Lesbos

Question 1

Key points

Answer 1

• Written after separation from Hughes, inspired by her visit to Kathy Kane in Cornwall
• Angry from the outset (‘viciousness in the kitchen!’), a vitriolic/bitter attack on another woman.
• Uncharacteristically free-verse
• Kathy does not feel that her husband is attracted to her anymore

Question 2

Key quotations

Answer 2

• ‘The potatoes hiss’
• ‘Why she is schitzophrenic’ ‘You have stuck her kittens outside your window’
• ‘You say that I should drown my girl’
• ‘I should wear tiger pants, I should have an affair’- encouraging her to sexualize herself