Carol Ann Duffy: A Life in Verse (2024)

Carol Ann Duffy is considered to be one of the most significant contemporary British writers. She has made a name as a poet and playwright. Her work is enjoyed by a vastaudienceand appreciated by critics and the general public alike. She is recognized for her straightforward, unrelenting approach to gender issues, oppression, and masterful use ofdramatic monologuein her verses, whilst sprinkling humor throughout. With the use of conversational language, creating works resembling feminine gospels, and writing with such sincerity, it is easy to see how so many can relate to her words.

The British poet has achieved a wide array of literary success in her career. Not only did she become the first female to come out of Britain to become the Poet Laureate, but she was awarded an OBE, CBE, and DBE, followed by a Whitbread Poetry Award, and eventually became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Her poetry was so forward-thinking that she earned herself the Forward Poetry Prize in 1993 for her work ‘Mean Time.’

Life Facts

• Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in December 1955.
• She published her first written works in the early 1970s.
• She graduated in 1977with a degree in philosophy from the University of Liverpool.
• In 2005, she won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize for her collection, “Rapture.”
• She was named an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy in recent years.

Interesting Facts

• She won the National Poetry Competition for ‘Whoever She Was.’
• Duffy spent a brief period working as a poetry critic for The Guardian.
• She has also written picture books for children.
• She was named poet laureate in 2009 and stepped down in 2019.
• Duffy only accepted the position of United Kingdom’s poet laureate because there had never been a woman in the role.

Famous Poems

• ‘Havisham’is a brilliant retelling of the life of the famous character by the same name in Dickens’ Great Expectations. Rather than depicting her as a depressing, and sometimes slightly scary spinster, she is a powerful woman who has no desire to mourn the man she lost. The poem contains humorous elements as well as a strong feminist message.
• ‘Mrs. Midas’ is another retelling of a character’s life. This time it is the wife of the mythological King Midas from Ovid’s Metamorphoses speaking. Mrs. Midas is immediately irritated by her husband’s newfound abilities and ends up having to throw him out of the house. He depressingly goes to live in the woods, where she can barely stand to visit him.
• ‘Nostalgia’ considers the importance of language, the meaning of the word “nostalgia” and the emotions associated with it. Through the poem, Duffy is asking the reader to consider when they first knew what nostalgia was and how it is present in their own life.
• ‘Prayer’is another emotional piece. This time, it is about how one confronts the world in times of need. Prayer is one way of dealing with the difficulties of life. In this text, Duffy gives examples of the vibrant forms it can take. It emanates from unusual sources. Such as the chanting of trains and the “minims sung by a tree.” These are the gifts that give the world order and our lives meaning.
• ‘Anne Hathaway’investigates the life of Shakespeare’s wife of the same name. Anne is the speaker of the text and it is through her that the reader gets an intimate look at the Bard’s life. This piece is sweet, moving, and filled with figurative language. She compares his writing to beautiful things, like shooting stars. His touch is just as powerful to her as his written words.

Early Life

Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow, Scotland, in December 1955. Her family was Roman Catholic and lived in a poorer region of the city of Glasgow called Gorbals. It was in this area that her father, Frank Duffy, worked as an electrician and lived alongside her mother, Mary Black. Duffy was the first of five children, all of whom,asidefrom the writer, were boys.

In 1961, when Duffy was still young, the family moved to Stafford, England. She began her education the following year at Saint Austin’s RC Primary School. Duffy was there until 1967 when she moved to Joseph’s Convent School. It was at St. Joseph’s that her passion for literature first fully emerged. She had always been a passionate reader and writer, but with the encouragement of important instructors, she concluded that she wanted to become a writer. Her first poems were written when she was only eleven years old.

Literary Career

In 1974, Duffy began a degree in philosophy at the University of Liverpool. She graduated in 1977 with honors. It was only six years later that she won the National Poetry Competition forWhoever She Was,as well as the Greenwich Poetry Competition for ‘Words of Absolution.’The following year saw her begin work as a poetry critic forThe Guardian.She only worked there for a year before moving on toAmbit,where she was the editor.

The late 80s and early 90s saw Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry continue to win awards; these included the Scottish Arts Council Award for her collection,Standing Female Nude,published in 1985, and the Somerset Maugham Award for her 1987 collection,Selling Manhattan.These were followed by the Dylan Thomas Prize in 1989 and the Lannan Award in 1995. This year also saw the birth of her daughter, Ella. Throughout the 80s, she had a number of plays performed at the Liverpool Play House as well as a theatre in London. These includeTake My HusbandandCavern of Dreams.

She continued to publish throughout the late 20th century. She released a variety of collections and was included in and edited numerous anthologies. She also publishedGrimm TalesandMore Grimm Tales,a collection of plays for children, as well asThe Oldest Girl in the World,a book of children’s poetry. Other works targeting children were “To the Moon: AnAnthology of Lunar Poems” and “Dorothy Wordsworth’s Christmas Birthday.” The poet wrote and continues to write picture books for children.

In Recent Years…

In 2005, she won the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize for her poetry collection,Rapture,which is considered one of her most important volumes. It is said to detail the long-term relationship the poet held withScottish poet Jackie Kay, which ended in 2004. The same year she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Heriot-Watt University. More recently, she was named an Honorary Fellow of the British Academy.

Influence from other Poets

Carol Ann Duffy was notably influenced by writers such asPablo Neruda,Aimé Césaire,William Wordsworth,T.S. Eliot, andRobert Browning.

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