In ‘The Crown’, Carol Ann Duffy explores the prestige and catalogue of duties entailed by queenship through an extended description of a crown. Whilst it cannot be denied that monarchy in the poem is presented as deserving of both awe and respect,...

Carol Ann Duffy’s sinister dramatic monologue, Havisham, is a skillful interpretation of one of literature’s most infamous women. Throughout the text, Duffy deals with the idea of conflict – both in Havisham’s relationship with men and with...

Each of these poems comprise of motifs prevalent throughout Duffy's anthology, 'Mean Time'. Mortality and nostalgia are exemplified, in which Duffy often writes about –with love, with heartfelt feeling but never with sentimentality, and she...

In both McEwan’s Atonement and many of Carol Ann Duffy’s love poems, the use of postmodernist devices such as self-reflexivity and intertextuality aid in the exploration of their ideas and the pertinence of questions their work raises. James Wood...

Within both The Handmaid’s Tale and Feminine Gospels, the concept of loss is proven to be prevalent, as a determining role amongst the two pieces of literature. Duffy and Atwood present this idea particularly in regard to the loss of voice,...

“Many of Duffy’s poems echo themes of Larkin’s… loneliness haunts her verse.” This belief clearly expressed by Jody Allen Randolph demonstrates that both poets address negative and lonely themes within their respective poems. The concept of...

Larkin and Duffy are well renowned for their respective styles and have frequently been compared due to the overlap of themes to which they explore and the huge contrast in the ways in which they do so. This can be seen through their exploration...