Elvis's wimpled sister rocks on in a convent she calls Graceland; Nancy Sinatra gets out her boots made for walking with the Kray Sisters; Mrs Midas misses the touch of her now dangerous golden-handed husband; and Queen Herod decrees the killing of each mother's son to protect her baby daughter in Carol Ann Duffy's startling new collection The World's Wife. Doubling is one of the most common themes--and stylistic ploys--of Western culture and thought, and the concept around which Duffy has ingeniously organised this profoundly playful collection. Mrs Midas, Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin, Frau Freud, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Rip Van Winkle, the Kray Sisters; these are some of the wives, and sisters, whose stories are told. These inventive, metaphorically precise poems offer much more, however, than just a recovery of the historical voice of her (supposedly) silenced indoors. Duffy dexterously rewrites Judao-Christian and classical mythologies, subverts fairytale and zestfully reinterprets the more modern myths of Darwin and Freud.

Humour is the abundant keynote of this accessible collection. Mrs Rip Van Winkle enjoys the freedom to travel and paint allowed by her husband's permanent slumbers, "Until the day / I came home with pastel of Niagara / and he was sitting up in bed rattling Viagra." Frau Freud analyses her over-exposure to "ding-a-ling, member and jock, / of todger and nudger and percy and cock," and confesses with irony to being, "as au fait with Hunt-the Salami / as Ms M. Lewinsky." Mrs Aesop groans about her husbands unstoppable garrulousness: "By Christ, he could bore for Purgatory," and Mrs Darwin evolves the following summary her husband's research:

"7 April 1852
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him--
Something about that Chimpanzee over there
reminds me of you."

The World's Wife throws open the windows on the stuffy annals of historical myth and breezes through some of its highlights with a sense of revelry and laugh-out-loud observation. In this wry take on the historical ubiquity of heterosexual coupledom that permeates so many cultural myths, Duffy has separated vibrant women from the shadows of their more famous husbands and brothers, and divorced them from the distortions of historical silence. --Rachel Holmes

Now with extra laughs..., 05 Jul 2008
Ms Duffy is loved by readers even more than by the critics. She is wise, and she is clever. She is also very moving and extremely funny. This volume introduces us to Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin and even Mrs Faust and Mrs Quasimodo and so on...

These are not poems meant for academic study, these are poems to be read and enjoyed. And they are very enjoyable, with sharp wit throughout.

There are times in her more recent work when Duffy strikes me as the poet that Elizabeth Jennings was too frightened to be, here however CAD lets her hair down and unleashes a delight of barbs and sympathy.

The only disappointment for me is The Kray Sisters, but then, I hate so called cockney rhyming slang. Stuff your 'lady Godivas' up your 'Khyber pass'.

That minor gripe aside, this is another wonderful volume from one of our most popular poets, and even funnier than usual.

Poetry By Numbers, 15 Apr 2008
Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.

'Academic' concerns, such as mythology and history are all over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.

Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, and gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.

Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, and badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actually writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals and what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping and sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actually buying poetry is at an all-time low. Wonder why?

Fantastic, 11 Dec 2007
I truly adore this owmna and the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especially with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah and Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.

Brilliantly creative and entertaining, 19 Oct 2007
I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouée, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - all are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft and imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing and being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.

My Favourite, 09 Jul 2007
I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts and presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language and matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!

Now with extra laughs..., 05 Jul 2008
Ms Duffy is loved by readers even more than by the critics. She is wise, and she is clever. She is also very moving and extremely funny. This volume introduces us to Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin and even Mrs Faust and Mrs Quasimodo and so on...

These are not poems meant for academic study, these are poems to be read and enjoyed. And they are very enjoyable, with sharp wit throughout.

There are times in her more recent work when Duffy strikes me as the poet that Elizabeth Jennings was too frightened to be, here however CAD lets her hair down and unleashes a delight of barbs and sympathy.

The only disappointment for me is The Kray Sisters, but then, I hate so called cockney rhyming slang. Stuff your 'lady Godivas' up your 'Khyber pass'.

That minor gripe aside, this is another wonderful volume from one of our most popular poets, and even funnier than usual.

Poetry By Numbers, 15 Apr 2008
Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.

'Academic' concerns, such as mythology and history are all over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.

Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, and gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.

Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, and badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actually writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals and what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping and sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actually buying poetry is at an all-time low. Wonder why?

Fantastic, 11 Dec 2007
I truly adore this owmna and the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especially with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah and Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.

Brilliantly creative and entertaining, 19 Oct 2007
I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouée, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - all are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft and imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing and being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.

My Favourite, 09 Jul 2007
I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts and presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language and matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!

I'm a girl, and I hate it..., 12 Nov 2008
Generally this will be adored by girls and dreaded by boys. For A-level we had been given Duffy to study, and my heart sank. The year had been focused mainly on feminist works, now for the modern take.

Simplistic writings that I can imagine a beginner poet practicing with, but not the work of an experienced published, older writer. Every literature student will HAVE to encounter this women's dreary work at some point, though i feel it only fitting for at most younger students (primary for instance) settling them into poetry, getting a grasp and primitive understanding of how it all works. I just wish that i wasn't subjected to it, and I don't understand what motive our education system has for doing this to an entire generation of students. If this is some type of endurance test and they feel her work should be on the syllabus, fine, but I feel that we should always be given more than one option. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Learning and understanding is sparked by passion for the subject (for me), and I could never become passionate about this work unless it is by creating a negative response or critic.

Good luck to all you future torture victims

Ghastly, 27 Jul 2007
In this collection, Carol-Ann Duffy concentrates on a variety of issues, including herself, herself and herself. As is nearly always the case with contemporary women poets, she makes a big song and dance about the fact that she's a woman, instead of just ignoring that fact altogether, as should be the case.

Instead, she makes an issue about it, since this seems to be one of the few ways that a woman can get her poetry published. Periods, relationships, vanity and various other cliched topics are all fair game and all approached with the usual lack of depth and authenticity that is required for a woman poet to have even half a chance of being published. Hence, there is nothing remotely interesting here, let alone challenging.

One particularly tired technique used is writing in Scottish dialect. Janet Paisley also uses this technique, achieving a similarly dull and infuriating result. If she had written her poetry in Gaelic, I would have admired her more, even though I cannot understand Gaelic. I would have admired her more because Gaelic is an actual language, whereas 'Scottish' is not. 'Scottish' is a dialect, and not even a particularly attractive one at that. It sounds unrefined, and frankly, ugly - and this is coming from a person who has lived in Scotland for 20 odd years. This doesn't even touch on the fact that it limits the readership of her poetry. Anyone other than a Scottish person simply won't understand words like 'dug' (dog), or 'kenned' (knew). Besides which, the use of these words doesn't ring particularly ring true. People don't even use words like 'kenned' in Scotland. In the context in which it is used, it would read 'kent'. All this serves to do is highlight the contrivance and lack of sincerity in Duffy's writing. She has probably never spoken in Scottish slang in her life. She is merely using it to marginalise her poetry and give a small-time publisher something 'local' to market. Such insincere gimmickry is infuriating.

The poetry itself is poorly written, stilted and awkward. It lacks grace, finesse, or anything to convey. It has no level of originality and no excitement. It is also lacking in ambition and probably of no interest to anyone other than the author herself. Generally, it all has the same awkward, obscure format of the majority of contemporary poetry. Having precious little to convey seems to be the 'in' thing.

Duffy also lacks the ability to make readers care about any of her chosen topics. The likes of 'My Favourite Drink' is so lacking in any kind of conviction that one can almost imagine Duffy falling asleep whilst writing it. 'How' also reeks of middle-class self-obsession.

'A Disbelief' is probably the best poem, but even it is vastly inferior to lots of poetry I have read by any number of unpublished working-class poets, who mysteriously never seem to find success in poetry publishing, whilst mediocre middle-class poets like Carol Ann Duffy do. It seems that talent is secondary to having the correct background.

'Circe', meanwhile, is the kind of poem that could make anyone despise contemporary poetry, being, as it is, rife with cliche and metaphors. Ridiculous double-entendres comparing men to pigs positively reeks of the undertone 'I am a woman of the world, and I have lived. I have had many men'. But the sleazy double-entendres hide a rather ordinary individual who has no more right to have a book of poetry published than the ordinary person on the street. Her subject matter is never anything less than totally 100% cliched. This is also evident in 'Mrs.Faust' which contains more sleazy allusions and sexual references. All of the poetic techniques she uses are carried out with maximum mediocrity. Duffy even manages to make alliteration boring and dull, each verse looking more and more poorly constructed and amateurish than the last. It almost beggars belief that this was even published.

