Carol Ann Duffy

Education for Leisure

terms• Colloquialism: in a conversational manner that may

include slang: • Connotations: emotional association a reader has

for a certain word:– God …. in Education it has a – connotation not as

creator but destroyer.

Allusion: reference to other literary works• Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at

beginning of sentences; • Assonance: repetition of same vowel sound

– : open, broken; remembered, tendered

• Consonance: identical consonant sound at end of word preceded by different vowel: – Home, same, breath, worth

Dramatic Situation• Dramatic monologue• Speaker is a young adolescent male who is

bored and tired of being ignored, overlooked. He wants attention in the worst way…by committing Violence, playing god, causing destruction and fear as a means of feeling powerful.

• Speaking to the reader• Tone is sinister: Today I am going to kill

something• Tone is also ironic: contrast between the

speaker’s view of himself and reality.

Structure• Regular lined verses

– Five stanzas - four lines each

• Poem moves from a threat to action• Builds tension with escalating images of

violence• Syntax: Short “jabbing” sentences. …Why? • Other lines that are more lyrical

– Line 4– Last line

STRUCTURE• Punctuation

– Use of end stops and enjambment.

Title?

Ironic. Leisure of the unemployed, the drop outs, the underclass. Time on their hands because they have either dropped out of school or have been expelled.

Language

• Colloquial diction, slang• direct address at end• Connotation of the word “genius”

– We usually associate the word with creativity, but here word is used with irony. Not as bright as he thinks. Irony of a poor education

– . “God”: association of omnipresent being who created the world, but here used to show how speaker takes joy in destruction: “I see that it is good.” Capable only of destruction, not creation

Language

Imagery:

Grey with boredom [day]

Pavements Glitter:

Interesting contrast. Glitter with what?

(blood, something to do?)

language

• Allusion to Gloucester’s line in King Lear.(WHY?)

• Image of fly being squashed• Another Language. ( death vs language of

art)• Ironic humor to show discrepancy

between speaker’s egotistical view of himself and our view of him.

Musical Devices?

• Unrhymed free verse• Non-metrical (pattern of stressed and

unstressed syllables.)• Except for some Iambic meter in lyrical

lines (line 4 and last line) (yearning)• Flat, plodding rhythm…reinforces the

monotony of his life.

Thesis• Duffy

uses______________,___________,• and__________________to

show_________________________.

• Duffy uses colloquial diction, allusions to God, and a threatening tone to dramatize the increasingly violent actions of a frustrated and disenfranchised youth.

War Photographer

• From Duffy’s first collection: Standing Female Nude 1985

War Photographer

• The poem comes from Duffy’s friendship with Don McCullin and Philip Jones Griffiths, two well-respected stills photographers who specialised in war photography.

• Duffy is fascinated by what makes someone do such a job and how they feel about being in situations where a choice often has to be made between recording horrific events, and helping.

Vietnam War

Vietnam

Iraq, 2005

Iran, 1979

War Photographer

Terms:Alliteration: repetition of (usually) consonant sounds at the beginning of a sentence. Big Bad BearConnotation: the emotional association we have with a word.Caesura: a pause within a line of poetry. Used for dramatic effect, or to create tension, surpriseDiction: word choice (contributes to tone)Imagery: use of figurative language to create images in mind of reader

Structure• 4 stanzas• 6 lines per stanza• Regular rhyme scheme – ABBCDD, etc.WHY?• Imposes order in the chaos of war• Like the photographer – order with the photos,

making sense of the chaos• Syntax: short sentences. Serious approach to

work. Focused• Punctuation?

– End stops at the end of each stanza– In the middle of each stanza creating a

caesure– A pause. Why

• Perhaps to signify how war brings a sudden break to our lives.

In his darkroom he is finally alonewith spools of suffering set out in ordered rows. The only light is red and softly glows,as though this were a church and hea priest preparing to intone a Mass.Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

Make notes on the structure of the first verse

Is this continued throughout? Why?

• In his darkroom he is finally alone

• with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.

• The only light is red and softly glows,

• as though this were a church and he

• a priest preparing to atone a Mass.

• Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

In his darkroom he is finally alone

with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.

The only light is red and softly glows,

as though this were a church and he

a priest preparing to atone a Mass.

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.

alliteration – what is the effect?

What are the connotations of the colours?

1. regularity/order – reflects structure

2. Suggestion of graves/bodies

Litany of horror; what is the effect of the caesura?

Isaiah 40:6 – shortness of life

Simile – reverence and devotion to the pictures

Contrast to what?

