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Summary Duffy and Larkin A level English Lit poetry notes
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Carol Ann Duffy and Philip Larkin poetry a level english literature detailed notes on each poem, including analysis and critical quotations.
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DuffyCaptain
- A painful experience of what Duffy calls the ‘different ways in which time can bring
about change or loss’. His inability to come to terms with the passing of time has
left him stuck in a bygone era, unable to regain the identity and purpose he had in
his youth. Time has rendered the speaker’s knowledge of trivial facts, which were
once evidence of his astuteness and intellect, meaningless and outdated. The volta
in the poem, which marks the speaker’s movement from the past to the present
moment, highlights the anti-climatic and unresolved fact that with passing of time
must come the passing of optimism towards life.
- A man who is entirely disillusioned with his adult life and longs to regain the vitality
which defined his youth. However, perhaps Duffy’s speaker, who is reminiscing on
the past, has a romanticised or idealised view of this period of his life.
- Duffy’s use of pop culture references, perhaps an example of her efforts to subvert
traditional expectations of what poetry should look like, ground her poem in a very
specific time period, thus increasing the speaker’s nostalgia. These references,
embedded in the vocabulary of the speaker, produce a colloquial register which
underscores the ethos of that time. The date ‘1964’, a period of widespread social
and radical change in Britain, links to the animated mood with which the speaker
reminisces.
- Duffy, using a dramatic monologue of a man who is arguably far removed from the
person she is herself, allows for a distance from her subject which creates a sense of
irony. Thus, whilst it could be argued that Duffy encourages some sympathy for her
speaker in his dejection, perhaps she is creating a satire out of those who ‘peak’ in
their youth and resultantly remain unfulfilled in adult life.
- The speaker’s self-belief in his youth, confident about who he is in the moment, but
also for his future, makes his current state of life more dismal.
Litany
- Duffy, in her exploration of what is perhaps her own childhood, creates ‘a bitter
satire against the repressive culture of her upbringing’ (Rees-Jones)
- Duffy criticises the stigmatised language of the 1950s’ housewives, which impedes
any true conversation or honest communication, in order to highlight how words ‘can
alienate, creating a sense of otherness and distance’ (O’Keefe).
- Whilst we may feel some sympathy for these women who are trapped in banal
domestic lifestyles, the contempt with which the speaker depicts their
taboo-riddled conversations suggests otherwise.
- Duffy, exploring a society where appearances are more important than realities,
highlights a dark undercurrent which flows beneath a surface of respectability.
- Duffy explores the falsities and superficialities embedded in the lives of the 1950s
housewives who engage with a consumerist culture. These women, who use the
culture of gossip and shopping as a substitute for religion.
- The age of Duffy’s speaker - a young child - allows for an outsider perspective and
an honest voice who draws attention to the flaws in her fellow humans.
- The shocking event which introduces unsanitized language into the poem allows
the speaker to transgress social boundaries and confront the stigma which controls
, the women’s lives, expressing a ‘concern with the 'power of words' - Duffy uses
words in many ways as tools, as weapons, and as subjects’ (O’Keefe)
Stafford Afternoons
- Duffy, exploring a premature journey from innocence to experience, stays true to
her comment that ‘all childhood is an emigration’.
- ‘A strain of nostalgia for childhood and the mysteriousness of its contours runs
through her poetry’
- Duffy explores a traumatic memory of sexual harassment which shocks us in its
intrusion into the innocence of childhood. In juxtaposing the ordinary and everyday
with a startling event, Duffy accentuates this unexpected, but grave, moment.
- The vulnerability of the speaker, who is a young child, highlights the dangers of being
alone. However, even when the speaker reemerges into society, she experiences an
entirely different kind of isolation which accentuates her change from innocence to
experience
- Duffy presents the speaker’s physical environment as a malevolent force, using
fairy-tale-esque language to foreshadow the shocking event which will take place.
The danger contained in the naturalistic, but threatening, imagery of the wood is
made manifest in the figure of the “flasher”.
