1. Comparisons in Duffy’s Poetry

2. Compare Themes across the Volumes
Standing Female Nude (1985)
Selling Manhattan (1987)
The Other Country (1990)
Mean Time
(1993)

3. Comparison between Poems
Similarities/Differences
Categories
- Theme
- Message/Ideas/Purpose
- Atmosphere/Tone/Mood
- Form/Structure
- Techniques/Style

4. 2009
Analyse Duffy’s poetic treatment of the past in Originally, The Captain of the 1964 “Top of the Form” Team and Litany.

5. 2006
“Duffy’s character studies – the affectionate, the gently ironic, the bitingly satirical – always impress with the firmness of the poet’s control of tone.” Discuss with reference to three or four poems.

6. “In Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry, language is expressive of estrangement, but also of a constant reaching out into the phenomenal world.” Discuss three or four poems in light of this statement.

7. “Carol Ann Duffy’s interest in a reclamation of the self through memory, and her desire to reconstruct that self through a nostalgic recognition of a state, before language, that can never be articulated, or reclaimed, become a temporary escape from the world which she encounters.” Discuss three or four poems in light of this statement.

8. Process of Planning & Comparison
STAGE 1:
Identify possible poems and select most appropriate

9. Process of Planning & Comparison
STAGE 2:
Consider, holistically, Duffy’s treatment/purpose in relation to the focus of the task

10. Process of Planning & Comparison
STAGE 3:
Pinpoint individual take/slant of each poem – look for nuances in meaning/purpose
(this combined with stage 2 creates line of argument)

11. Process of Planning & Comparison
STAGE 4:
Look for major areas of comparison = structural sections of argument
(larger techniques/areas of poems – what Duffy does/uses to convey message)

12. Process of Planning & Comparison
STAGE 5:
Narrow down each to consider specific use in individual poems
(Key quotations/textual reference & areas of comparison/difference)