Then it's back to yet more cliche for 'To The Unknown Lover', which contains such hackneyed lines as: "This old heart of mine's a battered purse". The image of the 'battered' heart went out with the ark. Besides which, women writing romantic poetry is a cliched as it comes. It would appear that any woman who doesn't make constant sleazy sexual references or write pathetic, ancient romantic cliches has no chance of being published. If Carol Ann Duffy is the creme de la creme of British female poets, then literature is in a truly sorry state indeed.




well, 17 May 2007
I just like the way she writes.
It makes me feel good. It makes me feel.

I like things that make me feel.

That's all I wanted to say.

S x

Good, if not a little overrated, 09 Jan 2003
I am automatically biased, I tend to dislike something if I'm forced into it and I'm an english literature student - bad combination huh?

Carol Ann Duffy's poems are original, expressive, amusing and at times a little see through. It may be the fact that (being male) I'm not really a feminist but claiming Mrs Darwin came up with the evolutionary theory...come on!

A good read, even essential to anyone with even a mild interest in poetry but an open mind is essential (if you know where to find an open mind please let me know)

Occasional brilliance from the heroine of British poetry, 14 Feb 2002
What I resent about Duffy's baleful brand of feminism is the unspoken inference that it is edgy, unique and terrifying - the embodiment of the 'Ms' career woman whom men cower from behind their porno mags. Her headstrong tone of outrage can seem forced and her use of expletives comically inept. Universally acknowledged for her supple handling of numerous narrative voices; 'The Other Country' (1990) contains several worrying examples ('River' and 'Words, Wide Night') of an attempt to morph into some kind of new age philosopher. It is a poet's responsibility to question the relevance of language; but her previous poems - art which disguises art - with their thoroughly modern diction and sentiment, showed her adept at forging vibrant new poetry for the uninitiated.

This edition contains only glimpses of her recent collection 'The World's Wife' which gives a voice to ignored females throughout world history. The valency of the poetry is occasionally questionable but it still represents perhaps the finest comic verse of the decade.

Duffy's sparse, nihilistic style where adjectives gape in isolation from the page, can provide moments of jarring exactness. She is unparalleled in her use of the dramatic monologue. Her refreshing refusal to eulogise or over-elaborate allows her to conjure individual characters with a flurry of words and avalanche of meaning. Her devastating evocation of Wayne in 'Comprehensive' requires a single stanza. Fittingly, her poems end with deceptively bland and hauntingly poetic final lines. Like an after thought, they end in flux with intriguing ambiguity.

Now with extra laughs..., 05 Jul 2008
Ms Duffy is loved by readers even more than by the critics. She is wise, and she is clever. She is also very moving and extremely funny. This volume introduces us to Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin and even Mrs Faust and Mrs Quasimodo and so on...

These are not poems meant for academic study, these are poems to be read and enjoyed. And they are very enjoyable, with sharp wit throughout.

There are times in her more recent work when Duffy strikes me as the poet that Elizabeth Jennings was too frightened to be, here however CAD lets her hair down and unleashes a delight of barbs and sympathy.

The only disappointment for me is The Kray Sisters, but then, I hate so called cockney rhyming slang. Stuff your 'lady Godivas' up your 'Khyber pass'.

That minor gripe aside, this is another wonderful volume from one of our most popular poets, and even funnier than usual.

Poetry By Numbers, 15 Apr 2008
Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.

'Academic' concerns, such as mythology and history are all over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.

Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, and gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.

Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, and badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actually writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals and what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping and sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actually buying poetry is at an all-time low. Wonder why?

Fantastic, 11 Dec 2007
I truly adore this owmna and the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especially with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah and Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.

Brilliantly creative and entertaining, 19 Oct 2007
I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouée, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - all are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft and imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing and being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.

My Favourite, 09 Jul 2007
I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts and presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language and matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!

I'm a girl, and I hate it..., 12 Nov 2008
Generally this will be adored by girls and dreaded by boys. For A-level we had been given Duffy to study, and my heart sank. The year had been focused mainly on feminist works, now for the modern take.

Simplistic writings that I can imagine a beginner poet practicing with, but not the work of an experienced published, older writer. Every literature student will HAVE to encounter this women's dreary work at some point, though i feel it only fitting for at most younger students (primary for instance) settling them into poetry, getting a grasp and primitive understanding of how it all works. I just wish that i wasn't subjected to it, and I don't understand what motive our education system has for doing this to an entire generation of students. If this is some type of endurance test and they feel her work should be on the syllabus, fine, but I feel that we should always be given more than one option. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Learning and understanding is sparked by passion for the subject (for me), and I could never become passionate about this work unless it is by creating a negative response or critic.

Good luck to all you future torture victims

Ghastly, 27 Jul 2007
In this collection, Carol-Ann Duffy concentrates on a variety of issues, including herself, herself and herself. As is nearly always the case with contemporary women poets, she makes a big song and dance about the fact that she's a woman, instead of just ignoring that fact altogether, as should be the case.

Instead, she makes an issue about it, since this seems to be one of the few ways that a woman can get her poetry published. Periods, relationships, vanity and various other cliched topics are all fair game and all approached with the usual lack of depth and authenticity that is required for a woman poet to have even half a chance of being published. Hence, there is nothing remotely interesting here, let alone challenging.

One particularly tired technique used is writing in Scottish dialect. Janet Paisley also uses this technique, achieving a similarly dull and infuriating result. If she had written her poetry in Gaelic, I would have admired her more, even though I cannot understand Gaelic. I would have admired her more because Gaelic is an actual language, whereas 'Scottish' is not. 'Scottish' is a dialect, and not even a particularly attractive one at that. It sounds unrefined, and frankly, ugly - and this is coming from a person who has lived in Scotland for 20 odd years. This doesn't even touch on the fact that it limits the readership of her poetry. Anyone other than a Scottish person simply won't understand words like 'dug' (dog), or 'kenned' (knew). Besides which, the use of these words doesn't ring particularly ring true. People don't even use words like 'kenned' in Scotland. In the context in which it is used, it would read 'kent'. All this serves to do is highlight the contrivance and lack of sincerity in Duffy's writing. She has probably never spoken in Scottish slang in her life. She is merely using it to marginalise her poetry and give a small-time publisher something 'local' to market. Such insincere gimmickry is infuriating.

The poetry itself is poorly written, stilted and awkward. It lacks grace, finesse, or anything to convey. It has no level of originality and no excitement. It is also lacking in ambition and probably of no interest to anyone other than the author herself. Generally, it all has the same awkward, obscure format of the majority of contemporary poetry. Having precious little to convey seems to be the 'in' thing.

Duffy also lacks the ability to make readers care about any of her chosen topics. The likes of 'My Favourite Drink' is so lacking in any kind of conviction that one can almost imagine Duffy falling asleep whilst writing it. 'How' also reeks of middle-class self-obsession.

'A Disbelief' is probably the best poem, but even it is vastly inferior to lots of poetry I have read by any number of unpublished working-class poets, who mysteriously never seem to find success in poetry publishing, whilst mediocre middle-class poets like Carol Ann Duffy do. It seems that talent is secondary to having the correct background.

'Circe', meanwhile, is the kind of poem that could make anyone despise contemporary poetry, being, as it is, rife with cliche and metaphors. Ridiculous double-entendres comparing men to pigs positively reeks of the undertone 'I am a woman of the world, and I have lived. I have had many men'. But the sleazy double-entendres hide a rather ordinary individual who has no more right to have a book of poetry published than the ordinary person on the street. Her subject matter is never anything less than totally 100% cliched. This is also evident in 'Mrs.Faust' which contains more sleazy allusions and sexual references. All of the poetic techniques she uses are carried out with maximum mediocrity. Duffy even manages to make alliteration boring and dull, each verse looking more and more poorly constructed and amateurish than the last. It almost beggars belief that this was even published.

Then it's back to yet more cliche for 'To The Unknown Lover', which contains such hackneyed lines as: "This old heart of mine's a battered purse". The image of the 'battered' heart went out with the ark. Besides which, women writing romantic poetry is a cliched as it comes. It would appear that any woman who doesn't make constant sleazy sexual references or write pathetic, ancient romantic cliches has no chance of being published. If Carol Ann Duffy is the creme de la creme of British female poets, then literature is in a truly sorry state indeed.




well, 17 May 2007
I just like the way she writes.
It makes me feel good. It makes me feel.

I like things that make me feel.

That's all I wanted to say.

