Throughout The World’s Wife, Duffy embraces a traditional, well-known story or myth and gives it a modern, fresh feel. Among the range of poems that fall under this trend is “Little Red-Cap”. This piece completely transforms the sweet, innocent Little Red Riding Hood from the original fairytale into a powerful, assertive woman. And while the Wolf is evil […] Read more →
Marbl Research: “By Heart”
Unlike Duffy’s other poems, which are generally somber and even disturbing in some cases, her poem “By Heart” seems to be a testament to love. So many of her poems deal with death, grief, and regret. To say that “By Heart” is devoid of any sadness though would be mistaken. Although it doesn’t have the same kind of despair that… Read more →
Writing: Commitment Issues
As this was the second of the Duffy’s poems that I examined at the MARBL, I couldn’t help but compare the drafts and the writing process of “Eurydice” with “TELEGRAMS.” The strongest impression that Duffy’s notebooks gave me was the amount of struggle she had with writing beyond the first stanza. The earliest draft is marked as “21st March 1996.”… Read more →
“The Kray Sisters” in MARBL
Compared to Selling Manhattan, Duffy approaches The World’s Wife in a much different way. We have discussed the concept of The World’s Wife acting as a collection of positive messages of feminism and after seeing how Duffy began to write The Kray Sisters, I believe that to be true. Nestled above the beginnings of The Kray … Continue reading “The Kray Sisters” in MARBL Read more →
Exploring “Recognition” in MARBL
Artists do not create without inspiration and Carol Ann Duffy is no different. Taped down to the first page that contains a draft of her poem Recognition, is an aged and browned newspaper clipping. Not knowing the context of the clipping, I perceived it to be from maybe an advice column of sorts. The clip … Continue reading Exploring “Recognition” in MARBL Read more →
Selling Manhattan & MARBL
I chose to explore the drafts of the poem “Selling Manhattan” at MARBL, as I wanted to see its developing significance and perhaps uncover Duffy’s decision for naming the collection Selling Manhattan in itself. On the whole, “Selling Manhattan” seems to touch upon several overarching themes of the collection, including loneliness, language and anxiety. Written from the Red Indian’s point… Read more →
Blogging about “from Mrs. Tiresias”
I found researching “ from Mrs. Tiresias to be much different than “Foreign”. Unlike “Foreign” there was multiple different drafts scattered throughout the notebook which gave me a lot more to work with! It appeared as though she wrote the poems in chunks, slowly adding on with each additional draft that she wrote. This made […] Read more →
Blogging about “Foreign”
Two days, one weekend and 7 beach days later… I am finally getting around to blogging about the Duffy manuscripts I checked out. First off, I have to say I’m happy with how the overall experience at MARBL went. I fully expected to be the one person who accidentally ripped a page or caused an […] Read more →
Marbl Drafts: Duffy’s “Circe”
I chose to look at “Circe” because I find the mythological figure interesting. Duffy’s poems in “The World’s Wife” usually put twists on the stories of its subjects. The mythological Circe is usually portrayed as an exceptionally dangerous and hateful, if not helpful, witch with little to no ambiguity or … Continue reading → Read more →
Marbl Drafts: Duffy’s “Practicing Being Dead”
I must admit that working with Duffy’s drafts was an unusual experience. I worked with MARBL before on an assignment involving comparing the drafts of poems by Seamus Heaney. It’s difficult to really gauge the personality of a writer from their works, there is a whole body of literature on … Continue reading → Read more →