He has a job to do. Solutions slop in trays

beneath his hands which did not tremble then

though seem to now. Rural England. Home again

to ordinary pain which simple weather can dispel,

to fields which don’t explode beneath the feet

of running children in nightmare heat.

Ambiguity – chemicals/solutions to war

Implies carelessness

Why did they not tremble then? Why now?

True meaning to the poem - contrast

Cannot compare to pain of war

Contrast: barefoot children running in grass for fun/those running from war – end of innocence and, possibly, life.

Suggests idyllic life

Something is happening. A stranger’s features

faintly start to twist before his eyes,

a half-formed ghost. He remembers the cries

of this man’s wife, how he sought approval

Without words to do what someone must

and how the blood stained into foreign dust.

Ambiguous: Literal – developing the photo. Figurative – person in pain

Metaphor – 1. image on photo, 2. death

Photographer’s dilemma – has a job to do.

A hundred agonies in black-and-white

from which his editor will pick out five or six

for Sunday’s supplement. The reader’s eyeballs prick

with tears between the bath and pre-lunch beers.

From the aeroplane he stares impassively at where

He earns his living and they do not care.

1. Photo

2. Good/evil

3. Truth/lies

Chooses photos to suit the article; don’t convey the full horror of war

Trivialises; we are only moved momentarily

Who are they?

Suggests they are used for entertainment

Contrast to war zone

En route to another assignment; poem is cyclical; unceasing wars

Discussion Points

• How do you think this photographer feels about their job? Pride or guilt?

• How do you think Duffy feels towards the newspaper editors?

• What does Duffy seem to be suggesting about the way the readers react to seeing these images?

• What is Duffy trying to point out about life in Britain compared to Beirut etc?

• Themes?

Diction

• Which words or phrases seem significant in contributing to the tone of the poem?

• For example alone…in first stanza• Suggests isolation, detachment.

Theme?

• Effects of war• Shows trauma caused by witnessing

tragedy, horrors of war.• Juxtaposition of photographer’s inner

conflict, (being impassive, objective among such horror) and the public’s fleeting interest and lack of concern for such events..

• Think about how Duffy uses certain literary devices; for what effect?

• For example, in “War Photographer,” Duffy uses rhyme scheme to impose order on a chaotic world.

• The alliteration of Belfast. Beruit. Phnom Penh is a harsh sound, suggestive of bombs or bullets.

• Also, the caesura created between each city creates a pause, similar to a sacred recitation or prayer for the dead.

Reviw your Thesis-revise

How does author +verb+ lit. feature+ verb+lit. effect + why.War Photographer• Duffy uses________, ______, and ______ to

reveal_______________.

• Write it down and share with class. turn it in.

Thesis example

• Duffy uses a regular rhyme scheme, a shifting tone, and the contrasting imagery of war and rural England to reveal the cyclical nature of conflict and the impassivity that some feel toward others’ suffering.

Begin Commentary

• Paragraph• First line states poet and poem and explains what the poem is about.Briefly Mention Structure and why it is important• Insert your thesis here with two-three salient

features• State first lit. device in thesis and give example

of how it is used and to what effect?cite line for evidence.

• Transition to next example

Commentary

• Use formal third person • Need to focus on literary devices and how

they contribute to the meaning of the poem.

Comments on commentaryCommentaries need to be a a paragraph, not a list of observations. Must be specificSome imagery is used to show ….

Which imagery?

State how features are used:

Syntax is regular? – Why? How does fit poem?

\

Commentary continued

• Commentaries should have a thesis:• How does author +verb+ lit. feature+

verb+lit. effect + why.

• In the poem Mrs. Aesop, Carol Ann Duffy uses a sarcastic tone and humorous allusions to Aesop’s Fables to show the wife’s discontent in her marriage and to depict her husband as an unoriginal bore.

• Don’t refer to persona in poem as

narrator. It is a speaker

• Avoid empty phrases: It seems to me, in my opinion, interesting to note. They don’t add to commentary. They only take up space.

“I have no choice.” Different interpretations here, but the artist might mean 1. needs $. 2. must paint because he loves it. It is what he does

Stealing: central questions

• Why does Duffy use a contrast of colloquial and poetic diction? What is the effect?

• Discuss the central image of the snowman in the poem. How does Duffy use it?

• Colloquialism: in a conversational manner that may include slang:

• Connotations: emotional association a reader has for a certain word:

• Alliteration: repetition of consonant sounds at beginning of sentences;

• Assonance: repetition of same vowel sound– : open, broken; remembered, tendered

What is the dramatic situation?