Before You Were Mine
- Duffy, juxtaposing a romantic idealisation of her mother’s youth with a harsh and
honest depiction of the reality of motherhood, highlights what she calls the ‘different
ways in which time can bring about change or loss’.
- Disillusionment
- Duffy explores the identity of her mother - a light-hearted girl enjoying the freedoms
and opportunities of youth - before depicting how she is stripped of this identity
through motherhood.
- Duffy explores, in an honest and compassionate manner, the realities of women’s
lives in 1950s’ society. Whilst the poem, which she claims is ‘entirely
autobiographical’, is a reflection on her own mother’s life, it also serves as a wider
reflection of the sacrifices which the female gender are forced to make having
children. In line with Duffy’s quintessential feminist lens, her understanding of the
restraints placed on women in the 1950s, with the expectations of domestic duties
and child rearing, provides a sympathetic portrait of a woman whose identity has
been changed as a result of motherhood.
- Perhaps there is a slight tone of contempt in the speaker’s voice, as the fact that this
is a child speaking directly to her mother suggests that there could be a hint of
contempt or regret mixed in with her affection - processing feelings of guilt about
the person she has forces her mother to become
- Pop culture references
- Bittersweet reminiscence on her mother’s life
Confession
- Duffy portrays a version of religion that is heavily corrupt, and thus one that we
cannot have trust or faith in. Duffy herself said ‘I do envy people who have a religious
faith - I can recall the comfort, the sense of safety net’. Whilst this poem focuses on a
traditional ritual of the Catholic religion (confession), Duffy’s lack of faith undermines
, conventions of the religion and removes any “comfort” or “safety” which ought to be
found in this experience.
- Subverting the purity typically associated with such an important figure, Duffy
portrays the priest in a sinister light: an unknown listener who coerces those with a
religious faith to expose their deepest secrets to him
- Duffy’s use of a stream of consciousness, in its post-modern style, creates a sense of
discomfort and disorder.
- Duffy portrays an unbalanced power-dynamic between those who are at the
discretion of a higher authority in a religious organisation and the one figure who has
control over the common people
- The dark and uneasy atmosphere of the poem accentuates the reader’s awareness
of the sin and corruption which Duffy embeds in the Catholic religion. Duffy, who was
herself Catholic in youth, but became Atheist, is perhaps providing a reason not to
have faith.
Pluto
- The speaker’s memories, which are prompted by the senses, allow for experiences
of the distant past and present moment to coalesce.
- The speaker, perhaps suffering from dementia, struggles to keep a grasp on whether
his experiences are part of reality or part of his memories. Duffy’s exploration of the
painful experience of the passing of time both brings experiences of old age and
childhood closer together and emphasises the gulf between them.
- The poem oscillates between waves of exhilaration and disillusionment as the
speaker slowly becomes aware of the passing of time. The lasting sense of
melancholia and loneliness highlights the loss experienced by the speaker through
the process of ageing.
- Duffy creates a liminal space or a grey area of ageing which blurs the distance
between the past and present and allows for movement between the two time
periods.
- Duffy uses a dramatic monologue of an elderly man whose ‘memories are all he
has’ (Croxhall), encouraging pathos for him in his confused and fragile state.
Away and See
- Duffy creates a poem of possible future opportunities; urging spontaneity and
curiosity; welcoming new adventures and experiences. The speaker, who is
encouraging this journey of self-discovery, expresses an appreciation for life. It
could be argued that the speaker is living vicariously through the person they are
addressing, as in showcasing these possible experiences, they too feel the
exhilaration which comes with taking risks and being open.
- Whilst it could be argued that there is a lyrical quality to the poem which suggests an
idealised lens, perhaps there is room to see how the poem explores ‘the deep
recesses of human emotion, both joy and pain’ (O’Reilly) in a more realistic lens.
- Duffy places a focus on the power which language has in these new experiences.
First Love
- Duffy explores the treasured memories of a lost love, allowing for the past to be
brought into the present through the process of reminiscence. The speaker’s
experience of nostalgia is bittersweet as it is both one of healing and mourning. The
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