Rapture

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The Love Poem’ is about the difficulty of writing a love poem and that difficulties have been best depicted with the inception, or so to say with the introduction of verses from the past poems, composed by the famous poets of their time. Similar to the first stanza, this section also starts with the subordinate clause “Till love gives in and speaks”, which also shows the frustration of the poet towards the incapability of writing love poems by modern love poets, and makes us believe that the importance of “love” through these poems conveyed in the past, has faded away, or come to an end. I offer no resistance. I surrender to extravagant poetry and the stormy powers of love and sex, and leap into the element of which we are composed, and use every muscle in our souls to stay afloat within. From “River”: MILLY: So like, the idea of subverting things and, like, looking at something that has already been written.

RAPTURE COLLECTION (Carol Ann Duffy) POEM ANALYSIS FROM RAPTURE COLLECTION (Carol Ann Duffy)

Since the early 1980’s, Duffy has also worked as a playwright, having had her plays Take My Husband (1982), Cavern of Dreams (1984), Little Women, Big Boys (1986), Loss (1986), and Casanova (2007) published and performed in various theatres. CAROL: And it’s in a different context rather than the private world of the writer. What goes on in the poetry reading is a different thing.look in thy heart and write”, from Sir Philip Sidney’s ‘ Sonnet 1′ of the sonnet sequence “Astrophil and Stella”. the desire of the moth for the star” has been taken from ‘One Word is Too Often Profaned’ by Percy Bysshe Shelley. CAROL: So, it was a story I was very familiar with and I was playing around with retelling to see if I could do something fresh with it—

Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy - The Rumpus Rapture by Carol Ann Duffy - The Rumpus

In the fourth line, Duffy expands on her description so it isn’t just visual but draws on the sense of smell as well. This gives the emotions of the narrator a very visceral feel. She takes something that you would expect to smell sweet and ascribes it a negative scent which says a lot about the mindset of the narrator. The final line is enjambment. This is uncommon at the end of a stanza and creates a sense of awkwardness. Jane Dowson and Alice Entwhistle, ‘Dialogic politics in Carol Ann Duffy and others’ in A History of Twentieth-Century British Women’s Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005) Let me count the ways” from ‘Sonnet 43’ of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “ Sonnets from the Portuguese”,In Duffy’s poem the love she describes is fluctuating, romantic but also painful. Although it ultimately relates to a relationship on earth the religious hints are clearly present. For example, here, the poet has taken lines like “My mistress’ eyes” from Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 130′; “let me count the ways” from ‘ Sonnet 43’ by Elizabeth Barrett Browning; “come live with me”, from ‘ The Passionate Shepherd to his Love’ by Christopher Marlowe; “one hour with thee” from ‘An Hour with Thee’ by Walter Scott. I would love to know who she is so I could fall in love with her. Swim in oceanic waves of desire. Actually, I know her name and I am in love with her: Poetry. Duffy is a very brave poet. Only pop songs are braver in their use of repetition, and in "Finding the Words" she succeeds in making an ordinary "I love you" into something extraordinary. Only gameshow hosts are braver in their use of puns, and in "Fall" she rushes headlong through at least five meanings of the word, to end with another pun in "your passionate gravity". CAROL: Well, I don’t think . . . that it’s important that everyone writes. I think it’s important that everyone reads from a young age and then some of those readers will want to become writers. I think that it’s an enriching and civilising and very human part of life to be able to sing, to be able to paint, to play an instrument, to have a go at writing a poem, to read, to go to the theatre, and we’re very much in danger of those things in education withering on the vine or not being properly invested in. I’m not kind of saying that everyone has to write and be a poet, but I am saying that everyone should read poetry and hear poetry and have it as part of lives and some of those will want to grow up and be writers.