Feminine Gospels

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With each poem, the reader must relearn how to read, or at least take time to look at formatting not to miss the greater artistry present. The longest poem, although my least favourite, “The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High,” is the one where the poet’s pure delight in language is clearly tangible. I’d never have picked this up if it weren’t for Jen Campbell talking about her poems so passionately in one of her videos.

Her subjects encompass all female trials, tribulations and sufferings and indeed the human condition. The longest poem in the book is "The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High" and Duffy clearly enjoyed writing it. These poems are slightly aslant from the last volume of hers I read, The World's Wife, in that aside from "Beautiful," which is about the effect of beauty on Helen, Cleopatra, and Marilyn Monroe, the women she concerns herself with are those of the everyday, anonymous world. In Duffy’s poem “Sub” the reader is asked to consider “what if a woman was there,” in certain situations.If I read a poem, it doesn't have to be immediately obvious to me what it's about, but I don't want to have to Google the poem to see what the hell is going on. In Feminine Gospels, the focus is women, but Duffy does not desire to pigeon whole women into normal societal roles; or even to allow her characters comfort in any of the situations. In this beautiful poetry collection, Carol Ann Duffy takes us on an educational journey on what it means to be a woman in a patriarchal society and the burdens it brings with it. duffy is an exquisite poet but even the best of them, as she is, produce anthologies that mix on responses garnered. This is exemplified by the subject matter of both poems separately that both deal with certain beauty standards, and the forceful nature in which women are expected to uphold those.

To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I love love love Carol Ann Duffy, and some poems were beautiful, but most were too abstract or vague.

From verbal nuances to mind-expanding imaginative leaps, her words seem freshly plucked from the minds of non-poets -- that is, she makes it look easy' Charlotte Mendelson, Observer 'Nobody is ever going to need to be told how to enjoy a Carol Ann Duffy poem . Overall, though, it must be said that Carol Ann Duffy's lyricism flows beautifully across the pages like water and it is a pure joy to read every single line of text. An anorexic shrivels like Alice until she is blown away as a seed, to nestle at length in the stomach of a gloriously self-indulgent eater.

This is evidenced by the fact that the reader will be reading a poem like “Beautiful” where Duffy examines historic women figures in an expression of use.

At the same time it is hard to keep out of mind Searle's St Trinian's, or even the hearty attachments of Angela Brazil's captains and head girls. And though she uses conventional stanza forms she somehow seems to make their blocks disappear so that they all blend smoothly into a delicious current, causing the poems to flow, carrying the alluvial affection for Duffy's subject. The Map-Woman’ is a powerful and thoughtful poem, about the experiences and places mapped upon a body; ‘Beautiful’ holds a few echoes of ‘The Lady of Shallot’; ‘The Diet’ is about a woman who starves herself so much that she ends up shrinking. Throughout, Duffy makes some shrewd observations, and poses some fascinating thoughts and questions; in ‘The Long Queen’, for instance, she asks: ‘What was she queen of? The poems main purpose is to highlight that with fame or infamy these women were still very much women, in the sense that they were so much more than what we know.

the quality never once slips and remains impressive throughout, but instead, it is personal connection that wavers. Featuring a vibrant rainbow design, and our super-sized Q logo, you won't find a more stylish way to make a statement.the themes on equality and obviously feminism were very ahead of her time and i think very impressive.