Carol Ann Duffy Summary Revision Sheet 2 - 0

N5 and Higher: Scottish Text: Revision of Carol Ann Duffy selected poems
Poem
Persona
Key Ideas /
Themes
Striking Imagery /
Word Choice
Structure
Originally
Autobiographical
CAD as a young girl
Isolation
Childhood
Anxiety
Language
CAD explores what its
like to have your roots
ripped up like a child
All childhood is an
emigration
Some are slow,
Leaving you standing,
resigned
My parents anxiety
stirred like a loose
tooth
Shedding its skin like
a snake
Repetition
Home, Home
Love (but the rejection

of stereotypical ideas
about love)
Not a red rose or a

satin heart
Not a cute card or a
kissogram
It is a moon wrapped
in brown paper. It
promises light like the
careful undressing of
love
Its platinum loops
shrink to a wedding
ring
Lethal.
Its scent will cling to
your fingers,
Cling to your knife
Reader feels some

sympathy for the
persona
Valentine
Autobiographical
CAD speaks to her
partner
OR the poem could be
universal i.e. CAD is
speaking to everyone
who has been in love
Reader is taken aback
by the persona (as her
partner would have
been)
Love has both a

positive and a negative
side
Turning Point
Verse 3 begins with a
turning point as CAD
reflects upon the
experience she
describes in verses 1
and 2
Repetition
Not .
Not
I give you an onion
Turning Point
I am trying to be
truthful
War
Photographer
Havisham
Anne
Hathaway
CAD puts herself in the

shoes of a friend who is
a war photographer

shoes who was jilted
by her lover in Dickens
Great Expectations.
As a result Miss
Havisham stays in one
room with everything
decaying around her.
The reader is meant to
feel sympathy towards
Miss Havisham and
empathise with her
anger and upset
shoes of Shakespeares
wife who was left the
second best bed. She
explores what she
believes to be a
She considers the point

that the more suffering
one sees the more
hardened you become
to it
That men are bastards

The destructive power
of the loss of love and
hope
spools of suffering set

out in ordered rows
fields which dont
explode beneath the
feet of running children
in a nightmare heat
a half-formed ghost
A hundred agonies in
black and white
Ive dark green
pebbles for eyes
a red balloon bursting
in my face
The situation of women

in Victorian society
when they are
unmarried and lose
social status
I stabbed at a
wedding cake
That Shakespeare and

Hathaway experienced
a fulfilling loving
relationship
The bed we loved in

was a spinning
world
That like Havisham,
Give me a male
corpse for a long slow
honeymoon.
his touch a verb

dancing in the centre
Repetition
(none replace with
list and / or short
sentences)
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom
Penh. All flesh is grass.
Turning point
Something is
happening
Repetition
Dont think its only
the heart that b-b-bbreaks.
Short Sentences
Beloved sweetheart
bastard.
Spinster.
Bang.
Repetition
Romance and drama
played by touch, by
scent, by taste
sexually fulfilling
relationship on that
very bed to suggest
that Shakespeare
adored his wife.
Havisham is left by her

man but this time by
death
of a noun
Turning Point
Some nights I
dreamed hed written
me, the bed a page
beneath his writers
hands.
Some nights I
dreamed hes written
me
I hold him in the

casket of my widows
head as he held me
upon that next best
bed.
Mrs Midas
CAD takes on the

persona of the wife of
the King of Greek
legend suggesting
that the man was
selfish in wishing for
such a gift and in a
tongue in cheek way
shows how his selfish
choice impacted upon
their marriage to the
point where she left
him.
Man selfishness men

dont think through the
consequences
How like Havisham a
mans choice impacts
upon the woman who
is left she is the woman
who married the fool
who wished for gold.
he plucked a pear
from a branch we
grew Fondant
dAutomne and it sat
in his palm, like a
lightbulb.
Within seconds he
was spitting out the
teeth of the rich.
He was below, turning
the spare room into
the tomb of
Tutankhamun.
Note that the

structure / form of
this poem is a
sonnet appropriate
to Shakespeare who
was famous for his
sonnets and for the
theme of love
Repetition
he picked up the
glass, goblet, golden
chalice, drank.
I miss most, even
now, his hands, his
warm hands on my
skin, his touch.
Turning Point
It was then I started
to scream.
We were passionate
then, in those halcyon
days; unwrapping each
other, rapidly, like
presents, fast food.
But now I feared his
honeyed embrace, the
kiss that would turn
my lips to a work of
art.
Separate beds.
What gets me now is

not the idiocy or greed
but lack of thought for
me. Pure selfishness.

Carol Ann Duffy Summary Revision Sheet 2 - 0

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What is the central theme of the poem 'War Photographer'?

What is the central theme of the poem 'War Photographer'?

How does the poem 'Havisham' portray its title character?

How does the poem 'Havisham' portray its title character?

N5 and Higher: Scottish Text: Revision of Carol Ann Duffy selected poems

Love (but the rejection

Not a red rose or a

Reader feels some

Love has both a

CAD puts herself in the

CAD puts herself in the

She considers the point

That men are bastards

spools of suffering set

The situation of women

That Shakespeare and

The bed we loved in

That like Havisham,

his touch a verb

Havisham is left by her

I hold him in the

CAD takes on the

Man selfishness men

Note that the

What gets me now is

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