S x

Good, if not a little overrated, 09 Jan 2003
I am automatically biased, I tend to dislike something if I'm forced into it and I'm an english literature student - bad combination huh?

Carol Ann Duffy's poems are original, expressive, amusing and at times a little see through. It may be the fact that (being male) I'm not really a feminist but claiming Mrs Darwin came up with the evolutionary theory...come on!

A good read, even essential to anyone with even a mild interest in poetry but an open mind is essential (if you know where to find an open mind please let me know)

Occasional brilliance from the heroine of British poetry, 14 Feb 2002
What I resent about Duffy's baleful brand of feminism is the unspoken inference that it is edgy, unique and terrifying - the embodiment of the 'Ms' career woman whom men cower from behind their porno mags. Her headstrong tone of outrage can seem forced and her use of expletives comically inept. Universally acknowledged for her supple handling of numerous narrative voices; 'The Other Country' (1990) contains several worrying examples ('River' and 'Words, Wide Night') of an attempt to morph into some kind of new age philosopher. It is a poet's responsibility to question the relevance of language; but her previous poems - art which disguises art - with their thoroughly modern diction and sentiment, showed her adept at forging vibrant new poetry for the uninitiated.

This edition contains only glimpses of her recent collection 'The World's Wife' which gives a voice to ignored females throughout world history. The valency of the poetry is occasionally questionable but it still represents perhaps the finest comic verse of the decade.

Duffy's sparse, nihilistic style where adjectives gape in isolation from the page, can provide moments of jarring exactness. She is unparalleled in her use of the dramatic monologue. Her refreshing refusal to eulogise or over-elaborate allows her to conjure individual characters with a flurry of words and avalanche of meaning. Her devastating evocation of Wayne in 'Comprehensive' requires a single stanza. Fittingly, her poems end with deceptively bland and hauntingly poetic final lines. Like an after thought, they end in flux with intriguing ambiguity.

Experience Rapture, 26 Jun 2008
Who said the love poem is dead? Carol Ann Duffy's Rapture stands with shining silver defiance against any such assertion.

Starting with one of my all-time favourite poems, "You", Duffy writes "the thought of you stayed too late in my head/so I went to bed, dreaming you hard". The collection moves with quiet ease, showcasing Duffy's natural inclination to form and rhyme, through to the final line "a gift, the blush of memory".

The poems in this book are all love poems, although love is written about in all its various colours, from intense longing and the grief of separation, to love as a great redeeming power.

Duffy is so important as a figure in contemporary poetry, one of the few living poets who actually manages to sell books. Her poetry is very accessible for any reader, not just those interested in poetry, echoing her own belief that poetry should be able to speak for everybody.

This book makes a wonderful gift. The hardback is beautiful, it has a fairytale cover in silver and red, and even a red ribbon to use as a marker.

Rapture isn't just a book of poems, it's an experience.

Love in all its Manifestations, 22 Mar 2008
Rapture is Carol Ann Duffy's seventh collection of poems. It is a collection that has love as its underlying theme or unifying idea. The collection is made up of short lyrical poems in which Miss Duffy sets out to express and explore a range of emotions and ideas surrounding the notion of love. Given this narrow subject matter, the question at the back of my mind as I set out to read the collection was just how well will Miss Duffy maintain my interest?

Most of the poems are delivered by a first person narrator speaking to a second person, "you". Although it is not always clear who the second person is, nonetheless this approach gives the poems a personal and intimate feel. The intensity of feelings conveyed are even further heighten by, in some instances, setting them against the background of a river, a forest, rain, etc. In the poem River, the intensity of feelings is made real by the fact that the poet personifies the river leaving the reader with a clear image of just how tender love can be.

Almost as if harking back to the romantic era, in the poem Haworth Miss Duffy continues to draw on natural phonomena as a backdrop to her theme of love. Haworth presents a powerful way of recalling a love vanquished by death. The natural surroundings are full of reminders of lost love. But this is not just a lament for a lover passed on it is also a love song for and to nature.

One of the things these poems reminds us of is that although the person whom one has loved is no longer present, love continues. The reminders of what was once in place with all its impact is to be seen everywhere, for example, in places (Haworth), in time (Hour), in nature (Rain), and in the everyday things we take for granted (Swing). Love never really dies.

What I found particularly interesting about Rapture is that for the contemporary reader hell bent on materialism it shows that love is not about money or the over extensive use of material gifts but instead the idea of being together, doing and sharing the everyday things of life. Take for example the poem Tea, the first verse with its ordinary activity states: "I like pouring your tea,/ lifting the heavy pot, and tipping it up,/ so the fragrant liquid steams in your China cup". How much more down to earth can you get than this?

These are poems in which the narrator's reminiscences are triggered by places and events. This method gave scope to Miss Duffy to undertake an exercise in craftmanshift and technical accomplishment. So in The Lovers there is a contrast between two sets of lovers one with a home and one without or notice the way Miss Duffy manages to maintain a perfect rhyming scheme in the triplet stanzas of Haworth. I was dazzled by Miss Duffy's display of control over the form in which she presents her subject. But sometimes the brevity of the poems made the subject fleeting in terms of the significance it was meant to convey.

The poetic devices Miss Duffy uses renders her language afresh. Her poems are littered with internal rhymes sometimes quickening the rhythm and pace of the language - see for example the poem Quickdraw. Miss Duffy's use of poetic devices also had the effect of making me look at the familiar in a fresh light. Take the poem New Year, how refreshing it is to ring in the new year with these thoughts: "I drop the dying year behind me like a shawl/ and let it fall. The urgent fireworks fling themselves/ against the night, flowers of desire, love's fervency." Then in the poem Art, Miss Duffy does an almost comprehensive display of poetic devies: there is a sustained rhyming scheme, there is alliteration and there is even onamatopoeia - brilliant or a little too much?

Rapture is a delightful collection of love poems. It was refreshing to see how Miss Duffy managed to sustain a comparison between love and ordinary everyday things and activities. I was also beguiled by Miss Duffy's use of language and poetic devices.

A strikingly original collection of love poems, 15 Nov 2005
I recently had the privilege of attending Carol Ann Duffy's poetry reading in Lancaster and was compelled to buy Rapture after hearing her read extracts from the book. I have yet to encounter another contemporary poet with such a flair for honesty when dealing with such a sentimentalised subject, chronicling every fleeting emotion associated with love and relationships. Carol Ann Duffy never fails to delight her readers with yet more witty, entertaining, and often heartbreaking words, and her symbiotic relationship with language and syntax remains present in each poem. This collection is worth every penny and I urge all fans of the poet and newcomers to her work to buy it now!

Now with extra laughs..., 05 Jul 2008
Ms Duffy is loved by readers even more than by the critics. She is wise, and she is clever. She is also very moving and extremely funny. This volume introduces us to Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin and even Mrs Faust and Mrs Quasimodo and so on...

These are not poems meant for academic study, these are poems to be read and enjoyed. And they are very enjoyable, with sharp wit throughout.

There are times in her more recent work when Duffy strikes me as the poet that Elizabeth Jennings was too frightened to be, here however CAD lets her hair down and unleashes a delight of barbs and sympathy.

The only disappointment for me is The Kray Sisters, but then, I hate so called cockney rhyming slang. Stuff your 'lady Godivas' up your 'Khyber pass'.

That minor gripe aside, this is another wonderful volume from one of our most popular poets, and even funnier than usual.

Poetry By Numbers, 15 Apr 2008
Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.

'Academic' concerns, such as mythology and history are all over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.

Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, and gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.

Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, and badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actually writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals and what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping and sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actually buying poetry is at an all-time low. Wonder why?

Fantastic, 11 Dec 2007
I truly adore this owmna and the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especially with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah and Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.

Brilliantly creative and entertaining, 19 Oct 2007
I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouée, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - all are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft and imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing and being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.

My Favourite, 09 Jul 2007
I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts and presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language and matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!

I'm a girl, and I hate it..., 12 Nov 2008
Generally this will be adored by girls and dreaded by boys. For A-level we had been given Duffy to study, and my heart sank. The year had been focused mainly on feminist works, now for the modern take.

Simplistic writings that I can imagine a beginner poet practicing with, but not the work of an experienced published, older writer. Every literature student will HAVE to encounter this women's dreary work at some point, though i feel it only fitting for at most younger students (primary for instance) settling them into poetry, getting a grasp and primitive understanding of how it all works. I just wish that i wasn't subjected to it, and I don't understand what motive our education system has for doing this to an entire generation of students. If this is some type of endurance test and they feel her work should be on the syllabus, fine, but I feel that we should always be given more than one option. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Learning and understanding is sparked by passion for the subject (for me), and I could never become passionate about this work unless it is by creating a negative response or critic.

