The world this creature inhabits is apocalyptic, with the old alone and vulnerable to thieves in the night: The third section explores Marilyn Monroe. The first two stanzas contain 9 lines, while the second two contain 10. This section is carefully regulated, but not so much as the fourth. The fact the stanzas get longer as this section progresses could reflect how controlling the media were of Marilyn. As she advanced in her career, the media began to show more of her, represented through the lengthening structure. Yet, even in these stanzas, there is an element of regularity. Monroe’s life was heavily controlled by the media, which wanted her to be depicted in a certain way. Duffy uses structure to reflect these ideas, emulating her life through the structure. Though nothing is known of Helen’s death, the other three — significantly — died gruesomely; Cleopatra used a poisenous snake to bite and kill her; Marilyn Munroe committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping tablets, and Diana died in a car crash pursued by the press seeking photographs.

Key features: monosyllabic and harsh consonant sounds, asyndetic listing, declarative sentences, cross-line rhyme, caesureThe third person discussed in Duffy’s Beautiful is Marilyn Monroe. Monroe was an American actress, model, and singer. She was emblematic of America’s changing attitudes to sexuality, becoming a sex symbol of the 1950s and 60s. She was viciously controlled by Hollywood, eventually dying at the age of 32 to a sleeping pill overdose. Elizabeth 1 never married, keeping her status as an eligible virgin as a political bargaining tool in national and international politics. In this way she cleverly kept control of competing aristocratic families in England. Internationally she remained aloof, refusing to align herself with any single foreign monarch, thereby maintaining power and independence. The ‘starlike sorrows of immortal eyes’ is oddly wounded. Duffy could use this to suggest a melancholic pang to the character. Perhaps Helen, in her godly position, understood the great burden that beauty had placed upon her. One of the most important lines in the poem, ‘Over her breast was the heart of the town’, stems in this second stanza. Duffy connects ‘town’ and ‘breast’, linking place and body. This is emblematic of the content of the poem as a whole, place etched on the woman’s skin. Yet, this also suggests how important a home town is to someone. No matter if you hate or love where you were born, you can never change the fact that you were born there. The ‘heart’, representing the center of this ‘town’ is above the woman’s ‘breast’, being held close to her own heart. This represents how she keeps her hometown deep inside her, the memories of that place shaping her into the person she is. Using ‘breast’ also centers the poem on a uniquely female perspective, Duffy further connecting with other poems in ‘Feminine Gospels’. Bala, Ismail. "Woman-To-Woman: Displacement, Sexuality and Gender in Carol Ann Duffy's Poetry". Linguistic Association of Nigeria, vol 4, no. 2, 2011, Accessed 29 Apr 2018.

The poem comprises seven six-lined stanzas. They are carefully structured with lines of increasing length, as if gradually building her power and authority. The consistency reflects the stability of her reign. The ‘fuzz of woodland… under each arm’ represents armpit hair. This image could be interpreted polysemously within the text. Although some argue that it means she has stopped caring about her body, I would argue that this is an overly British analysis. Considering she has travelled all over the world trying to escape her identity, she would be familiar with the customs of many countries. Indeed, in other parts of the world, it is not traditional for women to shave, Duffy’s Map-Woman embracing this custom. Moreover, the rejection of shaving ties in with the 21st Century feminist movement, many women not following the stereotypes built on patriarchal assumptions.The Long Queen‘ begins Duffy’s anthology, ‘Feminine Gospels’, and touches on several key themes of the anthology: the position of women in society, feminine power, and female voices all being referenced within the poem. Yet, the most important theme of all when discussing ‘ The Long Queen‘ would be history, with Duffy using this figure to begin the tradition of historic women. Good poems to analyze in discussion with ‘ The Long Queen‘ in regards to history would be the poems History, Sub, and Beautiful.