Answer Carol Ann Duffy

Objectives  To explore the poet’s thoughts and feelings on unconditional love  To understand and be able to comment on language and structure in the poem

Starter  What is love? How can it be defined?  Are there different types of love?  Can love be unconditional?

Glossary Juxtaposition = when two ideas or images are placed side by side for direct comparison or contrast

Answer Read the poem through twice. The poem is about how the speaker would love her partner no matter what they did or looked like.

Title  The poem is called ‘Answer’. What does this suggest?  Why do they need an answer? What does this suggest to us about her lover?

Structure  What words are repeated throughout the poem?  The words ‘if’, ‘your’ and ‘yes,yes’ are repeated throughout the poem. The stanzas are always six lines long. This could suggest that love in a never ending cycle and impossible to break.

Figurative Language The poem is dominated by metaphors to explain how unconditional her love for her partner is. She tells us that no matter what the lover does or how they may look in the future, she will always love them.

Metaphor 1 ‘your kiss a fossil sealed up in your lips’ 1. What is the connotations of the word fossil? 2. What cold it mean that the kiss is sealed in his lips?

Metaphor 2 ‘Your head a wild Medusa hissing flame’ 1. Who was Medusa? 2. What does this image suggest to us about the partner’s love?

Your Turn Find two more metaphors in the poem (there are plenty) and comment on what they mean to you. You will share your ideas with the class so be prepared to justify them.

Personification In line 3 she describes the marble as being sightless. 1. Why is this a strange image in the first place? 2. What does she suggest could happen to her lover and that she would still love them?

Juxtaposition ‘Your breast a deep, dark lake nursing the drowned’ 1. What connotations do you have with breast and nursing? 2. What connotations do you have with deep, dark and drowned? 3. Why were these two images put together?

Earth, Fire, Water and Air These are the four elements that supposedly made up the world and they are repeated throughout the poem (earth is stone in this case), especially at the end. Why does she describe love as the four elements?

Death… What is the significance of line 29? What is she saying her partner could be and she would still love them?

Task How does the poet explore feeling of unconditional love in the poem, ‘Answer’? Make close reference to the poem to support your response.