Pilate’s Wife
Carol Ann Duffy * Track #6 On The World’s Wife
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Album The World’s Wife
- #1Little Red Cap
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- #2Thetis
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- #3Queen Herod
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- #4Mrs Midas
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- #5From Mrs Tiresias
Carol Ann Duffy
- #6Pilate’s Wife
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- #7Mrs Aesop
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- #8Mrs Darwin
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- #9Mrs Sisyphus
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- #10
Mrs FaustCarol Ann Duffy
- #11Delilah
Carol Ann Duffy
- #12Anne Hathaway
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- #13Queen Kong
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- #14Mrs Quasimodo
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- #15Medusa
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- #16The Devil’s Wife
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- #17Circe
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- #18Mrs. Lazarus
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- #19Pygmalion’s Bride
Carol Ann Duffy
- #20Mrs Rip Van Winkle
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- #21Mrs Icarus
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- #22Frau Freud
Carol Ann Duffy
- #23Salome
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- #24Eurydice
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- #25The Kray Sisters
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- #26Elvis’s Twin Sister
Carol Ann Duffy
- #27Pope Joan
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- #28Penelope
Carol Ann Duffy
- #29Mrs Beast
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- #30Demeter
Carol Ann Duffy
Pilate's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy
Performed by
Carol Ann DuffyAbout
The collection of poems by Carol Ann Duffy entitled ‘The World’s Wife’, was first published in 1999 and presents stories, myths, fairy tales and characters in Western culture from the point of view of women. Much of literature through the ages and even today is patriarchal, presenting the world from...
Pilate’s Wife Annotated
Firstly, his hands - a woman's. Softer than mine,
with pearly nails, like shells from Galilee.
Indolent hands. Camp hands that clapped for grapes.
Their pale, mothy touch made me flinch. Pontius.
I longed for Rome, home, someone else. When the Nazarene
entered Jerusalem, my maid and I crept out,
bored stiff, disguised, and joined the frenzied crowd.
I tripped, clutched the bridle of an ass, looked up
and there he was. His face? Ugly. Talented.
He looked at me. I mean he looked at me. My God.
His eyes were eyes to die for. Then he was gone,
his rough men shouldering a pathway to the gates.
The night before his trial, I dreamt of him.
His brown hands touched me. Then it hurt.
Then blood. I saw that each tough palm was skewered
by a nail. I woke up, sweating, sexual, terrified.
Leave him alone.I sent a warning note, then quickly dressed.
When I arrived, the Nazarene was crowned with thorns.
The crowd was baying for Barabbas. Pilate saw me,
looked away, then carefully turned up his sleeves
and slowly washed his useless, perfumed hands.
They seized the prophet then and dragged him out,
up to the Place of Skulls. My maid knows all the rest.
Was he God? Of course not. Pilate believed he was.
Pilate’s Wife Q&A
What is the Global Issue/theme in this Poem?
The poem overview is worth reading. The poem is a re-interpretation of the crucifixion from the point of view of a perceptive woman, Pilate’s wife, who can see and understand more than the men. The whole collection is about giving voice to the women behind the famous characters of history. This wom...