Record your initial thinking about Carol Ann Duffy's poetry. What do you notice? What do you like or dislike as a reader? by Jessica Williams

2024-04-08 10:09:56 UTC

The main theme is love in my opinion, very "sensual poetry" to say the least.

2024-04-08 10:20:35 UTC

The sentences are structured have a bit of a strange. Not meaning its not wanted, or bad but it gives a different type of feel. Especially that it is not super hard to understand.

Always a hint of love and romance, even if its in the foreground or hidden in the background

But not to complicated to understand, even when there is a deeper meaning

2024-04-08 10:23:34 UTC

All these poems are extremely different from eachother in terms of content but have a very similar theme going in all of them.

2024-04-08 10:23:51 UTC

Standing Female Nude

The poem discussed what she does for money. She is a model for artists and gets paid to stand nude for them to draw her.

The poem takes place in France because they say the currency is francs.

In the last stanza we see some of the reasons why she has to do this "Because I have to" "There is no choice".

Confusing/sad ending "It does not look like me". Was all this for nothing?

2024-04-08 10:24:52 UTC

The main theme of most of the poems are related to identity, gender and power. I also see a lot of portrayal of women, in art or in the society.
Overall most of poems are hard to understand, like the true meaning is complicated. Most of them are short sentences that are just put together, and I feel like they don't really flow well with each other.
I think overall this collection is mainly about self-expression of women, and kind of like showing off her sexuality

2024-04-08 10:25:31 UTC

uses other cultures as a source of allegory and symbolism
Writes in an anecdotal sense, easy to follow for the reader but differs from the standard poem sentence structure
Writes about being a poet to give readers insight and perspective on what being a poet means and what it entails

2024-04-08 10:28:19 UTC

All the poems connect exploring the same theme, however are still very different from each other.

2024-04-08 10:28:34 UTC

Themes about different countries and 'locations' are discussed. The language is very metaphorical and slightly confusing.

2024-04-08 10:29:44 UTC

Seem like conversations not written literature
Doesn't speak in full sentences
Personal Story telling

2024-04-08 10:29:59 UTC

I find the poems a bit random, some vary as some are quite clear and understandable while others seem like just a bunch of random words. However, although some poems require a bit more attention, I think they are all focused on the same main themes and concepts, from a personal point of view.

2024-04-08 10:30:17 UTC

The poems all have multiple layers of meaning and understanding to them. For example, in Comprehensive if you are to take the poem literally it is about the life of a child li London. However, if you analyze the poem more closely you see it is a comparison of life in London vs life in Africa and the child longing to return there.

2024-04-08 10:30:53 UTC

Stories: Sometimes she tells stories from different points of view, which makes her poems interesting.

Themes: Duffy writes about love, relationships, and big issues like gender and society.

2024-04-08 10:31:32 UTC

Her writing reads like a trail of thought, enjambent is used quite often, sometimes a rhyme scheme and sometimes not. In some poems there is no fixed rhythm really, due to the fact that some sentences are longer and some are shorter. Not too difficult to understand. It is sometimes literal but sometimes has a deeper meaning with the use of figurative language (symbolism?). However, it seems like she writes based off of personal experiences.

2024-04-08 10:31:59 UTC

the sentence structures vary a lot throughout a poem.
non conventional style of poetry (less rhyming, focuses more on conveying messages)

2024-04-08 10:33:04 UTC

The poem offers a reflection on the concept of choice and its meaning of personal identity. the poem has the reader discover boundaries of autonomy

2024-04-08 10:35:38 UTC

Poem: Standing female nude

A nude model being painted in a studio

Conversation like lines in the poem

Takes place in France as it specifies the word francs.

The line "He drains the colour from me" is very interesting as it may be available for interpretation. Draining the colour may be symbolic for the artist sketching her with a graphite pencil, hence, removing the colour from her or the meaning may be interpreted as the nude model becoming pale as she has not drinken or eaten anything for the entirety of the 6 hours that she has modelled. Furthermore, she speaks in first person saying "He is concerned with volume,space. I with the next meal".