Good luck to all you future torture victims

Ghastly, 27 Jul 2007
In this collection, Carol-Ann Duffy concentrates on a variety of issues, including herself, herself and herself. As is nearly always the case with contemporary women poets, she makes a big song and dance about the fact that she's a woman, instead of just ignoring that fact altogether, as should be the case.

Instead, she makes an issue about it, since this seems to be one of the few ways that a woman can get her poetry published. Periods, relationships, vanity and various other cliched topics are all fair game and all approached with the usual lack of depth and authenticity that is required for a woman poet to have even half a chance of being published. Hence, there is nothing remotely interesting here, let alone challenging.

One particularly tired technique used is writing in Scottish dialect. Janet Paisley also uses this technique, achieving a similarly dull and infuriating result. If she had written her poetry in Gaelic, I would have admired her more, even though I cannot understand Gaelic. I would have admired her more because Gaelic is an actual language, whereas 'Scottish' is not. 'Scottish' is a dialect, and not even a particularly attractive one at that. It sounds unrefined, and frankly, ugly - and this is coming from a person who has lived in Scotland for 20 odd years. This doesn't even touch on the fact that it limits the readership of her poetry. Anyone other than a Scottish person simply won't understand words like 'dug' (dog), or 'kenned' (knew). Besides which, the use of these words doesn't ring particularly ring true. People don't even use words like 'kenned' in Scotland. In the context in which it is used, it would read 'kent'. All this serves to do is highlight the contrivance and lack of sincerity in Duffy's writing. She has probably never spoken in Scottish slang in her life. She is merely using it to marginalise her poetry and give a small-time publisher something 'local' to market. Such insincere gimmickry is infuriating.

The poetry itself is poorly written, stilted and awkward. It lacks grace, finesse, or anything to convey. It has no level of originality and no excitement. It is also lacking in ambition and probably of no interest to anyone other than the author herself. Generally, it all has the same awkward, obscure format of the majority of contemporary poetry. Having precious little to convey seems to be the 'in' thing.

Duffy also lacks the ability to make readers care about any of her chosen topics. The likes of 'My Favourite Drink' is so lacking in any kind of conviction that one can almost imagine Duffy falling asleep whilst writing it. 'How' also reeks of middle-class self-obsession.

'A Disbelief' is probably the best poem, but even it is vastly inferior to lots of poetry I have read by any number of unpublished working-class poets, who mysteriously never seem to find success in poetry publishing, whilst mediocre middle-class poets like Carol Ann Duffy do. It seems that talent is secondary to having the correct background.

'Circe', meanwhile, is the kind of poem that could make anyone despise contemporary poetry, being, as it is, rife with cliche and metaphors. Ridiculous double-entendres comparing men to pigs positively reeks of the undertone 'I am a woman of the world, and I have lived. I have had many men'. But the sleazy double-entendres hide a rather ordinary individual who has no more right to have a book of poetry published than the ordinary person on the street. Her subject matter is never anything less than totally 100% cliched. This is also evident in 'Mrs.Faust' which contains more sleazy allusions and sexual references. All of the poetic techniques she uses are carried out with maximum mediocrity. Duffy even manages to make alliteration boring and dull, each verse looking more and more poorly constructed and amateurish than the last. It almost beggars belief that this was even published.

Then it's back to yet more cliche for 'To The Unknown Lover', which contains such hackneyed lines as: "This old heart of mine's a battered purse". The image of the 'battered' heart went out with the ark. Besides which, women writing romantic poetry is a cliched as it comes. It would appear that any woman who doesn't make constant sleazy sexual references or write pathetic, ancient romantic cliches has no chance of being published. If Carol Ann Duffy is the creme de la creme of British female poets, then literature is in a truly sorry state indeed.




well, 17 May 2007
I just like the way she writes.
It makes me feel good. It makes me feel.

I like things that make me feel.

That's all I wanted to say.

S x

Good, if not a little overrated, 09 Jan 2003
I am automatically biased, I tend to dislike something if I'm forced into it and I'm an english literature student - bad combination huh?

Carol Ann Duffy's poems are original, expressive, amusing and at times a little see through. It may be the fact that (being male) I'm not really a feminist but claiming Mrs Darwin came up with the evolutionary theory...come on!

A good read, even essential to anyone with even a mild interest in poetry but an open mind is essential (if you know where to find an open mind please let me know)

Occasional brilliance from the heroine of British poetry, 14 Feb 2002
What I resent about Duffy's baleful brand of feminism is the unspoken inference that it is edgy, unique and terrifying - the embodiment of the 'Ms' career woman whom men cower from behind their porno mags. Her headstrong tone of outrage can seem forced and her use of expletives comically inept. Universally acknowledged for her supple handling of numerous narrative voices; 'The Other Country' (1990) contains several worrying examples ('River' and 'Words, Wide Night') of an attempt to morph into some kind of new age philosopher. It is a poet's responsibility to question the relevance of language; but her previous poems - art which disguises art - with their thoroughly modern diction and sentiment, showed her adept at forging vibrant new poetry for the uninitiated.

This edition contains only glimpses of her recent collection 'The World's Wife' which gives a voice to ignored females throughout world history. The valency of the poetry is occasionally questionable but it still represents perhaps the finest comic verse of the decade.

Duffy's sparse, nihilistic style where adjectives gape in isolation from the page, can provide moments of jarring exactness. She is unparalleled in her use of the dramatic monologue. Her refreshing refusal to eulogise or over-elaborate allows her to conjure individual characters with a flurry of words and avalanche of meaning. Her devastating evocation of Wayne in 'Comprehensive' requires a single stanza. Fittingly, her poems end with deceptively bland and hauntingly poetic final lines. Like an after thought, they end in flux with intriguing ambiguity.

Experience Rapture, 26 Jun 2008
Who said the love poem is dead? Carol Ann Duffy's Rapture stands with shining silver defiance against any such assertion.

Starting with one of my all-time favourite poems, "You", Duffy writes "the thought of you stayed too late in my head/so I went to bed, dreaming you hard". The collection moves with quiet ease, showcasing Duffy's natural inclination to form and rhyme, through to the final line "a gift, the blush of memory".

The poems in this book are all love poems, although love is written about in all its various colours, from intense longing and the grief of separation, to love as a great redeeming power.

Duffy is so important as a figure in contemporary poetry, one of the few living poets who actually manages to sell books. Her poetry is very accessible for any reader, not just those interested in poetry, echoing her own belief that poetry should be able to speak for everybody.

This book makes a wonderful gift. The hardback is beautiful, it has a fairytale cover in silver and red, and even a red ribbon to use as a marker.

Rapture isn't just a book of poems, it's an experience.

Love in all its Manifestations, 22 Mar 2008
Rapture is Carol Ann Duffy's seventh collection of poems. It is a collection that has love as its underlying theme or unifying idea. The collection is made up of short lyrical poems in which Miss Duffy sets out to express and explore a range of emotions and ideas surrounding the notion of love. Given this narrow subject matter, the question at the back of my mind as I set out to read the collection was just how well will Miss Duffy maintain my interest?

Most of the poems are delivered by a first person narrator speaking to a second person, "you". Although it is not always clear who the second person is, nonetheless this approach gives the poems a personal and intimate feel. The intensity of feelings conveyed are even further heighten by, in some instances, setting them against the background of a river, a forest, rain, etc. In the poem River, the intensity of feelings is made real by the fact that the poet personifies the river leaving the reader with a clear image of just how tender love can be.

Almost as if harking back to the romantic era, in the poem Haworth Miss Duffy continues to draw on natural phonomena as a backdrop to her theme of love. Haworth presents a powerful way of recalling a love vanquished by death. The natural surroundings are full of reminders of lost love. But this is not just a lament for a lover passed on it is also a love song for and to nature.

One of the things these poems reminds us of is that although the person whom one has loved is no longer present, love continues. The reminders of what was once in place with all its impact is to be seen everywhere, for example, in places (Haworth), in time (Hour), in nature (Rain), and in the everyday things we take for granted (Swing). Love never really dies.

What I found particularly interesting about Rapture is that for the contemporary reader hell bent on materialism it shows that love is not about money or the over extensive use of material gifts but instead the idea of being together, doing and sharing the everyday things of life. Take for example the poem Tea, the first verse with its ordinary activity states: "I like pouring your tea,/ lifting the heavy pot, and tipping it up,/ so the fragrant liquid steams in your China cup". How much more down to earth can you get than this?

