Saturday 19 January 2013

The Bees by Carol Anne Duffy

This weeks books - the book I was supposed to finish, the book I actually finished and my newest book
This week I started Tom-All-Alone’s by Lynn Shepherd, and it is really good, but I haven’t finished it because of Les Misérables. Last Sunday I went to see Les Mis and I haven’t been able to stop singing and thinking about it long enough to finish Tom-All-Alone’s. Instead I took the cheat’s route and finished a book of poetry that I’ve had for ages (since last Christmas at least): The Bees by Carol Ann Duffy.


As with all Duffy’s poetry, there is a strong feminist tone to the poems in this collection, which is something I always enjoy, and a lot of the poems are about women  – her mother, her daughter, the woman in the moon. Unsurprisingly there are also a lot of bees in this collection, sometimes at the centre of the poem other times they just a minor detail. The blurb tells me that this is because: “the bee symbolises what we have left of grace in the world, and what is most precious and necessary to protect.” This reminded me of that quote about how we are all stuffed once the bees start disappearing (which they are) and there is definitely a strong environmental message in this collection as well. I don’t know how to talk about poetry without turning it into an essay so I will stop here.

In a nutshell : Poetry is good and this collection has a very pretty cover. 

Next week: Probably Tom-All-Alone’s. 

1 comment:

  1. I have not much to say about Carol Anne Duffy cause eeeek poems, BUT I am way interested in Delusions of Gender! *hint hint nudge nudge borrowy borrow*

    I hear ya on Les Mis though. I was SO into Ready Player One for like 2 days and then I saw Les Mis and was like 'ugh, I have to finish this book that isn't set in France and doesn't involve singing? WHUT?!' Sad times.

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