Carol Ann Duffy Essays

“Before you were mine” by Carol Ann Duffy is a very emotionally charged poem about loss and cherished memories. The poet explores the significance of the past by looking back nostalgically and celebrating her mother’s previous, glamorous life before she was blessed with her child. The poet uses the techniques of tone, word choice and […]

Both “Parting with a View” by Wistawa Szymborska and “Disgrace” by Carol Ann Duffy use the places which have been havens of tranquility in their previous lives to illustrate the changes which have taken place and symbolise their present emotions. In the poem “Disgrace” Duffy uses the house, that used to be her home, to […]

The poem begins with “there are the twins” in italics, to show it is an outside voice saying it. This shows that they have a reputation and are well known. Duffy also uses cockney rhyming slang throughout, (frog and toad, mince pies, Vera Lynn) which gives it a voice and identity. The amount of rhyming […]

Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy is an irregular poem with a direct tone. The language is very simple and gets straight to the point. The title suggests love as Valentines Day is a day to celebrate love on the 14th of February ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart, I give you an onion’, […]

The poem Comprehensive consists of seven stanzas and each stanza has a different voice. Carol Ann Duffy uses the idea of conflict and differences in race and culture in 1985. Comprehensive is written in seven stanzas of six or seven lines. All verses are similar in structure to emphasis the fact that whatever the culture […]

Through the use of various language techniques in ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’, Carol Ann Duffy effectively portrays the transformation in a student’s perspective and maturity as they progress through school. The shifting atmosphere of the poem reflects this evolution, as it highlights the way in which the main character’s perception of education and the classroom […]

The Beggar Woman The Beggar Woman was written around 1663 to 1712, by William King. William King worked as a lawyer and judge but wrote poems as a hobby. It can be led to believe that his job may have influenced him to write the Beggar woman, because of some acts of injustice that he […]

The poem ‘Salome’, by Carol Ann Duffy, is written in the first person, seemingly from the perspective of a woman given indicators such as the fact that the person has been involved intimately with a man; ‘the reddish beard’. The first three lines of the poem, all of which use enjambment, only come to make […]

The first thing I noticed about Stealing was the question on the first line, this immediately tells us that he/she is talking to someone (or is perhaps being interviewed), however, because the poem is a monologue, we never know who. Neither are we told the gender or age of the thief, which I think all […]

‘Valentine’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a poem that creates a contradiction by contrasting the romantic poem style of the title, ‘Valentine,’ with a negative in the opening line, canceling out any traditional thoughts of valentines, ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart.’ In this first line, Duffy is stating a matter of fact; […]

In her poems Carol Ann Duffy explores many subjects and themes including love, a female’s perspective of well known legend, dream-like poems, other people and poems from her own experience. Some poems with these themes include, ‘Valentine’, ‘Mrs. Midas’, ‘Dream of a Lost Friend’, ‘War Photographer’ and ‘Originally’. Many of Duffy’s poems are in a […]

In the poems ‘Havisham’ and ‘Salome’ the characters have both experienced pain conflicted by love. Love has been a big part in both of these women’s lives as it has mentally scarred them and affects them in their future love lives. However both scarred, their lives are almost completely different Carol Ann Duffy makes the […]

A poem which describes a person’s experience is War Photographer by Carol Ann Duffy. The poem depicts a photographer who has recently returned from an assignment to a war-ridden country. It emphasises the harshness of war photography through the photographer’s thoughts on his experience abroad. In the first stanza, Duffy conveys the nature of the […]

“War Photographer” by Carol Ann Duffy is a poem which explores the theme of moral ambiguity in the field of war photography which is important in today’s society. The poet has conveyed this issue through the eyes and thoughts of a war photographer and highlights the controversy surrounding this profession.In the first stanza the reader […]

The poem, ‘Valentine’, is a monologue by Carol Ann Duffy addressed to her lover. It is part of the set ‘Mean Time’ published in 1993. It explores an unorthodox and frank side of love and compares it to the frivolities of Valentines day. The poem is written in free verse and has no rhyme scheme. […]

In this piece of coursework I will be looking at the two poems; The Laboratory by Robert Browning and Havisham by Carol Ann Duffy. I will be looking at how the poets convey the extreme reactions of the woman in the poems that have been hurt by men. I will tackle the question by looking […]

The poem ‘Shooting Stars’ by Carol Ann Duffy tells a shocking story of a female prisoner held by Nazis in a concentration camp around the time of the Holocaust. The poem is set in 1940, Hitler and his Nazi party had taken control of most of Europe and had vowed to exterminate the entire Jewish […]

Duffy has successfully written about childhood and the loss of innocence in ‘little red cap’, discuss with detail reference to the poem and how Duffy has used imagery, syntax and structure effectively in the poem. Little Red Cap is written by Carol Ann Duffy and it is taken from her feminist collection ‘The World’s Wife […]

The poem Mrs Lazarus, by Carol Ann Duffy, portrays a woman (Mrs Lazarus) going through the stages of grief after her husband passes away. In this essay, I will be exploring the ways in which Duffy conveys how grief changes over time. The poem begins with Mrs Lazarus’s state of anguish over her husband’s death. […]

The world’s wife is a compilation of poems published in 1999 and written by Carol Ann Duffy, a modern feminist poet. It covers various myths in order to give women a voice. This includes the short monologue like poem: “Medusa”. How do metaphors, symbols and allegories contribute in clarifying the meanings of the poem? Primarily, […]

In this critical essay I will be writing on account of “Shooting Stars” by Carol Ann Duffy. Duffy successfully reveals the true horrors of the Second World War using a wide variety of poetic techniques, of which in this task I will evaluate and finally conclude with my own opinion. Throughout the dramatic monologue Duffy […]

As love is a main theme in Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Rapture’ and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’ it is no surprise that many methods are used by both authors to discuss the way love is felt and used by people, including the language used, and the confusion that can be caused by the written […]