These are poems in which the narrator's reminiscences are triggered by places and events. This method gave scope to Miss Duffy to undertake an exercise in craftmanshift and technical accomplishment. So in The Lovers there is a contrast between two sets of lovers one with a home and one without or notice the way Miss Duffy manages to maintain a perfect rhyming scheme in the triplet stanzas of Haworth. I was dazzled by Miss Duffy's display of control over the form in which she presents her subject. But sometimes the brevity of the poems made the subject fleeting in terms of the significance it was meant to convey.

The poetic devices Miss Duffy uses renders her language afresh. Her poems are littered with internal rhymes sometimes quickening the rhythm and pace of the language - see for example the poem Quickdraw. Miss Duffy's use of poetic devices also had the effect of making me look at the familiar in a fresh light. Take the poem New Year, how refreshing it is to ring in the new year with these thoughts: "I drop the dying year behind me like a shawl/ and let it fall. The urgent fireworks fling themselves/ against the night, flowers of desire, love's fervency." Then in the poem Art, Miss Duffy does an almost comprehensive display of poetic devies: there is a sustained rhyming scheme, there is alliteration and there is even onamatopoeia - brilliant or a little too much?

Rapture is a delightful collection of love poems. It was refreshing to see how Miss Duffy managed to sustain a comparison between love and ordinary everyday things and activities. I was also beguiled by Miss Duffy's use of language and poetic devices.

A strikingly original collection of love poems, 15 Nov 2005
I recently had the privilege of attending Carol Ann Duffy's poetry reading in Lancaster and was compelled to buy Rapture after hearing her read extracts from the book. I have yet to encounter another contemporary poet with such a flair for honesty when dealing with such a sentimentalised subject, chronicling every fleeting emotion associated with love and relationships. Carol Ann Duffy never fails to delight her readers with yet more witty, entertaining, and often heartbreaking words, and her symbiotic relationship with language and syntax remains present in each poem. This collection is worth every penny and I urge all fans of the poet and newcomers to her work to buy it now!

better-read and dead, 14 Oct 2008
There are so many excellent reasons to adore this book; the spoof of Philip Larkin's most famous verse is worth the cover price by itself. then there's a riposte to Allan Ginsberg's "howl", a reply to Cavafy's "Ithaca" (in the style of Leonard Cohen, yet!)and, oh bliss oh joy, a Molesworth version of "A Shropshire Lad". It also works as a somewhat different anthology of poetry on its own merits, but the "answers" give the originals a whole different dimension. I'm buying this for people who like poetry, and more importantly, for some who don't!!

Kipling, Donne, Larkin (and others) in a new poetic light, 03 May 2008
If you read only one selection of poetry this year, make it this one. The idea - living poets choosing and responding to poems from the past - is simple enough. But it works really well, and the result is a fascinating diversity of responses. There's straightforward homage (Gillian Clarke's `Nettles', taking its inspiration from Edward Thomas' `Tall Nettles'). Sardonic riposte (Carol Rumens' warm and optimistic countering of Philip Larkin's misanthropic `This Be The Verse'). And moving elegy (Owen Sheers' `Elegy: To her Husband Going to Bed', in which John Donne's wife gives voice to her child-bearing fears, and past grief, in counterpoint to his confidence, as expressed in Donne's `Elegie: to his Mistress Going to Bed'). Throughout, the new sets off the old, shedding light on it from sometimes startling angles. Occasionally, the contrast with the new is unflattering: U.A. Fanthorpe's `A Word, Camerade' (a plea for agnosticism about the nature of animals' communion with God) exposes the narrow-minded, self-satisfied presumption of Walt Whitman's `The Beasts'. Editor Carol Ann Duffy's own contribution, `Kipling', is a brilliant exposé of the banality behind the bombast in Kipling's ghastly poem `If'. Pretty well all the `answers' in this collection work - and in such a variety of ways, at so many levels, that this little volume will absorb and delight even on the umpteenth reading.

Now with extra laughs..., 05 Jul 2008
Ms Duffy is loved by readers even more than by the critics. She is wise, and she is clever. She is also very moving and extremely funny. This volume introduces us to Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin and even Mrs Faust and Mrs Quasimodo and so on...

These are not poems meant for academic study, these are poems to be read and enjoyed. And they are very enjoyable, with sharp wit throughout.

There are times in her more recent work when Duffy strikes me as the poet that Elizabeth Jennings was too frightened to be, here however CAD lets her hair down and unleashes a delight of barbs and sympathy.

The only disappointment for me is The Kray Sisters, but then, I hate so called cockney rhyming slang. Stuff your 'lady Godivas' up your 'Khyber pass'.

That minor gripe aside, this is another wonderful volume from one of our most popular poets, and even funnier than usual.

Poetry By Numbers, 15 Apr 2008
Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.

'Academic' concerns, such as mythology and history are all over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.

Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, and gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.

Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, and badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actually writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals and what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping and sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actually buying poetry is at an all-time low. Wonder why?

Fantastic, 11 Dec 2007
I truly adore this owmna and the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especially with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah and Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.

Brilliantly creative and entertaining, 19 Oct 2007
I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouée, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - all are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft and imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing and being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.

My Favourite, 09 Jul 2007
I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts and presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language and matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!

I'm a girl, and I hate it..., 12 Nov 2008
Generally this will be adored by girls and dreaded by boys. For A-level we had been given Duffy to study, and my heart sank. The year had been focused mainly on feminist works, now for the modern take.

Simplistic writings that I can imagine a beginner poet practicing with, but not the work of an experienced published, older writer. Every literature student will HAVE to encounter this women's dreary work at some point, though i feel it only fitting for at most younger students (primary for instance) settling them into poetry, getting a grasp and primitive understanding of how it all works. I just wish that i wasn't subjected to it, and I don't understand what motive our education system has for doing this to an entire generation of students. If this is some type of endurance test and they feel her work should be on the syllabus, fine, but I feel that we should always be given more than one option. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Learning and understanding is sparked by passion for the subject (for me), and I could never become passionate about this work unless it is by creating a negative response or critic.

Good luck to all you future torture victims

Ghastly, 27 Jul 2007
In this collection, Carol-Ann Duffy concentrates on a variety of issues, including herself, herself and herself. As is nearly always the case with contemporary women poets, she makes a big song and dance about the fact that she's a woman, instead of just ignoring that fact altogether, as should be the case.

Instead, she makes an issue about it, since this seems to be one of the few ways that a woman can get her poetry published. Periods, relationships, vanity and various other cliched topics are all fair game and all approached with the usual lack of depth and authenticity that is required for a woman poet to have even half a chance of being published. Hence, there is nothing remotely interesting here, let alone challenging.

One particularly tired technique used is writing in Scottish dialect. Janet Paisley also uses this technique, achieving a similarly dull and infuriating result. If she had written her poetry in Gaelic, I would have admired her more, even though I cannot understand Gaelic. I would have admired her more because Gaelic is an actual language, whereas 'Scottish' is not. 'Scottish' is a dialect, and not even a particularly attractive one at that. It sounds unrefined, and frankly, ugly - and this is coming from a person who has lived in Scotland for 20 odd years. This doesn't even touch on the fact that it limits the readership of her poetry. Anyone other than a Scottish person simply won't understand words like 'dug' (dog), or 'kenned' (knew). Besides which, the use of these words doesn't ring particularly ring true. People don't even use words like 'kenned' in Scotland. In the context in which it is used, it would read 'kent'. All this serves to do is highlight the contrivance and lack of sincerity in Duffy's writing. She has probably never spoken in Scottish slang in her life. She is merely using it to marginalise her poetry and give a small-time publisher something 'local' to market. Such insincere gimmickry is infuriating.

The poetry itself is poorly written, stilted and awkward. It lacks grace, finesse, or anything to convey. It has no level of originality and no excitement. It is also lacking in ambition and probably of no interest to anyone other than the author herself. Generally, it all has the same awkward, obscure format of the majority of contemporary poetry. Having precious little to convey seems to be the 'in' thing.

Duffy also lacks the ability to make readers care about any of her chosen topics. The likes of 'My Favourite Drink' is so lacking in any kind of conviction that one can almost imagine Duffy falling asleep whilst writing it. 'How' also reeks of middle-class self-obsession.

'A Disbelief' is probably the best poem, but even it is vastly inferior to lots of poetry I have read by any number of unpublished working-class poets, who mysteriously never seem to find success in poetry publishing, whilst mediocre middle-class poets like Carol Ann Duffy do. It seems that talent is secondary to having the correct background.

