Lizzie, Six

Poem

What are you doing?
I’m watching the moon.
I’ll give you the moon
when I get up there.

Where are you going?
To play in the fields.
I’ll give you the fields,
bend over that chair

What are you thinking?
I’m thinking of love.
I’ll give you love
when I’ve climbed this stair.

Where are you hiding?
Deep in the wood.
I’ll give you wood
when your bottom’s bare.

Why are you crying?
I’m afraid of the dark.
I’ll give you the dark
and I do not care.

General Analysis

• This poem comes from Carol Ann Duffy’s collection of poems called Standing Female Nude. This collection gives a voice to the powerless and raises awareness about child abuse, sexual assault, the objectifying of women and the prejudice against women.
• 2 voices and therefore a dramatic monologue
• Each stanza focuses on incremental intensity of the abuse
• Simple language shows innocence of the child
• In the first stanza, the child watches the moon in the dark, focusing only on the beauty of the moon and not the fact that she is in the dark. However, after she gets abused, she no longer focuses on the moon (dreams, hopes) and now focuses on hiding from the abuser, a process in which she learns to fear the dark and to forget her childhood dreams.

Title

• The title indicates that the poem is about a young girl named Lizzie which is obviously her pet name, therefore indicating innocence.
• The form of the title is similar to that of a newspaper headline or a police report

Structure

• Conversation between the abuser and the abused
• 5x 4-lined stanzas
• Hypophora –Q&A by the poet – the hypophoric structure presents the graphic details of the sexual assault

Analysis

What are you doing?

• The abuser questions everything the child doe, thus forbidding the child to be independent and forcing the child to be submissive to the abuser’s wishes and desires.

I’m watching the moon.

• The act of the child looking up at the moon shows that the child has dreams and hopes. The picture of the moon also shows that the abuse takes place at night.

I’ll give you the moon

• The moon is symbolic of lunacy. This suggests that the abuser will drive the child insane by the end of the abuse

when I get up there.

• Suggesting that the child is in an upstairs room and also saying “when I get close to you

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Where are you going?

• The abuser stalks the child

To play in the fields.

• Shows the child’s innocence as the children play in fields
• Children go to play in the fields during the day-time, showing that the abuser doesn’t restrict himself to the night but also abuses her during the day.

I’ll give you the fields,

• Fields of understanding: may sound positive but has a negative connotation - he will corrupt her mind with sexual knowledge

bend over that chair

• Very graphic image of sexual abuse

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What are you thinking?
I’m thinking of love.

• The abuse is over and the child is full corrupted.
• The child’s new idea of love is the sexual abuse with which the abuser has been abusing her with.
• While he abuses her, he says that she is all he ever wanted and that he loves her and that what he is doing is “loving” her.
• This gives her the wrong idea about true love as she is only exposed to sexual acts.

I’ll give you love

• Refers to ‘making love’

when I’ve climbed this stair.

• He is going to sexually abuse the child (again) when he reaches her upstairs room

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Where are you hiding?

• Now the child realises what is happening to her and now she is scared of the abuser and therefore she hides away from him.
• His question arouses fear in the reader as they feel scared for the child and the abuser’s question seems threatening.

Deep in the wood.

• Idiom for darkness.

I’ll give you wood

• Refers to the male sexual organs

when your bottom’s bare.

• Graphic details of abuse

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Why are you crying?
I’m afraid of the dark.

• The child openly expresses fear.
• ‘Dark’ refers to the darkness of the life which the abuse causes her to live.

I’ll give you the dark

• The abuser seems to say that he will continue to abuse the child

and I do not care.

• Shocking. Shows the apathy of the abuser.
• Calls for action against child abuse and sexual abuse.
• Shows how insensitive the abuser has become due to repeatedly abusing the child.
• Incites anger in the readers.

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