Product Description

The author is the winner of the Forward Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award 1993. In her fourth collection, Carol Ann Duffy dramatizes scenes from childhood, adolescence and adulthood, finding moments of grace or consolation in memory, love and language amid the complexities of life. These are powerful poems of loss, betrayal and desire.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #65439 in Books
• Published on: 1993-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 56 pages

About the Author
Carol Ann Duffy was born in Glasgow in 1955. Her awards include first prize in the 1983 National Poetry Competition; three Scottish Arts Council Book Awards; Eric Gregory, Somerset Maugham and Dylan Thomas Awards in Britain and a 1995 Lannan Literary Award in the USA. In 1993 she received the Forward Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award for her acclaimed fourth collection 'Mean Time'. The anthologies she has edited include 'Anvil New Poets 2' and two for teenagers, 'I Wouldn't Thank You for a Valentine' and 'Stopping for Death'. Her 'Selected Poems' is published by Penguin; her most recent collections 'The World's Wife' and 'Feminine Gospels' are published by Picador.

Customer Reviews

A fantastic collection of poetic genius.
As an A level english lit student I was overjoyed when handed this collection as my set poetic text. I was especially interested in the way that Duffy looks at memory processes in this collection. She seems not only to be interested in what aspects of the past she looks at but how she achieves the thought.
A great poem is "Cafe Royal" Which depicts a young man wishing he could go back in time and save Oscar Wilde from his fate in prison. "Before you were mine" is also equally brilliant. Duffy addresses so many lifestyles and situations in this collection it is almost impossible for it not to relate in some way to every reader. A massive thumbs up!

Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy, A Personal Perspective
Let me begin by saying that Carol Ann Duffy is a poetic genius. She stands alone in the world of poetry with an extreme confidence to tackle taboo subjects such as sex and disease etc. which other poets wouldn't dare speak about. For example; in 'Litany' Duffy speaks of subjects that others don't tend to speak of, in standard, conventional poems.

"where no one has cancer, or sex, or debts, and certainly not leukaemia , which no one could spell"

Some people may assume that Duffy's work represents the pessimistic views of today's society, but in my opinion, the way you interpret the poets is a personal touch to the understanding of the poems. Duffy has an extreme talent for stimulating the imagination and creativity of her audiences.

'Mean Time' reflects life experiences by Duffy herself which she interpreted and condensed into an anthology of profound poems. My personal favourite from 'Mean Time' is 'Welltread' as it represents schools in a stereotypical way. For example; in every school there is always one teacher that purposely attempts to intimidate his students, the one person everyone is scared of. This poem also portrays how small situations, when you are young can stay with you for the rest of your life.

"Still smoudlering"

This anthology is for you if you enjoy reading poems that are profound and have meaning. Carol Ann Duffy does not specialise in romanticism like many other conventonal poets do, but down-to-earth, realistic situations, which everyone can relate to in some shape or form.

I honestly enjoyed analysing this anthology of poems for my English literature A-level, but if I weren't specialising in English, I would've read 'Mean Time' for pleasure anyway.

This anthology truly reflects Carol Ann Duffy best work, and is well worth the time and money.

Worth the Student Debt on its own
Some people meet the loves of their lives at University; some people find their best friend there. I found both: Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy.

Her writing has the perfect formula: brevity and impact; emotion and recognition. Duffy has a way of hitting you with a single word that leaves you quite breathless but it is the number of times one recognises oneself in her writing that is quite startling. Read this and you will say, "Yes, that is it, exactly, that is how it feels." Duffy knows; Duffy understands...

Mean Time will live with me, on my shelf, and in my head. This is Duffy at her best.