'Circe', meanwhile, is the kind of poem that could make anyone despise contemporary poetry, being, as it is, rife with cliche and metaphors. Ridiculous double-entendres comparing men to pigs positively reeks of the undertone 'I am a woman of the world, and I have lived. I have had many men'. But the sleazy double-entendres hide a rather ordinary individual who has no more right to have a book of poetry published than the ordinary person on the street. Her subject matter is never anything less than totally 100% cliched. This is also evident in 'Mrs.Faust' which contains more sleazy allusions and sexual references. All of the poetic techniques she uses are carried out with maximum mediocrity. Duffy even manages to make alliteration boring and dull, each verse looking more and more poorly constructed and amateurish than the last. It almost beggars belief that this was even published.

Then it's back to yet more cliche for 'To The Unknown Lover', which contains such hackneyed lines as: "This old heart of mine's a battered purse". The image of the 'battered' heart went out with the ark. Besides which, women writing romantic poetry is a cliched as it comes. It would appear that any woman who doesn't make constant sleazy sexual references or write pathetic, ancient romantic cliches has no chance of being published. If Carol Ann Duffy is the creme de la creme of British female poets, then literature is in a truly sorry state indeed.




well, 17 May 2007
I just like the way she writes.
It makes me feel good. It makes me feel.

I like things that make me feel.

That's all I wanted to say.

S x

Good, if not a little overrated, 09 Jan 2003
I am automatically biased, I tend to dislike something if I'm forced into it and I'm an english literature student - bad combination huh?

Carol Ann Duffy's poems are original, expressive, amusing and at times a little see through. It may be the fact that (being male) I'm not really a feminist but claiming Mrs Darwin came up with the evolutionary theory...come on!

A good read, even essential to anyone with even a mild interest in poetry but an open mind is essential (if you know where to find an open mind please let me know)

Occasional brilliance from the heroine of British poetry, 14 Feb 2002
What I resent about Duffy's baleful brand of feminism is the unspoken inference that it is edgy, unique and terrifying - the embodiment of the 'Ms' career woman whom men cower from behind their porno mags. Her headstrong tone of outrage can seem forced and her use of expletives comically inept. Universally acknowledged for her supple handling of numerous narrative voices; 'The Other Country' (1990) contains several worrying examples ('River' and 'Words, Wide Night') of an attempt to morph into some kind of new age philosopher. It is a poet's responsibility to question the relevance of language; but her previous poems - art which disguises art - with their thoroughly modern diction and sentiment, showed her adept at forging vibrant new poetry for the uninitiated.

This edition contains only glimpses of her recent collection 'The World's Wife' which gives a voice to ignored females throughout world history. The valency of the poetry is occasionally questionable but it still represents perhaps the finest comic verse of the decade.

Duffy's sparse, nihilistic style where adjectives gape in isolation from the page, can provide moments of jarring exactness. She is unparalleled in her use of the dramatic monologue. Her refreshing refusal to eulogise or over-elaborate allows her to conjure individual characters with a flurry of words and avalanche of meaning. Her devastating evocation of Wayne in 'Comprehensive' requires a single stanza. Fittingly, her poems end with deceptively bland and hauntingly poetic final lines. Like an after thought, they end in flux with intriguing ambiguity.

Experience Rapture, 26 Jun 2008
Who said the love poem is dead? Carol Ann Duffy's Rapture stands with shining silver defiance against any such assertion.

Starting with one of my all-time favourite poems, "You", Duffy writes "the thought of you stayed too late in my head/so I went to bed, dreaming you hard". The collection moves with quiet ease, showcasing Duffy's natural inclination to form and rhyme, through to the final line "a gift, the blush of memory".

The poems in this book are all love poems, although love is written about in all its various colours, from intense longing and the grief of separation, to love as a great redeeming power.

Duffy is so important as a figure in contemporary poetry, one of the few living poets who actually manages to sell books. Her poetry is very accessible for any reader, not just those interested in poetry, echoing her own belief that poetry should be able to speak for everybody.

This book makes a wonderful gift. The hardback is beautiful, it has a fairytale cover in silver and red, and even a red ribbon to use as a marker.

Rapture isn't just a book of poems, it's an experience.

Love in all its Manifestations, 22 Mar 2008
Rapture is Carol Ann Duffy's seventh collection of poems. It is a collection that has love as its underlying theme or unifying idea. The collection is made up of short lyrical poems in which Miss Duffy sets out to express and explore a range of emotions and ideas surrounding the notion of love. Given this narrow subject matter, the question at the back of my mind as I set out to read the collection was just how well will Miss Duffy maintain my interest?

Most of the poems are delivered by a first person narrator speaking to a second person, "you". Although it is not always clear who the second person is, nonetheless this approach gives the poems a personal and intimate feel. The intensity of feelings conveyed are even further heighten by, in some instances, setting them against the background of a river, a forest, rain, etc. In the poem River, the intensity of feelings is made real by the fact that the poet personifies the river leaving the reader with a clear image of just how tender love can be.

Almost as if harking back to the romantic era, in the poem Haworth Miss Duffy continues to draw on natural phonomena as a backdrop to her theme of love. Haworth presents a powerful way of recalling a love vanquished by death. The natural surroundings are full of reminders of lost love. But this is not just a lament for a lover passed on it is also a love song for and to nature.

One of the things these poems reminds us of is that although the person whom one has loved is no longer present, love continues. The reminders of what was once in place with all its impact is to be seen everywhere, for example, in places (Haworth), in time (Hour), in nature (Rain), and in the everyday things we take for granted (Swing). Love never really dies.

What I found particularly interesting about Rapture is that for the contemporary reader hell bent on materialism it shows that love is not about money or the over extensive use of material gifts but instead the idea of being together, doing and sharing the everyday things of life. Take for example the poem Tea, the first verse with its ordinary activity states: "I like pouring your tea,/ lifting the heavy pot, and tipping it up,/ so the fragrant liquid steams in your China cup". How much more down to earth can you get than this?

These are poems in which the narrator's reminiscences are triggered by places and events. This method gave scope to Miss Duffy to undertake an exercise in craftmanshift and technical accomplishment. So in The Lovers there is a contrast between two sets of lovers one with a home and one without or notice the way Miss Duffy manages to maintain a perfect rhyming scheme in the triplet stanzas of Haworth. I was dazzled by Miss Duffy's display of control over the form in which she presents her subject. But sometimes the brevity of the poems made the subject fleeting in terms of the significance it was meant to convey.

The poetic devices Miss Duffy uses renders her language afresh. Her poems are littered with internal rhymes sometimes quickening the rhythm and pace of the language - see for example the poem Quickdraw. Miss Duffy's use of poetic devices also had the effect of making me look at the familiar in a fresh light. Take the poem New Year, how refreshing it is to ring in the new year with these thoughts: "I drop the dying year behind me like a shawl/ and let it fall. The urgent fireworks fling themselves/ against the night, flowers of desire, love's fervency." Then in the poem Art, Miss Duffy does an almost comprehensive display of poetic devies: there is a sustained rhyming scheme, there is alliteration and there is even onamatopoeia - brilliant or a little too much?

Rapture is a delightful collection of love poems. It was refreshing to see how Miss Duffy managed to sustain a comparison between love and ordinary everyday things and activities. I was also beguiled by Miss Duffy's use of language and poetic devices.

A strikingly original collection of love poems, 15 Nov 2005
I recently had the privilege of attending Carol Ann Duffy's poetry reading in Lancaster and was compelled to buy Rapture after hearing her read extracts from the book. I have yet to encounter another contemporary poet with such a flair for honesty when dealing with such a sentimentalised subject, chronicling every fleeting emotion associated with love and relationships. Carol Ann Duffy never fails to delight her readers with yet more witty, entertaining, and often heartbreaking words, and her symbiotic relationship with language and syntax remains present in each poem. This collection is worth every penny and I urge all fans of the poet and newcomers to her work to buy it now!

better-read and dead, 14 Oct 2008
There are so many excellent reasons to adore this book; the spoof of Philip Larkin's most famous verse is worth the cover price by itself. then there's a riposte to Allan Ginsberg's "howl", a reply to Cavafy's "Ithaca" (in the style of Leonard Cohen, yet!)and, oh bliss oh joy, a Molesworth version of "A Shropshire Lad". It also works as a somewhat different anthology of poetry on its own merits, but the "answers" give the originals a whole different dimension. I'm buying this for people who like poetry, and more importantly, for some who don't!!

