and there is a realization of the importance of the body, without which the pearls could not be warmed.

This proximity is continued with a visual description of the pearls as an imaginary tie between maid and mistress, “Slack on my neck, her rope”, making a direct association with the sinister world of slavery (8). This is subverted when the “persistent scent / beneath her French perfume” is mentioned, because it further highlights their inseparability, but this time it is the mistress who has evidence of the maid around her neck through scent, rather than the master’s rope tugging at the slave’s neck (11-12).

Despite being a 24-line poem, very little action occurs, and this slow pace is matched by the gradual warming of the pearls, the “slow heat” transferring from body to object (7). Simultaneous to the heat transferring is the maid’s scent, creating a wholly sensual depiction of the task at hand as instead of focusing on action, attention is set on the process of the warming of the pearls.  This creates an image of humans infusing inanimate objects, both with warmth and with scent, displaying that the poem is centered around the importance of the body.

The significance of the body is further stressed by the constant switching between subjects,  “I” (3) and “her” (4). The movement is emphasized when the maid comments, “in her looking-glass / my red lips part” (15-16). By using this sexual image focusing purely on the maid’s lips, the body becomes the sole focus, but as seen in an object of the mistress. Whilst centralizing the body, the inextricability of the maid and the mistress is again exposed.

Until the third stanza the images created are purely from the description of touch. The first mention of sight uses the maid’s imagination as a vehicle of description, “I dream…/…picture her dancing” (9-10), and later “I see / her every moment in my head” (17-18). Despite the visions being fantasy, the imagery used brings the imaginary to life, for example in the maid’s  “dream” (9) of her dancing, the pearls are described metaphorically, “milky stones” (12), which can be easily visualized. The stone is a useful image as the temperature of the pearls can be understood by drawing comparisons from a familiar object, bringing the pearls within reach. Similar to the metaphor adding imagery, the poem is full of colour, “white throat” (4),  “Yellow room” (5), “blush” (14). This brings a universal understanding to the descriptions with something all can recognize.

The focus of imagery of the body and the sensual descriptions of the mistress’ pearls create a particularly visual poem, increased by the inseparability of maid and mistress, all due to the pearls.  

Emily Wolley