Carol Ann Duffy poem summaries-

The captain of the 1964 top of the form team-

From the beginning of the poem the speaker indirectly names the popular songs at the time “top ten that month, October.” Written in the first three stanza’s that talk about his intellectual childhood and how he’s disappointed on how complicated adulthood is.

Compare to: meantime, Beachcomber, Nostalgia

Nostalgia-

The poem nostalgia is about war and how the soldiers miss their homes and their loved ones. Most of the poem tells us how the soldiers reminisce about their home towns and the fond memories that they had. Duffy then contrasts this warm, happy feeling with the concept of war and the suffering that thee soldiers would undergo. This makes the reader give a mixture of sympathy and sadness as we feel as though the soldiers do not deserve to feel this way.

Compare to: the captain., never go back, cliché kid, litany

Before you were mine-

The poet is talking about her mother, having seen a photo of her mother as a teenager. She knows that the thought of having a child one day doesn’t occur to her mother when young, when she was wrapped up in a world of dances and teenage dreams. Now remembering her own childhood, the poet thinks of how she used to play with her mother’s red shoes and imagined when her mother might have worn those shoes to meet a boyfriend in George square. She remembers how her mother used to teach her dance steps when she was a child- yet even back then, the poet wished she could have known her other when she was still young and carefree, before she was a mother.

Compare to: the captain of, fist love, litany, valentine, close, the biographer, small female skull

Beachcomber-

Duffy introduces the poem with an elderly woman recalling to her most valuable memory hence ‘beachcomber’. The elderly woman is put in a trance like state of memory of herself as ‘the child, and not in sepia’. Her mind questions her ‘you remember that cardigan, yes?’ as her senses of touch is involved. ‘But this is as close as you get’ Duffy make it more dramatic as the elderly woman realises that even if she would want to say something to her younger self she knows she can’t ‘exactly’ as it’s only a memory.

Compare to: the captain, small female skull, Stafford afternoons, meantime, nostalgia

First love-

Duffy’s ‘first love’ successfully presents the thoughts and feelings surrounding first love in this reflective poem. The use of the past and present, and the idea of nostalgia highlights a kind of pain in the loss of love. ‘first’ love is especially made clear in this poem Duffy’s use of language which might be a tool to present the sensory appeal found in the ‘lipstick’ and perhaps even heighten the idea of the ‘dream’ state.

Compare to: before you were mine, valentine, small female skull, close

Valentine-

As you can see Duffy has done an excellent done of taking a love poem and subverting it using an onion as a metaphor for love itself… The comparison gets more ambiguous as the poem unfolds and we become unsure what is comparison and what is being talked about, love or the onion, I think the suggestion this poem is trying to make is that it can be destructive if not properly tended to. I think it is also trying to show that it when it comes to love that sentiment and challenging work trumps love based around meaningless gifts. It is a gift of Duffy’s that gives away so little in her poems and always leaves you wanting more.

Compare to: the captain of, first love, before you were mine, close

The biographer-

The major themes of this poem are identity, disappointment, admiration, the past and obsession. The persona in this poem is a “biographer”. The biographer in the poem seems to be a man who is researching the life of a famous writer. It is not confirmed who this poem is about (Charles Dickens).

Compare to: the captain, first love, before you were mine, close

Litany-

“litany” was based in Stafford in the 1960s, it shows how at the time most housewives revolved around a tedious recital of meetings with other housewives to surround themselves in materialistic goods as a distraction from their abusive marriages. Duffy includes swearing which was unheard of at the time as women weren’t educated as they were just housewives, but it was also used to break the tedious recital (litany) by including it.

Compare to: before you were mine, Stafford afternoons, first love

Stafford afternoons-

In the poem it talks about a memory from her childhood, during her childhood she experiences an event that shouldn’t belong In anybody’s childhood as the event was too out of reach for her as she becomes victimised from her innocence as the experience has been made permanent in her memory.

Compare to: close, beachcomber, litany

The cliché kid-

The narrator goes to the doctor because she is afflicted with painful memories. She hopes for something to help her forget, the memories that trouble her are of her parents, an unhappy childhood, first love, the smell of bread, new mowed grass, her baby.

Compare to: nostalgia, Stafford afternoons

Small female skull-

The narrator hols a skull (either real or imaginary) in her hands and imagines that its her own. She compares it with many things, an ocarina, a deck of cards, a volume in poetry. She blows in it, kisses it, uses it as a ventriloquist dummy and washes it like a baby. She sees upon it marks her past, and It causes her to reflect upon past love and her own mortality.

Compare to: beachcomber, close

Never go back-

One of the main ideas in this poem is that you cannot return to the past as people and places change. Familiar places evoke images of death, disease and decay, as this is what happens to people and places over time. Duffy uses darkness and drinking in bars to represent her feelings about time.

Compare to: the captain, nostalgia

Close-

This poem describes an affair between two people. It appears to have been going on for a while, for example “undress...dress. undress” by the end of the poem only one person is left standing in the room. “a cigarette smokes itself next to the full glass of wine.”

Compare to: valentine, small female skull

Meantime-

The first-person narrator reflects on the end of a romantic relationship. She wonders around town at the time the clocks go back from British summer time to Greenwich mean time mourning her lost love. The darkness and bleakness mirror her feelings about the end of the relationship, and cause her to reflect on time and mortality.

Compare to: the captain of, small female skull, never go back, valentine

	Created by lurda kavaliauskaite over 6 years ago

A level English Note on carol ann duffy poem summaries, created by lurda kavaliauskaite on 09/01/2018.