Feminine Gospels: Poems [Hardcover]

Carol Ann Duffy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 5, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0571211879 | ISBN-13: 978-0571211876

A new collection of poems ranging over the experience of women—historical and imagined, real-life and larger than life—from the award-winning author of The World’s Wife

From the sadness of Elizabeth I, looking back on her long and powerful but lonely life, to the travails of a woman whose work is literally never done as she continues to trawl the seas to feed her billion offspring, to a movingly lyrical reflection on the beauty of a growing child, Carol Ann Duffy explores in this volume the myriad components of women’s lives and loves through the crystallizing prism of poetry. Sometimes erotic and personal, sometimes historical and grand, sometimes witty and full of surprises, the poems in Feminine Gospels are all beautifully crafted works that are as varied in style as the poems in Duffy’s earlier acclaimed volume The World’s Wife. Together, they will challenge and entertain as they explore the fullness of the female condition through their author’s unique poetic voice.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

One of Britain's premiere poets here does what she does best, joining wild, surrealistic imagery and pointillist detail to create sharply realized, visionary poems. This collection emphasizes a frequent theme in Duffy's work: the power and complexity of feminine archetypes. Some of the characters who occupy these poems are familiar--Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe, the Virgin Mary, Elizabeth I--but more are Duffy's inventions, such as the woman whose hometown was etched like a tattoo across her body, and the woman who dieted herself down to microscopic size. Clever conceits all, but Duffy never settles for mere cleverness. Her poetic technique is sure and subtle: long, gamboling lines seem casual but scan as exacting iambic pentameter; word choices seem conversational but express internal rhymes. A masterful long poem in which the entire student body of a girls' school becomes convulsed with laughter and changes the teachers' lives shows Duffy's skill at its peak. Shorter lyrics, some erotic and others tender, round out a mature and compelling collection. Patricia Monaghan
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Review

"Carol Ann Duffy is at once lyrical and subversive, delightful and dangerous. No other poet I know occupies a place between such apparent contradictions."
--Billy Collins, Poet Laureate

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 80 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber (April 5, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571211879
• ISBN-13: 978-0571211876
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,308,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A slow start, on the whole this is an extraordinary collection of humorous, intelligent, beautiful poems. Recommended, June 12, 2009

By 

Juushika (Oregon, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Feminine Gospels (Hardcover)

A collection of 22 poems, Feminine Gospels can approximately be divided into: poems of sometimes comical feminine traits and archetypes, one long poem, and poems on women and metaphysical matters. It's a wide breadth for such a small book, all written in Duffy's sometimes-playful, sometimes-rhyming, empathetic language. The quality varies, but I believe the book gets better as it goes on. The archetypal poems didn't appeal to me, but the long poem, The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High, is brilliant and justifies the entire collection, and the denser, metaphysical poems that follow are all beautiful. Recommended.

Whether the poems are intentionally divided, I couldn't say--but there seems to be a clear difference between the thirds of the book. The first third explores the lives of beautiful women from Helen of Troy to Marilyn Monroe, a woman who diets herself down to almost nothing, a woman who's subbed for dozens of historical men's roles, and other stories of female traits (shopper, dieter) and archetypes (virgin, crone). Many of these poems share an irreverent, humorous tone; many of them mesh reality with fantastical events in a way that much reminds me of Atwood's The Edible Woman. Personally, I don't identity with any of these feminine archetypes, and I'm not a fan of humor--and so these poems, however skilfully written, left little impression on me. That may be a personal complaint, and other readers may have a better response to this section.

The Laughter of Stafford Girls' High follows. 20 times longer than the other selections, it's the story of laughter which infects a British girl's school, and it's word-perfect: Duffy's unexpected rhymes are an ideal match to the story's laughter and joy, and her voice also lends well to the remarkably sensitive emotional impact that the laughter has on the teachers. Joyous, liberating, empathetic, this long poem is well-rounded and a complete success--it alone justifies picking up this collection. The final third is made up of poems on words, umbilical cords, death, and love--more poetic, more metaphysical topics. Duffy's style curls in on itself, rich and dense; poems may require two or three readings, but they reward that effort: each a quiet, complex, metaphysical study, these poems are thoughtful and beautiful. So while this collection was initially not to my liking, it improves as it goes on and is by the end a distinct success. With such a wide breadth, there should be a poem here for every reader, and Feminine Gospels is a good place to begin with Duffy's work--I was fairly new to her poetry, and found this collection varied, approachable, and a joy to read. I recommend it.