Power, pearls and playgrounds at the Poetry Room

With many poetry laurels already to her crown, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy received perhaps the ultimate accolade this month:   the Poetry Room treatment!  New faces and old friends gathered at Blackwell’s bookshop – this time in their business department (!)- to discuss the Selected Poems. 

We started with Standing Female Nude.  The setting of the poem was discussed – it was noted that the Georges mentioned in the poem might suggest the artist Georges Braque, although this is never made specific.  A visual artist in the group commented that the lot of a contemporary life model is a happier one, thankfully, than that described in the poem.  One person found Duffy’s exploration of power clichéd but generally the poem was felt to be ground-breaking and beautifully achieved.  Its short effective lines were noted.  It was discussed how its themes were explored throughout Duffy’s work and how well the poem would have fitted into her later collection, which looks at issues of gender and power, The World’s Wife.  

Warming Her Pearls was warmly received for its tenderness and subtle eroticism.  It was suggested that the two women in the poem could also be considered as two halves of the same person – the real woman and the ‘made-up’ one.  Originally provided a change of pace from the persona poems.  The description of the narrator’s tongue ‘shedding its skin like a snake’ was much admired as was the poet’s clever use of line-breaks.

Our penultimate poem was In Mrs Tilscher’s Class which like Originally depicts a rite of passage.  The opening stanzas with their descriptions of windows being opened with long poles and skittles of milk took us all back, despite our varying ages, to a familiar infant classroom.  Someone noted the poem was a list poem.  Another person suggested this form was a natural progression from the poet’s use of short punchy lines.

Time – a preoccupation of Duffy’s was against us.  We had a quick look at the wonderful Away and See then we were gone into the night keen to ask the man holding the future his name.

On Tuesday 6 April from 6.15-8pm at Blackwell’s we will be looking at Don Paterson’s award-winning collection Rain. Do keep an eye out on this blog for the poems we will be looking at.  All, as ever, are very welcome.