Stealing• Dramatic Monologue• Angry tone • Speaker? Who is he talking to?

Structure

• 5 stanza-5lined regular verse.• Unrhymed and irregular in meter. • Begins and ends with question. Nothing unusual about syntaxStanzas control the poem…keep it from spilling over. Contains the energy

Language

• Slang: “Better off dead.”• One word sentences • Lyrical lines: “A tall white mute/beneth the

winter moon.” Why?• Sharp violent verbs: piercing my gut

– Slice of ice. Why?

language

• Metaphor: snowman, Why significant?• Simile: “ a mind as cold as the slice of ice

within my own brain. • Caesuras in the middle of the lines. Why

effective

Musical devices

• Internal rhyme: “I started with the head/ better off dead– Slice of ice

• Alliteration: ripped out in rags• Repetition: Again. Again.

• Assonance: mute, moon, mats, mind:

Thesis

• Duffy uses a contrast of colloquial and poetic diction, winter imagery, and the use of caesuras to create a belligerent tone of a young misfit who years for something better.

Standing Female Nude

• Title Poem of her first Collection of poetry: Standing Female Nude

– 1985

PicassoStanding Female Nude

The Grand Nude; 1908Gorges Braque 1892-1963

• Who has more power in this poem?• What is Duffy saying about art?

Think about Power, Gender and class struggles, the male

gaze• Line breaks emphasize ideas, contrasts and juxtapositions.

• Why in the last stanza do we have two one word lines? What do they represent or support?

• Finished… enjambment: line continues just as the work seems to never end.

Tone?

• Cynical tone of a prostitute who poses for money.

• “The bourgeoisie will coo…– Inequality of the classes– She stands for 6 hours for a few francs– Poem ends on the mention of francs also.

Me• Reassertion of the model’s

individualism.• “Finished …..me.” Two lines stick out

and form their own thought• Speaks also to the artist’s

transformation of model into an unrecognizable version of herself.

Francis Bacon painting breaks new record

• Sold last year for record breaking price of $142,405,000 sold in 6 minutes

How to talk about punctuation:

• The phrase “Belly nipple arse” lacks punctuation which shows that she is being looked at as an overall item, not for her individual attributes.

• This enjambment creates a broken rhythm to the poem that relates to the poverty of the model.

Literary Features?

• Duffy uses ___________, ____________, and ___________

• To convey both the ____________ and the _______________________

Student Thesis

• Duffy uses a lack of punctuation, a cynical tone, and enjambment to illustrate the deception behind the ideals of art; it is not a free, truthful medium, but rather a business and industry in which the subjects have little power to define themselves.

Some thoughts on structure• Duffy likes regular lined stanzas• “I found that [Stealing] fell naturally (as

most of my poems do) into regular-lined verses- in this case, 5 5-lined verses. The verses are unrhymed and irregular in meter. These free verses work for me like small canvasses to hold the words of the poem. They help to control the rhythm of the poem… ”

For Monday (commentary on SFN)• Shooting Stars

• Annotate poem. Use different colors highlighters or pencils. If you don’t have that use boxes, circles and underlines.

• One color for images• One color for diction (words that seem

carefully chosen for effect• Punctuation• Write a working Thesis at the bottom or top

of page.. Don’t write a commentary until after we discuss it on Monday

agenda

• Commments on commentary• Shooting Stars

More Poetry terms

A caesura is a strong pause within a line, and is often found alongside enjambment.

Shooting Stars

Terms

Anaphora: the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.

Euphemism: mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

Spoonerism: transposing first letter of sequential words “ragged gape”

• Connotation: the emotional association of a word

• Denotation: dictionary meaning• Enjambment: the running over from one

line to another used to disrupt the reader by breaking up thoughts. This can emphasize certain points the poet wants to make, which in turn emphasizes specific ideas or themes.

6 Groups: one per stanza 8 minutes

--In group, FIrst Reflect on title: discuss denotations and connotations.

--- what is the dramatic situation and how is it demonstrated through structure ( form, movement, end-stopped lines: enjambment)/ Why 6 Stanzas?

--- Who is the speaker?

Groups will present their stanza discuss the following: in six minutes (BE SUCCINCT. Make point and move on you only have 8 minutes in oral for entire poem.)

-- What is the significance of the images and how do they contribute to theme[s]?

5: What type of diction is used, what tone is created, and how does it support theme or action of poem?

