Carol Ann Duffy is groundbreaking in many ways. She is the first Scottish, woman, and openly gay Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. In her poem, “Warming Her Pearls”, she creates the persona of a servant who is in love with her mistress. This persona is interesting, because it describes unrequited feelings from a subordinate to superior. A relationship between two people of unequal social standings has almost always been viewed as scandalous. Moreover, the difference in this social standing is pivotal to why this poem is so impactful, as it could also describe the disconnect found in homosexual relationships in the time period Duffy was writing. Not so long ago, in the 1980’s, homosexuality was viewed as a stigma. The hatred for homosexuality was so deeply ingrained into the United Kingdom’s culture that in 1987, the country’s prime minister, Margert Thatcher, issued a statement which said, “Children who need to be taught to respect traditional moral values are being taught that they have an inalienable right to be gay". 1987 also happened to be the year Duffy published “Warming Her Pearls”. These two events may not have a causation relationship, but rather a correlation relationship. By writing this extremely sensual poem, Duffy is making an argument about how homosexual relationships are wrongly stigmatized by inverting the power structure through the heat, intimacy, and erotic imagery described by the servant in her connection to her mistress.
The title of the poem tells of the practice of a mistress giving her servant pearls to wear the day before a party as to warm them up and provide a luster which can only be gained through contact to human skin. Already, the implication of skin contact is an extremely personal conviction, even if it only is to pearls. The servant tells how the mistress has her “wear them, warm them, until evening” (2). The servant specifically says “warm them” (2) in this line as the reason for her to wear the pearls, the intimacy of the word “warm” (2) should not go unnoticed. When two people get intimate sexually, their bodies become heated through the chemistry. Setting this interpretation of warmth aside, the intimacy referenced doesn’t necessarily mean sexually, but rather the comfort of touching someone or something warm. Lonely humans find comfort in a warm mug of coffee or tea, as it substitutes for human warmth. For someone in the position of a servant, or a chambermaid, it is not unreasonable to infer she does not receive a lot of physical, human touch. The chambermaid is so touched starved, even just the thought of warmth from her own skin transferring to play upon her mistress’s skin excites her. She goes on to say, “I work willingly, my slow heat entering/ each pearl” (7-8). This line is rather delicate as the reader can imagine how each singular pearl slides over her skin, warming them with her body heat. The “work willingly” could be referencing everyday activities the servant does as to complete as part of her duty to her mistress, or it could reference the working of her body heat into the pearls. In the last stanza of the poem, after the mistress has returned home from her party, the servant lays in bed “knowing the pearls are cooling” (22) as they have served their purpose of adorning the mistress’ neck for the night. Their absence around the servant’s neck, and now the mistress’, has severed the connection, excitement, and heat the servant had found in wearing them throughout the day. The “cooling” (22) here could symbolize the heat going out of her own physical satisfaction and excitement from the connection between her and the mistress. At night, she lays in her own bed, away from her mistress. The servant lacks the comfort of body heat from another person, especially the one she longs for, to warm her up. The last lines of the poem are “I feel their absence and I burn” (24). The “their” (24) is referencing back to the pearls, while the “burn” (24) could be the result of sexual or physical desires going unsatisfied. These lines tell the reader that whatever sort of lust or longing found in this relationship is one sided, the servant’s physical desires remain unmet.
In being a chambermaid, most of the day is spent attending to the mistress, cleaning, dressing, and generally pampering the woman. In this connection there is chance for a real intimacy to grow between the two women. To constantly touch and be around another person, of course an intimacy would spring between the two, but it is an unequal intimacy. The mistress has the money and power to do almost anything she wants: seek out parties, company, and to simply get out of the house. On the other hand, the servant’s whole world operates inside the sphere of the home and her limited social and economic means. As discussed above, the pearls of this poem hold a special significance to the servant in regard to her relationship with her mistress. The very first line sets up this intimacy clearly, it states: “next to my own skin, her pearls” (1). Already discussed above also, the touching of skin relates to human comfort and sexuality, but what hasn’t been discussed is the vulnerability of skin. When a servant would wear her mistress’ pearls, she’d wear them under her clothes to warm them up, this fact is important because it tells of the intimacy of a secret covered up. Duffy was writing this poem in an era where many felt homosexuality was better kept a secret, often a lonely secret as only one person knew the truth of it. Later in the poem, while the mistress is at her party, the servant can’t help but “picture her dancing with tall men, puzzled by my faint, persistent scent beneath her French perfume” (11-12). Dancing can be a clear expression of sexuality, as it is a socially acceptable way to showcase one’s preference of partners. This line also features a sort of possessiveness on the part of the servant, as it is her “persistent scent” (11) which will puzzle the men the mistress dances with. Though, this possessiveness is not founded in truth, perhaps only jealously. The mistress is dancing and attending parties while the servant works alone in her home, although she does not wish to switch places with the mistress; she wishes to switch places with the men she dances with. Of course, her scent could be puzzling the mistress just as much as the men. The servant talks of her scent hiding “beneath [the mistress’] French perfume” (12). In order to hide their homosexuality, some people have been known to adopt a fictionalized style or persona to cover their inalienable gayness. In this sense, the “French perfume” (12) would be the mistress performing femininity in contrast to the homosexual undertones which it attempts to hide. Further intimacy can be found after the mistress returns home from her party and the servant says, “I see her every movement in my head” (18), there is an intimacy in noticing the way someone walks, knowing how they look while performing simple tasks, predicting the way their hand reaches or the way their head tilts. The servant doesn’t imagine these movements, she says “I see” them, which implies the intimacy and comfort of knowing, instead of only wishing to know by guessing. The chambermaid spends every day dedicated to her mistress and her needs, and so an intimacy between the two forms, but this intimacy has layers: one woman is the other’s whole world while the other is only a small part of hers. One woman is able to express and move within her sexuality while the other is restricted from most forms of expression, especially sexuality.
