Selected Poems: Carol Ann Duffy (Penguin Poetry Library)

Mostly, I don't know why I forced myself to read on through this selection of bleak and depressing free verse poems, most of which made me think of fragments of nightmares. I got this book because I'd come across Carol Ann Duffy when I purchased a beautifully illustrated children's book called The Gift (which I've yet to read) and thought I may as well get a feel for her poetry first. This book seemed like a good choice because it's a selection from her first four acclaimed volumes, Standing Female Nude (1985), Selling Manhattan (1987), The Other Country (1990) and Mean Time (1993) and finally a few selections from The World's Wife (1999), my favourite entries by far. In truth I mostly got this particular volume because I loved the cover designed by Petra Borner, an artist I've profiled on a pervious thread. There was one poem, also bleak, but quite beautiful, one of the few which made me think "ah, this is why I've plodded on!", but I didn't mark the page, and just now the thought of having to read through some likely candidates and tripping over so many jagged corners of consciousness was more than I could bear. So instead, the final poem, because it made me smile, taken from The World's Wife which includes entries by Mrs Midas, Mrs Lazarus, Mrs Aesop and Queen Kong:

Mrs Darwin

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

This series of notes are produced, if not exclusively, are certainly primly aimed at students. I don't care, I need help understanding poetry and they work brilliantly for me.

I particularly like the effortless way that the notes move from the blooming obvious to the quite complex. I certainly get more Carol Ann Duffy's work after reading this book and I am building a series so that more modern poetry will radiate with something close to its full beam in my direction. ( )

I love Carol Ann Duffy's poetry. I haven't read it exhaustively, mind you, but I have read quite a bit. This collection includes poetry from her first four volumes, plus six poems from my favorite, The World's Wife. Duffy has her own quirky voice, a great sense of humor, and writes accessibly. She has a way with language that just delights me. ( )