Carol Ann Duffy

15+ Must-Read Carol Ann Duffy Poems

(15 to start, 100+ to explore)

Carol Ann Duffy, who was born in Scotland in December of 1955, has become one of the best-loved poets. Many themes come to mind when one envisions Duffy’s body of work, but the most prevalent is love— familial and romantic. Her love poems are generally written in the form of a monologue and deal with situations and people that poetry does not normally touch on. Duffy’s writing can be both playful and serious as she explores topics such as queer identity, the power of language, and feminism. She is admired for the way she plays with words and enhances or alters their meanings.

Some of Duffy’s best-known poetry collections are Standing Female Nude (1985), The World’s Wife (1999), and Rapture (2005). She has also taken to writing verse for children as well as adults. In 2009, she was named Britain’s first female Poet Laureate. She famously only agreed to take on the role because no other woman had previously held it before her.

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Anne Hathaway

‘Anne Hathaway’ by Carol Ann Duffy is told from the perceptive of Shakespeare’s wife who discusses their enduring love through the symbol of a bed. 

This poem is another in which Duffy makes use of the lives and works of other writers. In this case, she is investigating the life of Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway. Anne is the speaker of the text. It is through her the reader gets an intimate look into the Bard’s life. Her words are filled with metaphors and similes comparing his writing to beautiful things, like shooting stars. In what is perhaps the most interesting part of the text, the beauty of Shakespeare’s works extends out into their life together.

The bed we loved in was a spinning world

of forests, castles, torchlight, cliff-tops, seas

where he would dive for pearls. My lover’s words

were shooting stars which fell to earth as kisses

Mrs. Midas

‘Mrs. Midas’ by Carol Ann Duffy uses a contemporary feminist perspective to depict the shocking transformation of the mythological character, King Midas.

Like Anne Hathaway, this piece provides the reader with a new viewpoint from which to consider history. This time it is the wife of the mythological King Midas from Ovid’s Metamorphoses speaking. Rather than being amazed by her husband’s ability to turn everything into gold, Mrs. Midas easily sees through the ridiculous nature of his actions.

It was late September. I’d just poured a glass of wine, begun

to unwind, while the vegetables cooked. The kitchen

filled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breath

gently blanching the windows. So I opened one,

then with my fingers wiped the other’s glass like a brow.

He was standing under the pear tree snapping a twig.

#3
PDF Guide
Nationality: Scottish
Themes: Aging, Love, Relationships
Emotions: Compassion, Empathy
Topics:
Motherhood
100
Hard Times, Losing a Mother, Mothers and Daughters, Old Age, Time
Form: Free Verse
"> 95/100

The Way My Mother Speaks

‘The Way My Mother Speaks’ by Carol Ann Duffy describes a speaker’s developing connection to her mother’s way of speaking. 

This ingenious piece reimagines the way that phrases, in particular those most familiar to us, enter into our vocabulary. The speaker in ‘The Way My Mother Speaks’ is haunted by the words of her mother. These disconnected, ephemeral lines repeat themselves within the text of the poem. This effect creates a distinct emotional connection to that particular arrangement of words.

I say her phrases to myself

in my head

or under the shallows of my breath,

restful shapes moving.

The day and ever. The day and ever.

#4
PDF Guide
72
Nationality:
Scottish
60
Themes:
Desire
77
Disappointment
73
Identity
87
Emotions:
Abandonment
83
Anger
85
Grief
83
Pain
84
Sadness
80
Topics:
Betrayal
83
Hatred
87
Heartbreak
87
Sorrow
78
Suffering
82
Unrequited Love
76
Forms:
Dramatic Monologue
78
Free Verse
76
"> 94/100

Havisham

‘Havisham’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores the psychological reality of Dickens’ Miss Havisham from a feminist perspective.

'Havisham' is one of the best-known poems of Duffy, included in academic curricula at various levels. Feminist revisionism is one of the defining characteristics of Duffy's poetic oeuvre. 'Havisham,' presenting Dickens' Miss Havisham (see 'Great Expectations') from a feminist perspective, is one of Duffy's earliest revisionist works, written before her collection 'The World's Wife,' dedicated to reclaiming female voices from literary history. It exemplifies her characteristic poetic style, featuring dark humor, psychological insight, subversive irony, nuanced symbolic imagery, simple language devoid of ornamentation, free verse, and enjambment, with a thematic focus on identity and the repressed female voice in a canonical literary work. Moreover, it is a dramatic monologue like most of Duffy's feminist retellings, revealing the characters' psychological reality.

Beloved sweetheart bastard. Not a day since then

I haven’t wished him dead. Prayed for it

so hard I’ve dark green pebbles for eyes,

ropes on the back of my hands I could strangle with.