6 Discuss use of punctuation and how it supports theme or poet’s intention.

Shooting Stars

After I no longer speak they break our fingers to salvage my wedding ring.

Rebecca Rachel Ruth Aaron Emmanuel David, stars on all our brows Beneath the

gaze of men with guns. Mourn for our daughters,

upright as statues, brave. You would not look at me. You waited for

the bullet. Fell. I say, Remember. Remember these appalling days which make

the world

forever bad. One saw I was alive. Loosened

his belt. My bowels opened in a ragged gape of fear. Between the gap of corpses I could

see a child. The soldiers laughed. Only a matter of days separate this from acts of

torture now. They shot her in the eye.

How would you prepare to die, on a perfect April evening with young men

gossiping and smoking by the graves? My bare feet felt the earth and urine trickled down

my legs. I heard the click. Not yet. A trick.

After immense suffering someone takes tea on the lawn. After the terrible moans a boy

washes his uniform. After the history lesson children run to their toys the world turns in its

sleep the spades shovel soil Sara Ezra…

use of biblical diction elevates stanza to prayer

Sister, if seas part us, do you not consider me? Tell them I sang the ancient

psalms at dusk inside the wire and strong men wept. Turn thee unto me with mercy,

for I am desolate and lost.

Do not forget

Asks the world to be merciful The assonance of the of the O is a sorrowful sound

Persona• A strong woman( speaking from the grave?)

describing how the women were brave as statues.

• Ends with song (psalm 26-16) one of King David’s, pleads with God for deliverance from affliction, shame and death: ‘let not my enemies exult over me’ (verse 2).

• In the last stanza the speaker asks the world to be merciful.

Punctuation• Lack of commas between names to

show loss of individuality. • Elipses…. The names go on and on….• Rhetorical questions: How would you

prepare to die? Do you not consider me?

• 4th stanza: no commas…horror runs into the mundane

Shooting Stars

• Duffy uses sorrowful diction, violent imagery, and punctuation to show the indifference to human suffering during the Holocaust.

•

Warming Her Pearls Selling Manhattan. Copyright © 1987

Warming Her Pearls as group:

• Title?• Structure?• Context ( topic common to writer?)• Speaker?• Literal meaning?• Deeper Meaning? (can fill this out later)

Annotate by self only feature assigned

One member mark only aspects of structure and puncuation that seem significant.

One member mark important images (look for contasting images also and why they might support a theme)

One member Circle diction and Language that is significant (word choice)

One member mark sounds (musical devices)

Group Thesis becomes outline for a larger essay

• Intro• l Structure and punctuation• ll Diction• lll Imagery• lV musical devices

Terms

• Satire: A type of literature in which folly, evil or topical issues are held up to scorn through ridicule, irony or exaggeration.

• Euphemism: an inoffensive word or phrase substituted for one considered offensive or harmful.

From Duffy in The Guardian Book Club Feb 2012

• It appears alongside "Warming Her Pearls", a lesbian love poem in the voice of a lady's maid who fancies not the mistress's pearls but the mistress herself. I think what I was interested in at the time of writing these poems was in finding a language and imagery for the erotic and the hidden or secret. The pearls warmed by the pining servant's skin are, of course, a metaphor for her desire; but a poem is also like a pearl – a language-jewel provoked into existence by the grit of feeling or revelation.

Final comments Warming her pearls• Poem about a servant’s unrequited forbidden

love for her mistress• There is also the underlying theme of class

division:– Stanza 2: “Slack on my neck, her rope”– Structure of contained stanzas=different worlds of

maid and mistress• Last line: “I burn”- double meaning

– Both desire and resentment– Pearls as symbol of wealth and desire

A Healthy Meal (not)

• Satire on the dining habits of the rich

• How does the contrast in imagery of animals and people contribute to the irony of poem?

How do euphemisms in the poem reveal her theme?

The Dolphins

• How does structure resemble the theme of oppression or being trapped

• How does the unusual syntax contribute to the movement and theme of poem?

Activity: Step 1 10 minutes

• 1. Meet in groups to discuss assigned poem.

• 2. Identify poetic devices and how they are used: what is their effect?

• 3. Come up with thesis statement

Step 2 10 Minutes

• The two youngest students in group move to next group. (5 minutes)

• Teach your poem to the home team– 5 minutes

• Home team teach visiting team – 5 minutes

Step 3 10 minutes

• Same traveling team travel to next group• deliver a 5 minute oral to the person across

from you. Use your cheat cheat if it helps.