Kipling, Donne, Larkin (and others) in a new poetic light, 03 May 2008
If you read only one selection of poetry this year, make it this one. The idea - living poets choosing and responding to poems from the past - is simple enough. But it works really well, and the result is a fascinating diversity of responses. There's straightforward homage (Gillian Clarke's `Nettles', taking its inspiration from Edward Thomas' `Tall Nettles'). Sardonic riposte (Carol Rumens' warm and optimistic countering of Philip Larkin's misanthropic `This Be The Verse'). And moving elegy (Owen Sheers' `Elegy: To her Husband Going to Bed', in which John Donne's wife gives voice to her child-bearing fears, and past grief, in counterpoint to his confidence, as expressed in Donne's `Elegie: to his Mistress Going to Bed'). Throughout, the new sets off the old, shedding light on it from sometimes startling angles. Occasionally, the contrast with the new is unflattering: U.A. Fanthorpe's `A Word, Camerade' (a plea for agnosticism about the nature of animals' communion with God) exposes the narrow-minded, self-satisfied presumption of Walt Whitman's `The Beasts'. Editor Carol Ann Duffy's own contribution, `Kipling', is a brilliant exposé of the banality behind the bombast in Kipling's ghastly poem `If'. Pretty well all the `answers' in this collection work - and in such a variety of ways, at so many levels, that this little volume will absorb and delight even on the umpteenth reading.


Lost Happy Endings, 14 Mar 2008
We have used this book with more than 50 schools, the language is rich, the illustrations are inspiring and when you read to the point when she finds a golden pen the children cannot help but want to write. The beautiful descriptions help children to become lost in the world and their imagination takes them into the woods where Jub lives. They love to explore her home and how she lives. Children from age 5-11 have loved to listen to us telling the story and have become spell-bound.

Not for faint hearted children, 01 Dec 2007
We borrowed this book from the library this morning and I have just read it to my soon to be 5 year old (unfortunately, as a bed time story). The language used is brilliant, but the story is a bit too scary, including a pretty detailed description of how the witch burns to death, and what she looks like while on fire. Ive seen this book rated in the 0-5 age group, but entirely disagree and think it should be 7-9 and not for faint hearted children. I definately will not be buying this book. I am on here looking for a more cheery story by same author though.

Stunning!, 04 Jan 2007
A dark and powerful picture book for older children, Jane Ray's illustrations perfectly complement Carol Ann Duffy's beautiful prose. Duffy brings a fantastic lyricism to the language that is all too often lacking in children's books. The witch has "fierce red eyes like poisonous berries" and her touch "nipped like pepper". Children's literature is much richer for this partnership - more please!

The Lost Happy Endings, 11 Nov 2006
What a shame! A great idea for a story and it begins well with nice illustrations but unfortunately its own 'happy ending' seemed to me to be far from ideal. Some frightening pictures and the witch could have met a more imaginative and less horrific fate. Not bedtime story material!

Elvis's wimpled sister rocks on in a convent she calls Graceland; Nancy Sinatra gets out her boots made for walking with the Kray Sisters; Mrs Midas misses the touch of her now dangerous golden-handed husband; and Queen Herod decrees the killing of each mother's son to protect her baby daughter in Carol Ann Duffy's startling new collection The World's Wife. Doubling is one of the most common themes--and stylistic ploys--of Western culture and thought, and the concept around which Duffy has ingeniously organised this profoundly playful collection. Mrs Midas, Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin, Frau Freud, Anne Hathaway, Mrs Rip Van Winkle, the Kray Sisters; these are some of the wives, and sisters, whose stories are told. These inventive, metaphorically precise poems offer much more, however, than just a recovery of the historical voice of her (supposedly) silenced indoors. Duffy dexterously rewrites Judao-Christian and classical mythologies, subverts fairytale and zestfully reinterprets the more modern myths of Darwin and Freud.

Humour is the abundant keynote of this accessible collection. Mrs Rip Van Winkle enjoys the freedom to travel and paint allowed by her husband's permanent slumbers, "Until the day / I came home with pastel of Niagara / and he was sitting up in bed rattling Viagra." Frau Freud analyses her over-exposure to "ding-a-ling, member and jock, / of todger and nudger and percy and cock," and confesses with irony to being, "as au fait with Hunt-the Salami / as Ms M. Lewinsky." Mrs Aesop groans about her husbands unstoppable garrulousness: "By Christ, he could bore for Purgatory," and Mrs Darwin evolves the following summary her husband's research:

"7 April 1852
Went to the Zoo.
I said to Him--
Something about that Chimpanzee over there
reminds me of you."

The World's Wife throws open the windows on the stuffy annals of historical myth and breezes through some of its highlights with a sense of revelry and laugh-out-loud observation. In this wry take on the historical ubiquity of heterosexual coupledom that permeates so many cultural myths, Duffy has separated vibrant women from the shadows of their more famous husbands and brothers, and divorced them from the distortions of historical silence. --Rachel Holmes

Now with extra laughs..., 05 Jul 2008
Ms Duffy is loved by readers even more than by the critics. She is wise, and she is clever. She is also very moving and extremely funny. This volume introduces us to Mrs Aesop, Mrs Darwin and even Mrs Faust and Mrs Quasimodo and so on...

These are not poems meant for academic study, these are poems to be read and enjoyed. And they are very enjoyable, with sharp wit throughout.

There are times in her more recent work when Duffy strikes me as the poet that Elizabeth Jennings was too frightened to be, here however CAD lets her hair down and unleashes a delight of barbs and sympathy.

The only disappointment for me is The Kray Sisters, but then, I hate so called cockney rhyming slang. Stuff your 'lady Godivas' up your 'Khyber pass'.

That minor gripe aside, this is another wonderful volume from one of our most popular poets, and even funnier than usual.

Poetry By Numbers, 15 Apr 2008
Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.

'Academic' concerns, such as mythology and history are all over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.

Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, and gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.

Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, and badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actually writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals and what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping and sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actually buying poetry is at an all-time low. Wonder why?

Fantastic, 11 Dec 2007
I truly adore this owmna and the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especially with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah and Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.

Brilliantly creative and entertaining, 19 Oct 2007
I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouée, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - all are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft and imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing and being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.

My Favourite, 09 Jul 2007
I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts and presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language and matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!

I'm a girl, and I hate it..., 12 Nov 2008
Generally this will be adored by girls and dreaded by boys. For A-level we had been given Duffy to study, and my heart sank. The year had been focused mainly on feminist works, now for the modern take.

Simplistic writings that I can imagine a beginner poet practicing with, but not the work of an experienced published, older writer. Every literature student will HAVE to encounter this women's dreary work at some point, though i feel it only fitting for at most younger students (primary for instance) settling them into poetry, getting a grasp and primitive understanding of how it all works. I just wish that i wasn't subjected to it, and I don't understand what motive our education system has for doing this to an entire generation of students. If this is some type of endurance test and they feel her work should be on the syllabus, fine, but I feel that we should always be given more than one option. Unfortunately, this is not always the case.

Learning and understanding is sparked by passion for the subject (for me), and I could never become passionate about this work unless it is by creating a negative response or critic.

Good luck to all you future torture victims

Ghastly, 27 Jul 2007
In this collection, Carol-Ann Duffy concentrates on a variety of issues, including herself, herself and herself. As is nearly always the case with contemporary women poets, she makes a big song and dance about the fact that she's a woman, instead of just ignoring that fact altogether, as should be the case.

Instead, she makes an issue about it, since this seems to be one of the few ways that a woman can get her poetry published. Periods, relationships, vanity and various other cliched topics are all fair game and all approached with the usual lack of depth and authenticity that is required for a woman poet to have even half a chance of being published. Hence, there is nothing remotely interesting here, let alone challenging.

One particularly tired technique used is writing in Scottish dialect. Janet Paisley also uses this technique, achieving a similarly dull and infuriating result. If she had written her poetry in Gaelic, I would have admired her more, even though I cannot understand Gaelic. I would have admired her more because Gaelic is an actual language, whereas 'Scottish' is not. 'Scottish' is a dialect, and not even a particularly attractive one at that. It sounds unrefined, and frankly, ugly - and this is coming from a person who has lived in Scotland for 20 odd years. This doesn't even touch on the fact that it limits the readership of her poetry. Anyone other than a Scottish person simply won't understand words like 'dug' (dog), or 'kenned' (knew). Besides which, the use of these words doesn't ring particularly ring true. People don't even use words like 'kenned' in Scotland. In the context in which it is used, it would read 'kent'. All this serves to do is highlight the contrivance and lack of sincerity in Duffy's writing. She has probably never spoken in Scottish slang in her life. She is merely using it to marginalise her poetry and give a small-time publisher something 'local' to market. Such insincere gimmickry is infuriating.