Within Duffy’s poem, there are many instances of erotic imagery which tells of the truly lustful and sexual nature of the servant’s desire toward her mistress. Specifically, the servant says she’ll wear the mistress’ pearls “when I’ll brush her hair” (3). Hair, especially female hair, has been known to be a symbol of sexuality. For the servant to specifically cite brushing her mistress’ hair holds many implications of what kind of relationship the two women have, or the kind of relationship the servant wishes they had. In many aspects, brushing one’s hair is a solitary action which does not require a second person, but when a second person participates in the action a whole new level of relaxation and comfort can be found. Later in the same stanza, the servant discusses placing the pearls “round her cool, white throat” (6), this imagery is highly sensual as the imagery of a “cool, white throat” (6) speaks to many different implications of attractiveness. It must be noted how “cool” (6) is at a contrast of the warm pearls the servant will be giving her mistress, and she’ll be succeeding at warming her up. Meanwhile, a “white throat” (6) is another symbol of sexuality and attractiveness. In the third stanza, the servant reveals fantasies surrounding her mistress, by saying, “I dream about her in my attic bed” (9-10). The servant dreams of his mistress, largely leaving the reader to wonder what sort of dreams she’s having. Moreover, the mention of an “attic bed” brings forth another sexual intimacy, as sharing one’s bed, even to just the thoughts of another person, is highly personal and sexually charged, as the bed is the area dedicated to exploring sexual fancies. The next stanza holds imagery of a “soft blush [seeping] through [the mistress’] skin/ like an indolent sigh” (14-15), as the servant brushes up against her “with a rabbit’s foot’ (13). The blush is a heating of the human skin, as blood rushes everywhere after sexual stimuli. An “indolent sigh” (15) could be from comfort or satisfaction, the mistress may enjoy the feeling of how the servant brushes against her. After the mistress’ carriage returns home from her night out, the servant knows how she’ll look “undressing, /taking off her jewels, her slim hand reaching/for the case, slipping naked into bed” (18-20). These are perhaps the most blatantly, sexually charged lines in the poem. As discussed before, a bed has a sexual connotation, and to imagine the mistress “slipping naked” (20) into it only heightens those connotations. This servant is clearly in love with her mistress, but it is definitely not a platonic love. In fact, the love she feels for her mistress is lust. Although it is lust, it is not a dangerous lust. If the mistress was lusting after her servant, then there are many moral dilemmas which need to be evaluated in the relationship, but because it is the servant lusting after her mistress, the moral dilemmas hold less importance. The servant in this situation has no power over her mistress, she can only ever hope to admire from a distance, while the mistress would have the power to escalate the relationship, regardless of the servant’s wishes.
Duffy was homosexual in a sensitive time period, homosexuality was slowly becoming destigmatized, but there were still so many powerful people pushing back against it. For those powerful people, homosexuality was a disease which preyed upon the young and innocent, “tainting” perfectly good men and women. For them, homosexuality was a demon which took possession of people, merely of a sinful and lustful nature. In her poem, Duffy does play upon the highly assumed sexualized behavior of homosexuals, but she puts a critical spin on this assumption as she creates a highly sexual persona who did not have any power to act upon her urges. Furthermore, by making this persona a servant, someone who already does not get many pleasures in life, as the one lusting, she is casting homosexuals in the light of innocence, of a person who is desperate for any sort of connection, one which is based in comfort and intimacy. Ultimately, Duffy is humanizing this “untraditional, immoral” sexuality, framing it as something which does not corrupt, but rather as a girl who merely has a crush on her mistress.