1. ‘Loud’
How does Duffy’s poem ‘Loud’ express a female response to global conflict and suffering?
On your tables: Share your personal responses to this poem. What do you think Duffy is trying to communicate?

2. Central to this poem is the blame the Duffy places on organised religion for global conflict.
The poem opens with a woman ‘finding their voice’ - finding some personal control.
The poem presents the argument that the righteous rage of an individual woman is, in fact, a kind of force of nature. A method of control in a chaotic and damaged world.
Conflict and its destruction of society is explored and Duffy’s response to the injustice in the world.
Loud attempts to rise above conflict in order to find some method of control through voice – it also explores the feelings of loss of control and a voice unheard.
This poem presents again the magnification of a metaphor seen in other poems - growing taller, louder or dieting to non-existence. This presents a manifesto that a quality of the feminine it its capacity for infinite focus – to follow vocation or instinct to the ultimate degree.
Ideas to consider
Quote that prefaces the poem – taken form The Guardian in October It is about the US bombing of Afghanistan. The article reports on the appalling circumstances of deaths caused by the US military.
Epigraph:
“Parents with mutilated children have been turned away from the empty hospital and told to hire smugglers to take them across the border to Quetta, a Pakistani frontier city at least six hours away by car”

3. In your books – what are the key AO2 features of this poem
In your books – what are the key AO2 features of this poem? Use your terminology!
Onomatopoeia
Metaphor
Simile
Violent verbs
Contrast – past and present
Internal rhyme
Personification
Alliteration, sibilance, assonance
Listing
Repetition/ polyptoton
Now, ensure all of these are identified and annotated next to key quotations.
What are the effects created by these devices? What is Duffy trying to achieve in this reactionary protest poem?

4. Top 5 quotations – but why
Top 5 quotations – but why? Tell your partner why these quotations might be so important. Add further ideas on AO1 and 2 to your notes.
“One day her voice ripped out of throat/ like a firework” (stanza 1)
“Not any more. Now she could roar.” (stanza 2)
“Her scream was a huge bird” (stanza 4) AND “Her voice stomped through the city” (stanza 6)
“She howled till every noise in the world/ sang in the spit on the tip of her tongue” (stanza 7)
“loud, loud,/ louder the News.” (stanza 8/ end)

5. Highlight your AO in different colours (don’t forget to make a key!):
‘Modern literature explores the consequences of conflict and control on the individual.’ Compare the significance of conflict and control in the two texts you have studied. (Jan mock)
Evaluate/summarise: What are the consequences of conflict and control on the individual in ‘Loud’? How have these two things had an impact on her? How does this compare to the same thing in ‘Handmaids’?
Highlight your AO in different colours (don’t forget to make a key!):
AO1
AO2
AO3
AO4
AO5
Is each AO perceptive/assured? Coherent/thorough? Or Straightforward/relevant? Write next to each AO which best describes your work.
Discuss with your partner/agree your response.
Write it up in a succinct comparative paragraph, embedding quotations and some AO2 analysis. Remember, this is just one paragraph so you are highlighting 1-2 important ideas about the consequences/impact here.
Option ‘b’ focus on just ‘Loud’ first , then consider links to HT and write a second paragraph building in AO4.