Analysing Rapture: Forest, River, Haworth and Hour

Forest
The title Forest alone carries connotations of madness, confusion and secrecy, therefore the reader can see that the speaker is not in a public relationship with the lover, but the poem implicitly states that their relationship has reached a sexual level. The repetition of 'we' in the second stanza reinforces the fact that they feel together as one, as opposed to being 'you' and 'I' separately. Duffy's use of common innuendo with the phrase "you rise again and go deeper into the woods", instead of more romantic imagery, indicates that the relationship may not be romantic, loving or even emotional, but only sexual. Duffy uses very passive words and phrases like 'follow', 'shrank', 'knelt' and 'pulling me in', suggesting the desire for a passive role in the relationship, much like a traditional heterosexual relationship, with the speaker taking up the role of the woman. As Duffy is a lesbian, this could be a way of expressing that a homosexual relationship still has one partner as the more dominant, or, conversely, perhaps it indicates that the speaker hopes to conform to society's expectations and be in a more conventional relationship.


River
River juxtaposes Forest in that it is much more emotional and less sexual, but also by the way in which the speaker begins as more of a dominant, powerful presence, which Duffy achieves by using the phrase "love waits for me", showing that the speaker is no longer the one waiting, but the one being waited for. Also, the image of the heron bowing its head implies a sense of god-like grandeur, that the speaker is being worshipped. However, as the poem continues, the speaker becomes more passive, even though the lover comes to the speaker, Duffy describes love as "cover[ing] my mouth", which could be construed as forceful, even violent behaviour on the lover's part.


Haworth
The poem 'Haworth' has a sinister, uncomfortable undertone as the obsessive nature of the speaker is almost depicted as stalking the lover, visiting the places "here now where you were", while they are apparently unaware. Although it could be considered romantic that the speaker wishes to know everything about the lover, and sees them in all of the surroundings, the description of the lover's hand as a "ridged stone" indicates a cold, hard, unfeeling presence coming from the lover, conveying a sense of inequality and imbalance in their relationship.


Hour
Hour is a fairly simple poem in structure and in overall meaning. It is a classic sonnet, a traditional love poem, perhaps indicating the desire to conform to a conventional relationship, and the general message from the poem is that even the poorest of people can find spiritual wealth and richness through love. The use of juxtaposition between the materialistic, man-made words such as 'coin', 'treasure' and 'gold' with more natural imagery like 'sky', 'grass' and 'straw' suggests a struggle between literal and spiritual wealth. Perhaps the speaker is conflicted between gaining the materialistic objects, much like a traditional woman would be expected to receive from a typical male partner, and true love, that is spiritual richness.