Following the caesura on the first line of the fourteenth stanza, ‘trembled. Taller’, Duffy uses this as a moment of naming. Instead of the woman’s identity, she is simply ‘Taller’, reduced to a trait. From this, she has gained nothing, ‘colder, aloner, no wiser’. Duffy suggests that humanity has a tendency to elevate people to something they are not. This woman is no different for her size, but yet she has been deified temporarily.
Following this, when people bore her size, she becomes a ‘weather’ woman. The question, ‘What could she see up there?’ undermines her gift in society. The incredible woman is reduced to a menial role in society. She sees disasters coming, ‘Dust storms’, ‘Hurricanes’, ‘floods’, warning people of oncoming natural events.
Far away from society now, she loses her sense of identity. Duffy uses ‘holwled’, reducing the character to animalism. The dehumanization stems from her distancing from society, never allowed to fit in. Now far away, she degenerates completely, falling away from who she once was.
Yet, from far away she is still empathetic, trying to help society. Upon the events of 9/11, she rushes to help, using her power in the only way she can. She tries to catch ‘their souls’ as ‘they fell’. This final stanza could represent the empathy that women hold. This woman tries to help humanity, even after they scorn her. When women are granted power, they use it for good, saving others from ‘the burning towers’.