#5
PDF Guide
Nationality: Scottish
Themes: Desire, Love, Relationships
Emotions: Compassion, Hope, Love for Him, Passion
Topics: Adulthood, Creativity, Forbidden Love, History, Making Love, Poets, Unrequited Love, Writing
Form: Free Verse
"> 93/100

The Love Poem

Duffy’s ‘The Love Poem’ is a collection of verses from other love poems, composed by poets like Shakespeare, Sidney, Donne, Shelley, Barrett and Browning.

This piece is truly beautiful and remarkably clever. It is quite simply a poem about writing love poetry. The text speaks on why finding the right words to describe an emotion as complex and powerful as love is nearly impossible. In order to circumvent this trouble, Duffy chose to collect and appropriate lines from some of the most famous love poems ever written.

Till love exhausts itself, longs

for the sleep of words -

my mistress' eyes -

to lie on a white sheet, at rest

#6
PDF Guide
65
Nationality:
Scottish
55
Themes:
Death
60
Disappointment
58
Identity
54
Journey
56
Love
52
Emotions:
Hope
65
Missing Someone
67
Pain
63
Regret
59
Sadness
55
Topics:
History
66
Home
63
Loss
65
Memories
61
Nostalgia
98
Soldiers
70
Suffering
64
Time
58
Form:
Free Verse
60
Genre:
Lament
60
"> 92/100

Nostalgia

Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Nostalgia’ explores the moment the term ‘Nostalgia’ was coined following the crusades of 17th-century Swiss mercenaries.

Duffy has always been interested in language, and the ways words are used. This piece is clearly related to that interest as she explores the moment that the word ‘Nostalgia’ came into being. The details are in the poem, but the most important thing to consider about this piece is the heartache associate with the emotion and its universal application. Through the penning of ‘Nostalgia’ Duffy is asking the reader to consider how nostalgia is present in their own life.

Those early mercenaries, it made them ill –

leaving the mountains, leaving the high, fine air

to go down, down. What they got

was money, dull, crude coins clenched

#7
PDF Guide
Nationality: Scottish
Themes: Love, Relationships
Emotions: Anxiety, Passion
Topics: Creativity, Daily Life, Humanity, Imagination, Life Struggles, Writing
Form: Free Verse
"> 91/100

Words, Wide Night

‘Words, Wide Night’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a short ten line poem that speaks on the impossibility of putting love into words. 

This piece is one of a number in her collection ‘The Other Country’ which depicts the poet’s own childhood. It is common in Duffy’s works for her speakers to take on elements of her own life, or for Duffy to cast herself as the speaker. In this piece, in particular, she examines what it meant to leave her home and enter into the unknown.

Somewhere on the other side of this wide night

and the distance between us, I am thinking of you.

The room is turning slowly away from the moon.

#8
PDF Guide
30
Nationality:
Scottish
55
Themes:
Beauty
90
Relationships
52
Emotions:
Anger
28
Sadness
35
Topics:
Abuse
91
Equality
35
History
32
Mythology
40
Power
40
Women's Strength
40
Form: Free Verse
"> 90/100

Beautiful

‘Beautiful’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores the physical and mental damage that can come from beauty by tracing the lives of four women.

This fairly well-known Carol Ann Duffy poem explores the objectification of women, beauty standards, and historically significant people and places. These themes are common to her verse, which readers will likely recognize. THis piece should be regarded as one of Duffy's best on the subject, especially considering how long and involved the various sections are.

She was born from an egg,

a daughter of the gods,

divinely fair, a pearl, drop-dead

gorgeous, beautiful, a peach,

#9
PDF Guide
Nationality: Scottish
Theme: Dreams
Emotion: Confusion
Topics: City, Imagination, Memories, Memory, Travel
Form: Free Verse
"> 90/100

In Your Mind

‘In Your Mind’ by Carol Ann Duffy describes a detailed daydream in which the reader of the poem embarks on a strangely familiar trip.

This poem depicts another of Duffy’s famous dream landscapes. The speaker, through second-person narration, asks the reader to imagine a world filled with the best of things. If you travel there, which the poem certainly makes tempting, you will find that your past struggles and griefs are gone. Unfortunately for the reader, it doesn’t last. They are thrust back into reality and made to confront the dreary real world.

The other country, is it anticipated or half-remembered?

Its language is muffled by the rain which falls all afternoon

one autumn in England, and in your mind

you put aside your work and head for the airport

#10
PDF Guide
72
Nationality:
Scottish
67
Themes:
Love
87
Relationships
68
Emotions:
Amusement
65
Compassion
65
Dishonesty
76
Faith
70
Love for Him
99
Passion
74
Topics:
Allusion
74
Care
63
Chocolate
63
Individuality
72
Inner Beauty
70
Moon
78
Roses
77
Valentine's Day
92
Form:
Free Verse
72
Genre:
Romance
80
"> 90/100

Valentine

Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Valentine’ challenges conventional romance with an unexpected gift: an onion conveying honesty and genuine emotion.