Opening comments for Oral

• General comments of poem: Title, poet, context (collection)

• Structure: Duffy uses…• What is it about? Literal meaning

– Identify dramatic situation The speaker. Is it a dramatic monolgue? Be clear with pronouns. She? Duffy? Or the speaker

• Deeper meaning? Say one or two sentences here.• Thesis

• Continue with analysis. Be sure to cite lines when you discuss literary devices and their effects

Approaches for oral1 Stanza by Stanza

2 Or by most obvious literary features in poem stated in thesis

3 (Dramatic situation, structure, Language, musical devices

• Make sure you are relating back to thesis,

literary effect and poet’s intent.

Evidence for Thesis

• 5-8 items Author uses______to (show, illustrate, portray)– State line number say the line and explain how it

connects to thesis, or poem’s theme. ( “In line 6, stanza 2 Duffy alludes to King Lear: say line”.)

– Explain the literary effect (“Duffy uses allusion in stanza two in order to show the alienation of this young man from his education.”)

– Move to next example

The Dolphin

• What are the most notable poetic features of this poem?

• Make list on board• Circle the four most important• How to organize

• The Dolphins by Carol Ann Duffy

World is what you swim in, or dance, it is simple.

We are in our element but we are not free.

Outside this world you cannot breathe for long.

The other has my shape. The other’s movement

forms my thoughts. And also mine. There is a man

and there are hoops. There is a constant flowing guilt.

We have found no truth in these waters,

no explanations tremble on our flesh.

We were blessed and now we are not blessed.

After travelling such space for days we began

to translate. It was the same space. It is

the same space always and above it is the man.

And now we are no longer blessed, for the world

will not deepen to dream in. The other knows

and out of love reflects me for myself.

We see our silver skin flash by like memory

of somewhere else. There is a coloured ball

we have to balance till the man has disappeared.

The moon has disappeared. We circle well-worn grooves

of water on a single note. Music of loss forever

from the other's heart which turns my own to stone.

There is a plastic toy. There is no hope. We sink

to the limits of this pool until the whistle blows.

There is a man and our mind knows we will die here.

Group Thesis becomes outline for a larger essay

• Intro• l Structure and punctuation• ll Diction• lll Imagery• lV musical devices

Organize by features

• I will discuss each feature and how they are present in each stanza.

• My Thesis:• In “The Dolphins” Duffy uses regular lined

structure, unusual syntax, repetition and imagery of loss to create pathos for the dolphins whose world has been reduced to an artificial pool.

The Dolphins Organize by features Topic Sentences

1 Syntax is irregular to show how their world has been changed.,

– “World is what you live in.” The Object (world) becomes the subject

– Short sentences =flat tone

2 Repetition is used to reinforce the loss of freedom and repetitive nature of their captivity. (world, man, space, blessed, disappeared)

– Reinforces the repetitive motion of – swimming in circles

3 Imagery of loss is shown through concrete images and metaphor

5. Additional features: assonance, sorrowful tone,

A Healthy Meal

- connotations of people- Capped teeth chatter- Woman chewing - Fine seat bastes his face - Meat flops in jowls (internal rhyme jowls

+ connotations animals-juxtaposed with cooking term

• Secret dreams of cows/ tossed• Swish of oxtails/languished• Breast/flew• Language of tongues/braised+ connotations of animals• Duffy uses contrasting diction, a satirical tone

and gastronomical imagery to reveal the human greed and cruelty against animals.

Literary terms to look for

• Metaphor: comparison between two disimilar things that share a common trait.

• Movement. The overall progression of the poem. How does is move from start to finish and through time?

Moments of Grace: about time time and memory. Discussion of senses and how they pull us into the past, as well as bring us back into the present…”Now I smell you peeling an orange.:Blessings and grace; religious diction to honor those moments of memory and present time.

Flowchart is used as Intro

• write an introduction paragraph, followed by thesis

• Title?• Structure?• Context ( topic common to writer?)• Speaker?• Literal meaning?• Deeper Meaning• Then thesis

Procedure • Read poem• As a group Identify all poetic devices and

their contribution to the theme in your stanza.

• Effect.• Start with connotations of title.• Who is speaker? What is it about?• Share out with class

Practice Oral intro:

• Intro• Title?• Structure?• Context ( topic common to writer?)• Speaker?• Literal meaning?• Deeper Meaning? Thesis• Commentary:

– Dramatic situation– Structure– Language– Musical devices