Carol Ann Duffy's Poetry

Carol Ann Duffy's Poetry

Compare 3 poems by Carol Ann Duffy in which she shows us that

things are not always as expected.

Carol Ann Duffy is a renowned poet across the UK and her work is very

popular. Many different age groups can study her poems as they can be

interpreted and understood in different ways. She achieves this in her

poems by the descriptions and varying linguistic devices used.

One of the reasons that Carol Ann Duffy’s poems are so popular is that

they are often quite unexpected. Duffy is not afraid to tackle

difficult or unpleasant topics. She writes her poems very personally

and with deep feelings. This makes it a lot more powerful to the

reader and evokes some kind of reaction within them.

Duffy’s poems go deeper than first impressions. It is only after

reading them several times that you can gain any understanding of the

ideas and feelings that she is trying to get across. The reason for

this is that the poems usually steer away from the conventional views

and expectations. Often Carol Ann Duffy will open the poem on a line

that is unusual, or shocking. This makes the poem seem more intriguing

and perhaps surprising.

‘Valentine’ is a poem that is surprising and shocking from the first

line. A title such as ‘Valentine’ indicates a poem that will be about

love and all the clichéd objects and feelings surrounding it. However,

we are told in the first line that it is ‘not a red rose or a satin

heart.’ -This is quite a negative line to start with. The ‘not’ gives

the impression that not everything will be as it seems in ‘Valentine.’

Already there is a distinct difference between ‘Valentine’ and the two

other poems (‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ and ‘Before you were mine’)

that I have ...

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final words: ‘before you were mine.’ Here we are reminded for the last

time that the mother’s life did not always ‘sparkle’. With the arrival

of a ‘possessive yell’ she became tied down. ‘Maggie Mcgeeney and Jean

Duff’ were never heard of again.

In ‘Valentine’ Duffy used a lot of ambiguities (‘fierce kiss’). The

same can be said for ‘Before you were mine’. ‘In the ballroom with the

thousand eyes.’ This sets a very romantic scene and could be referring

to the eyes of five hundred potential suitors watching the

mother-to-be dancing ‘in those red high-heeled shoes.’ Or it could be

an innuendo to a glitter ball. This illustrates how light played on

the ball, sending light across the dance floor in a ‘thousand eyes.’

When reading Carol Ann Duffy’s poems it is advisable to be prepared

for the unexpected, as this is almost certainly what you will get.