Most of us have a clear perception of what fairy tales are, or what we assume them to be. Over the past century, these tales have been burdened with so many clich's, such as evil queens’ curses and damsels-in-distress, that we tend to identify them...
Introduction Carol Ann Duffy wrote ‘The World’s Wife’ in order to scrutinize the representation of both men and women, inspired by her strong feminist views — reconstructing, for example, many of the ‘voiceless women’ from throughout history. As Duffy expressed it; ‘like sand and the...
The poem “Little Red Cap” by Carol Ann Duffy is a twist of the original story “Little Red Riding Hood”. Carol Ann Duffy takes a stand where at the end of the poem the wolf does not eat the girl like in the original story...
‘Mrs Midas’ is a revisionist version of the King Midas story told from the female perspective: traditionally, this ancient Greek myth was about a man who could turn everything to gold with a touch. This poem explores the sadness Mrs Midas feels in regards to...
Duffy explores ideas, thoughts and feelings about love in Valentine and Havisham by commenting on societal expectations of the outcomes and portraying love as unstable, dangerous and likely to cause hurt. Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater...
Carol Ann Duffy’s poem “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” expresses the poetic speaker’s love for literature in the context of an intriguing personal narrative. Such a passion came from her primary school teacher as Duffy’s protagonist grows into adulthood — from a dramatized experience in her...
A poem which deals with the subject of love through strong human emotion is ‘Valentine’ written by Carol-Ann Duffy. The poets attitude to love is unusual as she provides a different perspective on how we can look at it by describing the unconventional and pessimstic...
The title of the poem Valentine written by Carol Ann Duffy is very misleading. One would expect to read romantic love, instead she writes about cynical love. She has obviously been hurt in previous relationships. The poem starts off with a positive statement-Not a red...
“Salome” is a poem taken from Carol Ann Duffy’s collection of poems The World’s Wife; most of the poems share a common feature: a historically marginalized narrator retelling the story from personal perspective. Salome’s character originally appeared in the New Testament and over the centuries...
The poet Carol Anne Duffy presents two different attitudes towards religion in her poems “Prayer” and “Confession.” In “Prayer,” Duffy contemplates how, in the absence of organised religion, comfort can instead be found in ordinary, prosaic occurrences. These usually insignificant experiences instead become a source...
Carol Ann Duffy’s love poems are often riddled with oxymoronic statements, which affirm the changing nature of love and how it is perceived in different relationships and in different periods of time and life. “Valentine” and “Havisham” are two poems which share similar proposals of...
Duffy’s poems, Adultery and Disgrace, portray the theme of betrayal in a number of different ways. Both show that betrayal is destructive and deadly to relationships, however, different diverse, including sibilance and oxymorons, are used across the two poems to portray this. It is possible...
Within Remains, Simon Armitage, who is widely known for focusing on physiological health and for creating a documentary of young soldier in the height of the conflict occurring in Afghanistan, presents the theme of suffering through the personal view of a young, regimented soldier, by...
In both “Before You Were Mine” and “Brothers,” Carol Ann Duffy uses descriptions of memory as a means of re-living past family life. Throughout “Before You Were Mine,” Duffy writes about her mother, and imagines her life before motherhood. This poem is designed as Duffy’s...
Duffy presents gender in the poems Litany and Havisham through society’s views and expectations of women, and the effects it has on them show how being female was harmful to their wellbeing. Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to...
In the poem ‘The Map Woman’, Carol Ann Duffy uses the extended metaphor of a map being printed on a woman’s body to explore ideas surrounding hometowns, childhood and nostalgia. This is immediately introduced in the first line where the reader learns that ‘A woman’s...
Queen Herod is taken from Duffy’s The World’s Wife, a collection which inverts gender roles to celebrate female characters and display the injustice of men’s generalizations. This poem inverts the gender roles in the biblical story of the arrival of the Magi for Jesus’s birth...
Carol Ann Duffy’s poem entitled ‘Shooting Stars’ originally published in her first anthology “The World’s Wife” in 1999 is an emotive recount of the treatment of Jewish prisoners of the Holocaust during WWII. Whilst Duffy was not personally involved in the events that she explores...
In both Before You Were Mine and Pluto, Duffy uses characters to present different viewpoints of the past and present. In Before You Were Mine, the past is seen to be tangible and physical as the character of the narrator’s mother is heavily described, whereas...
Humans inflict suffering on other humans and when events are forgotten, they are repeated. In the poem “Shooting Stars,” Carol Ann Duffy tells a shocking story of a female prisoner held by Nazis in a concentration camp around the time of the Holocaust. This is...
I am going to compare three different poems: “My Box” by Gillian Clarke, “Valentine” by Carol Ann Duffy and “Shall I compare Thee…?” (Sonnet 18) by William Shakespeare. In my essay I will discuss the language, images, style, rhythm and many other aspects used to...
At the beginning of Duffy’s collection of poems Little Red cap depicts the state of adolescence and the rites of passage that lead to adulthood, containing autobiographical narratives Of Duffy’s own life. ‘Little Red Cap’ is based around a young girl end of innocence as...
Yes I agree that the power in Grimm’s, Carter’s and Duffy’s versions of Little Red Riding Hood is gendered. The concept of power is the foundation of the story and revolves around the characters and the position of power that every character holds is different...
In what ways does the final stanza change the understanding of the poem “Nostalgia” as a whole? What use has Carol Ann Duffy made of repetition to convey meaning and/or emotional effects? Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to...
Introduction Both ‘Before you were mine’ by Carol Anne Duffy and ‘Follower’ by Seamus Heaney present the theme of admiration through their poems. As they both capture the parent-child relationship through the child’s perspective showcasing how they each viewed their parent as a role model...
Introduction The poem “Havisham” by Carol Ann Duffy is a captivating literary work that offers a unique perspective on a well-known character from Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.” In this essay, we will embark on a comprehensive exploration of “Havisham,” delving into its themes, literary devices,...
To analyze the bright examples of war poetry, “Poppies” and “War Photographer”, a comparison of the two poems will be presented in this essay. Made-to-order essay as fast as you need it Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences + experts online...
In the movie “Everyday,” the main character is a person who wakes up in a different body every day. They never wake up in the same body twice and they never get to know whose body they are going into next. It is always a...
"Edinburgh is my favourite city. We'll be doing a lot of children's theatre and galleries."
"It's always good when women win things in fiction because it tends to be more male-dominated, unlike poetry, which is more equal."
"I think the dangers are different now. Our abuse of the planet and our resources is an anxiety."
Born
23 December 1955 (age 66)
Activity
Carol Ann Duffy is a British poet and playwright. She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. She is the first woman, the first Scottish-born poet and the first known lesbian poet to hold the position.
Works
“Little Women, Big Boys”, “Love Poems”, “Rapture”, “Sincerity”, “Standing Female Nude”, “Take My Husband”, “The Bees”, “The Hat”, “The Other Country”, “The Tear Thief”, “The World’s Wife”
Themes
Duffy's poetry mainly engages such topics as love, gender, oppression, and violence. Her work explores both everyday experience and the rich fantasy life of herself and others.
Style
Duffy is both serious and humorous, often writing in a mischievous, playful style - in particular, she plays with words as she explores the way in which meaning and reality are constructed through language.
Quotes
“I like to use simple words, but in a complicated way.”
“The stars are filming us for no one.”
“Better off dead than giving in; not taking what you want.”