The poetry itself is poorly written, stilted and awkward. It lacks grace, finesse, or anything to convey. It has no level of originality and no excitement. It is also lacking in ambition and probably of no interest to anyone other than the author herself. Generally, it all has the same awkward, obscure format of the majority of contemporary poetry. Having precious little to convey seems to be the 'in' thing.

Duffy also lacks the ability to make readers care about any of her chosen topics. The likes of 'My Favourite Drink' is so lacking in any kind of conviction that one can almost imagine Duffy falling asleep whilst writing it. 'How' also reeks of middle-class self-obsession.

'A Disbelief' is probably the best poem, but even it is vastly inferior to lots of poetry I have read by any number of unpublished working-class poets, who mysteriously never seem to find success in poetry publishing, whilst mediocre middle-class poets like Carol Ann Duffy do. It seems that talent is secondary to having the correct background.

'Circe', meanwhile, is the kind of poem that could make anyone despise contemporary poetry, being, as it is, rife with cliche and metaphors. Ridiculous double-entendres comparing men to pigs positively reeks of the undertone 'I am a woman of the world, and I have lived. I have had many men'. But the sleazy double-entendres hide a rather ordinary individual who has no more right to have a book of poetry published than the ordinary person on the street. Her subject matter is never anything less than totally 100% cliched. This is also evident in 'Mrs.Faust' which contains more sleazy allusions and sexual references. All of the poetic techniques she uses are carried out with maximum mediocrity. Duffy even manages to make alliteration boring and dull, each verse looking more and more poorly constructed and amateurish than the last. It almost beggars belief that this was even published.

Then it's back to yet more cliche for 'To The Unknown Lover', which contains such hackneyed lines as: "This old heart of mine's a battered purse". The image of the 'battered' heart went out with the ark. Besides which, women writing romantic poetry is a cliched as it comes. It would appear that any woman who doesn't make constant sleazy sexual references or write pathetic, ancient romantic cliches has no chance of being published. If Carol Ann Duffy is the creme de la creme of British female poets, then literature is in a truly sorry state indeed.




well, 17 May 2007
I just like the way she writes.
It makes me feel good. It makes me feel.

I like things that make me feel.

That's all I wanted to say.

S x

Good, if not a little overrated, 09 Jan 2003
I am automatically biased, I tend to dislike something if I'm forced into it and I'm an english literature student - bad combination huh?

Carol Ann Duffy's poems are original, expressive, amusing and at times a little see through. It may be the fact that (being male) I'm not really a feminist but claiming Mrs Darwin came up with the evolutionary theory...come on!

A good read, even essential to anyone with even a mild interest in poetry but an open mind is essential (if you know where to find an open mind please let me know)

Occasional brilliance from the heroine of British poetry, 14 Feb 2002
What I resent about Duffy's baleful brand of feminism is the unspoken inference that it is edgy, unique and terrifying - the embodiment of the 'Ms' career woman whom men cower from behind their porno mags. Her headstrong tone of outrage can seem forced and her use of expletives comically inept. Universally acknowledged for her supple handling of numerous narrative voices; 'The Other Country' (1990) contains several worrying examples ('River' and 'Words, Wide Night') of an attempt to morph into some kind of new age philosopher. It is a poet's responsibility to question the relevance of language; but her previous poems - art which disguises art - with their thoroughly modern diction and sentiment, showed her adept at forging vibrant new poetry for the uninitiated.

This edition contains only glimpses of her recent collection 'The World's Wife' which gives a voice to ignored females throughout world history. The valency of the poetry is occasionally questionable but it still represents perhaps the finest comic verse of the decade.

Duffy's sparse, nihilistic style where adjectives gape in isolation from the page, can provide moments of jarring exactness. She is unparalleled in her use of the dramatic monologue. Her refreshing refusal to eulogise or over-elaborate allows her to conjure individual characters with a flurry of words and avalanche of meaning. Her devastating evocation of Wayne in 'Comprehensive' requires a single stanza. Fittingly, her poems end with deceptively bland and hauntingly poetic final lines. Like an after thought, they end in flux with intriguing ambiguity.

Experience Rapture, 26 Jun 2008
Who said the love poem is dead? Carol Ann Duffy's Rapture stands with shining silver defiance against any such assertion.

Starting with one of my all-time favourite poems, "You", Duffy writes "the thought of you stayed too late in my head/so I went to bed, dreaming you hard". The collection moves with quiet ease, showcasing Duffy's natural inclination to form and rhyme, through to the final line "a gift, the blush of memory".

The poems in this book are all love poems, although love is written about in all its various colours, from intense longing and the grief of separation, to love as a great redeeming power.

Duffy is so important as a figure in contemporary poetry, one of the few living poets who actually manages to sell books. Her poetry is very accessible for any reader, not just those interested in poetry, echoing her own belief that poetry should be able to speak for everybody.

This book makes a wonderful gift. The hardback is beautiful, it has a fairytale cover in silver and red, and even a red ribbon to use as a marker.

Rapture isn't just a book of poems, it's an experience.

Love in all its Manifestations, 22 Mar 2008
Rapture is Carol Ann Duffy's seventh collection of poems. It is a collection that has love as its underlying theme or unifying idea. The collection is made up of short lyrical poems in which Miss Duffy sets out to express and explore a range of emotions and ideas surrounding the notion of love. Given this narrow subject matter, the question at the back of my mind as I set out to read the collection was just how well will Miss Duffy maintain my interest?

Most of the poems are delivered by a first person narrator speaking to a second person, "you". Although it is not always clear who the second person is, nonetheless this approach gives the poems a personal and intimate feel. The intensity of feelings conveyed are even further heighten by, in some instances, setting them against the background of a river, a forest, rain, etc. In the poem River, the intensity of feelings is made real by the fact that the poet personifies the river leaving the reader with a clear image of just how tender love can be.

Almost as if harking back to the romantic era, in the poem Haworth Miss Duffy continues to draw on natural phonomena as a backdrop to her theme of love. Haworth presents a powerful way of recalling a love vanquished by death. The natural surroundings are full of reminders of lost love. But this is not just a lament for a lover passed on it is also a love song for and to nature.

One of the things these poems reminds us of is that although the person whom one has loved is no longer present, love continues. The reminders of what was once in place with all its impact is to be seen everywhere, for example, in places (Haworth), in time (Hour), in nature (Rain), and in the everyday things we take for granted (Swing). Love never really dies.

What I found particularly interesting about Rapture is that for the contemporary reader hell bent on materialism it shows that love is not about money or the over extensive use of material gifts but instead the idea of being together, doing and sharing the everyday things of life. Take for example the poem Tea, the first verse with its ordinary activity states: "I like pouring your tea,/ lifting the heavy pot, and tipping it up,/ so the fragrant liquid steams in your China cup". How much more down to earth can you get than this?

These are poems in which the narrator's reminiscences are triggered by places and events. This method gave scope to Miss Duffy to undertake an exercise in craftmanshift and technical accomplishment. So in The Lovers there is a contrast between two sets of lovers one with a home and one without or notice the way Miss Duffy manages to maintain a perfect rhyming scheme in the triplet stanzas of Haworth. I was dazzled by Miss Duffy's display of control over the form in which she presents her subject. But sometimes the brevity of the poems made the subject fleeting in terms of the significance it was meant to convey.

The poetic devices Miss Duffy uses renders her language afresh. Her poems are littered with internal rhymes sometimes quickening the rhythm and pace of the language - see for example the poem Quickdraw. Miss Duffy's use of poetic devices also had the effect of making me look at the familiar in a fresh light. Take the poem New Year, how refreshing it is to ring in the new year with these thoughts: "I drop the dying year behind me like a shawl/ and let it fall. The urgent fireworks fling themselves/ against the night, flowers of desire, love's fervency." Then in the poem Art, Miss Duffy does an almost comprehensive display of poetic devies: there is a sustained rhyming scheme, there is alliteration and there is even onamatopoeia - brilliant or a little too much?

Rapture is a delightful collection of love poems. It was refreshing to see how Miss Duffy managed to sustain a comparison between love and ordinary everyday things and activities. I was also beguiled by Miss Duffy's use of language and poetic devices.

A strikingly original collection of love poems, 15 Nov 2005
I recently had the privilege of attending Carol Ann Duffy's poetry reading in Lancaster and was compelled to buy Rapture after hearing