‘Mean Time’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a four-stanza poem that comes from the collection of the same name. It was published in 1993 and won the Forward prize the same year. The title of the poem speaks to several different elements and images which are represented in the text. First, though, there is the fact that the word “meantime” has been separated into two words “meantime.” Duffy wanted to allude to an interval of time, like a liminal space, but also to a time that is “mean.” It is cruel and dark in her speaker’s world. When the poem begins a reader becomes aware that there is a specific kind of time she is thinking of, the days after the end of Daylights Saving Time. This is when it gets dark very early in the day, with fewer hours of light to gain hope and love.
Summary
The poem begins with the speaker stating that the clocks went back an hour. This is a clear reference to the end of Daylight Savings Time. She goes on to compare the loss of light in her life to the loss of love. While living in a new, darker, and much more depressed state, she goes into the wrong part of town. The speaker spends her days wandering the streets in the rain and mourning the past.
Her heart is unable to let go of the worst moments of her last relationship. Although she wishes that her memories were different, she is resigned to the fact that she can’t change them.
Structure
‘Mean Time’ by Carol Ann Duffy consists of four stanzas each having four lines in it. Some lines of the poem are comparably longer than the neighboring lines. Such elongation helps the poet to reflect her mental state. Moreover, the poem does not make use of a rhyme scheme, but there is one moment in which the end lines connect. In the last stanza, lines one and four, with “light” and “nights” rhyme. Apart from that, to create a depressing mood in the poem, the poet makes use of the anapestic meter mixing it with the iambic meter. However, there are some instances where the lines begin with a trochaic meter or falling rhythm.
Literary Devices
Duffy also makes use of assonance, or the repetition of vowel sounds, and consonance, the reputation of consonant sounds in ‘Mean Time.’ The first line of the second stanza is a great example. In this part of the poem, there is a distinct repetition of the long “e” sound. It appears in “bleak” and “streets,” adding to the rhythm of the poem. There are a few other moments that are noted within the body of the analysis.
Context
‘Mean Time’ by Carol Ann Duffy is layered with several connotations. About the subject matter of the poem, “Mean Time” might be a reference to the cruelty of time. Moreover, the title, a perfect polyseme, can be a reference to Greenwich, London. The Greenwich Mean Time is a standard unit for measuring the time zones of different geographical regions on earth. So, Duffy seems to be referring to the phase of her life that determined her future. To emphasize that phase of her life, she used the title “Mean Time”. However, the last stanza of the poem leaves the poem open-ended. From this section, it becomes clear that the poetic persona might be pointing to something else apart from the heartache of her relationship.
Analysis of Mean Time
Stanza One
In the first stanza of ‘Mean Time’ the speaker begins by describing the end of Daylight Savings Time. This is when the clocks “slide back an hour” and there is less light in the evening. For the speaker, who is often considered to be Duffy herself, this relates to a personal experience. She compares the loss of light in her life to the loss of love. Both were stolen from her and disrupted her pattern of living, just as the time change can reorganize one’s evenings.
Duffy’s speaker describes the listless feelings which stole over her after the change of light and love. She,
walked through the wrong part of town,
mourning [their] love.
This line suggests that the speaker did not know how to handle the change. She did things which might’ve been dangerous, such as moving through the “wrong” part of town. This could indicate that it was a particularly poorly policed area.
The action represents self-destructive behaviour and a change in pattern that would, probably, in the past seemed completely strange. In the last line, it becomes clear that the ex-lover is the intended listener of ‘Mean Time’ Duffy’s speaker is directing her words to this person.
Stanza Two
The second stanza of ‘Mean Time’ is as dark and depressing as the first. “Of course,” she begins, it was raining. This creates an impossible to escape, the stereotypical image of a lover walking the streets mourning the loss of love. She was on “bleak streets” and ignoring the “unmendable rain.” This unusual word indicates that the rain itself cannot be fixed, and/or that it is incapable of fixing something she might like it to. It certainly doesn’t do anything to improve her situation.
In the first line of this stanza, there is an interesting moment of assonance with the use of long “e” sound. It appears in “bleak” and “streets,” adding to the rhythm of the poem. These moments make the poem all the more pleasurable to read, especially out loud. The same can be said about “felt” and “heart” in the next line, this time though she is making use of consonance, or the repetition of a consonant sound. It occurs with the use and reuse of the “t” sound.
She adds that while walking, she was experiencing a range of powerful emotions. Duffy uses personification to poignantly describe how her speaker’s heart is unable to let go of the past. It “gnaws” as an animal or human would on memories. Her mind and heart went into the past and brought back, in their full force, all the “mistakes” the couple made. These are not described, a fact that makes the entire situation all the more relatable to a reader. One can place their own experiences in the mind of this speaker.
Stanza Three
In the third stanza, the speaker imagines a different future playing out in front of her. Duffy brings back the initial metaphor comparing her speaker’s loss to the end of daylight savings time. She thinks that things would change if the new darkness which spreads so early,
could lift
more than one hour from this day
If this occurred, creating an alternate reality of sorts, then the speaker would make sure that she never said all the things she did, nor heard the things her ex-lover said. But, there is no way to improve or change the past. She is stuck in her situation and with the memories she made.
Stanza Four
In the final four lines of ‘Mean Time’ the speaker tries to come to terms with her situation. She knows that for all intents and purposes the couple is beyond the light now. This metaphor goes forward, connecting the lack of light to death. This speaks to how far apart the two are now.
The last line does not lift the tone of the poem at it. It describes the speaker’s wider world as one that is now only made up of,
shortened days
and the endless nights.
The speaker seems resolved to walk in the dark, dangerous streets for the rest of her life. Without light/love in her life, there is no reason for her to do otherwise.