Carol Ann Duffy's 'Valentine' is significant in her oeuvre. It exemplifies her use of accessible language to depict everyday experiences, which is considered to have been influenced by the Liverpool Poets. By dramatizing a Valentine's Day scene, Duffy critiques conventional expressions of love, rejecting clichéd symbols in favor of genuine expressions. This also reflects her poetry's resonance with people's everyday experiences while challenging and redefining love's portrayal in poetry, moving away from romanticized ideals. The poem is famous and critically acclaimed for its distinct take on modern love.

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.

It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.

It promises light

#11
PDF Guide
Nationality: Scottish
Theme: Spirituality
Emotion: Faith
Topics: Christianity, Darkness, God, Life, Peace, Prayer
Form: Free Verse
"> 89/100

Prayer

‘Prayer’ by Carol Ann Duffy describes the different forms a prayer can take in the modern world, and how those forms provide comfort.

Above all else, this emotional piece is about how one confronts the world in times of need. A prayer is a common tool used by the countless faithful to get through the day. But in this text, Duffy seeks to extend what prayer is and give examples of the other, even more, vibrant forms it can take. Prayers come to the people in the text, they emerge from the chanting of trains and the “minims sung by a tree”.

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer

utters itself. So, a woman will lift

her head from the sieve of her hands and stare

at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.

#12
PDF Guide
65
Nationality:
Scottish
73
Themes:
Aging
58
Identity
73
Love
61
Emotions:
Empathy
55
Enjoyment
54
Guilt
72
Topics:
Appreciation
76
Daughters
57
Ghosts
65
Motherhood
69
Mothers and Daughters
95
Form:
Free Verse
63
Genre:
Elegy
64
"> 85/100

Before You Were Mine

‘Before You Were Mine’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a beautiful and nostalgic poem that features a woman’s contemplations of her mother’s life before the latter gave birth to her.

This poem is a wonderful representation of Carol Ann Duffy's verse. It conveys her style of writing and some of the many subjects she's interested in quite well. The poem focuses on her mother's life (before she became a mother) and is filled with emotion.

I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh on

with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.

The three of you bend from the waist, holding

each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.

#13
PDF Guide
39
Nationality: Scottish
Theme:
Death
78
Emotions:
Missing Someone
87
Sadness
63
Topics:
Alliteration
59
Death of a Loved One
96
Life
60
School
88
Teachers
92
Form:
Free Verse
62
Genre:
Lament
70
"> 85/100

Death of a Teacher

‘Death of a Teacher’ by Carol Ann Duffy is a moving poem. In it, the poet discusses a personal loss she suffered and how it affected her.

The big trees outside are into their poker game again,

shuffling and dealing, turning, folding, their leaves

 

drifting down to the lawn, floating away, ace high,

on a breeze. You died yesterday.

#14
PDF Guide
76
Nationality:
Scottish
84
Themes:
Coming of Age
71
Death
71
Desire
76
Identity
74
Journey
69
Emotions:
Anxiety
70
Courage
71
Fear
73
Guilt
67
Regret
70
Topics:
Adulthood
75
Choice
68
Color Red
72
Danger
72
Growing Up
67
Independence
79
Rebellion
74
Forms:
Free Verse
77
Sestet
74
Genre:
Fairy Tales
86
"> 82/100

Little Red Cap

‘Little Red Cap’ by Duffy is a feminist retelling of the classic tale, exploring the empowerment and growth of the little girl.

‘Little Red Cap’ is a brilliant example of Carol Ann Duffy’s work. It showcases her sharp wit, emotional depth, and feminist voice. Duffy often explores themes of identity and power, making her relatable. This poem, with its mix of storytelling and self-empowerment, mirrors real-life struggles of breaking free and finding oneself—something many readers connect with deeply.

At childhood’s end, the houses petered out

into playing fields, the factory, allotments

kept, like mistresses, by kneeling married men,

the silent railway line, the hermit’s caravan,

#15
PDF Guide
69
Nationality:
Scottish
64
Themes:
Dark
68
Disappointment
76
Love
78
Relationships
76
Emotions:
Grief
78
Hopelessness
68
Regret
72
Sadness
63
Topics:
Breaking Up
88
Giving Up
69
Heartbreak
63
Rain
61
Time
72
Form:
Quatrain
59
Genre:
Lyric
71
"> 81/100

Mean Time

‘Mean Time’ delves into love’s loss, comparing it to the dark, extended nights after “Daylight Saving Time,” capturing deep sorrow.

This is undoubtedly one of Duffy's most well-known poems and has become largely synonymous with her identity as a poet. Like many of her other works, it bears the hallmarks of her casual style as it adopts a conversational tone with only occasional rhyme. Duffy's preoccupation with love is also reflected in this poem, which describes the feeling of listlessness which intrudes on one's mind after a breakup. The poet's signature pessimistic style greatly influences this poem as the speaker resigns themselves to a life of misery. The speaker is often considered to be Duffy herself.

The clocks slid back an hour

and stole light from my life

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