Havisham bite awake. Love's hate behind a white veil; a red balloon bursting in my face. Bang. I stabbed at a wedding-cake. Give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon. Don't think it's only the heart that b-b-b-breaks. Havisham "Havisham" is a poem written in 1993 by Carol Ann Duffy. It responds to Charles Dickens' character "Miss Havisham" from his novel "Great Expectations", looking at Havisham's mental and physical state many decades after being left standing at the altar, when the bride-to-be is in her old age. It expresses Havisham's anger at her fiancé and her bitter rage over
Havisham sexual fantasy reveals both the unrequited love and the passion that remains within Havisham following the wedding, a devastation from which her heart has never recovered. The poem is featured in the examining board AQA's English Literature Anthology for its GCSE qualification in English Literature. It is featured alongside works by Duffy, and three other contemporary writers: Simon Armitage, Seamus Heaney and Gillian Clarke. This poem is also featured in the Scottish Qualifications Authority's National 5 and Higher English Critical Reading paper, in the Scottish Texts section. Candidates study Anne Hathaway, War Photographer, Originally, Valentine and Mrs Midas alongside this