Last semester, I took a class in Greek Mythology. I loved the stories and the intricacies in the way that the Greeks attributed every part of their daily lives to some sort of myth about a hero, a god or a goddess. Thus, the first poem that caught my eye on the Google spreadsheet was the… Read more » Read more →
An Angry Loner
Reading Duffy’s poem “Stealing”, I imagined myself sitting in the corner of the jailhouse cafeteria from Orange is the New Black, listening to the speaker’s secrets. I was particularly taken by this speaker: her voice is chilling enough to deserve another read-through. On the surface, she appears malicious: stealing cars and guitars and breaking into houses. Yet, … Continue reading An Angry Loner Read more →
Mrs. Beast
It would seem that Carol Ann Duffy was much less satisfied with the initial state of “Mrs. Beast” than with “Lovesick”, going through multiple revisions. She composes it stanza by stanza (reasonable given the poem seems to build on itself) with earlier stanzas receiving less and less revisions further along. The first stanza sets the […] Read more →
Lovesick
Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “Lovesick” describes someone finding and being enchanted by an apple. Interestingly, Duffy’s available drafts of the poem are not very different from her final revision, the most significant change being ‘have to of-‘ (presumably ‘have to offer’) into ‘calling about’. “Lovesick” is an extremely symbolic poem and can be interpreted in […] Read more →
The Thin Line between Experiment and Gimmick
(An example of Russian Futurist Poetry) As someone who writes poetry of his own and hates the feeling of stagnation within my works, Carol Ann Duffy was a challenging read. Especially towards the latter half of her poems, the overbearing question was: What separates experimenting from gimmicks? Is it how smoothly it works into the poem? How seamlessly… Read more →
Emotional Response to “Stealing”
Since snow seems to be on everyone’s mind this week, I thought “Stealing” would be an appropriate poem to blog about (38). In class, we discussed how there might not be some “higher” ultimate meaning to poems, and that’s how I chose to interpret the poem – I don’t think that the speaker or the stealing is necessarily metaphorical or… Read more →
“Warming her Pearls”
“Warming her Pearls” is about suppressed lesbian desire, in the context of history failing to allow for it. Duffy examines a very interesting relationship between a maid and a mistress. Using a pearl as the vehicle to explore an unrequited love, the symbol acts is an object of much value and desire. Thus, the subject is the […] Read more →
The Colour of Thought
Carol Ann Duffy ends her complex poetry collection, Selling Manhattan, with the poem “Miles Away.” I had never really considered it before, but in class we talked about how the arrangement of a poetry collection could be, and most likely is, intentional. Ending on “Miles Away” would make sense, as it explores many themes present Continue Reading Read more →
Love & Death
I’m going to be honest; I had not read any of “Selling Manhattan” for last Thursday’s class because I unknowingly ordered the book from the UK and it is still… Read more →
That last one
Because we walked through the first poem in the book in class, I decided to look at the last. “Miles Away” echoes the first poem, “Practising Being Dead,” in many respects. Again, there is a ghost but this ghost is more obviously metaphorical. It is night in both poems and the speaker is calling up […] Read more →