The bed we loved in was a spinning world / of forests, castles, torchlight, cliff-tops, seas / where he would dive for pearls.
-- Speaker (Lines 1 – 3)

Importance: These are the opening lines of the poem. Here, the speaker equates the private setting of her marriage bed with the recognizable settings from Shakespeare's plays. This comparison establishes the speaker's attempt to connect Shakespeare's poetic reputation with his private life, thereby showing how the "second-best bed" is actually a gift as powerful and significant as one of his plays.

My body now a softer rhyme / to his, now echo, assonance; his touch / a verb dancing in the centre of a noun.
-- Speaker (Lines 5 – 7)

Importance: In describing the second-best bed, which the speaker maintains was the bed she shared with Shakespeare, she relies on the conflation of sensual imagery with poetic language. Here, the speaker compares the bodies of herself and her husband to the text of a poem, suggesting that love-making...