Rapture: Review

The poet laureate of Great Britain since 2009, Carol Ann Duffy is a particularly noteworthy writer as the first woman, Scott and first openly gay individual appointed to the role. Much of her work centres heavily on themes of love and relationships, possibly as a result of her own experiences as a homosexual writer constantly in the public eye, and nothing epitomises this more than her 2005 collection, Rapture. Comprised of 52 love poems, Duffy traces the course of a relationship from infatuation, through suspicion, heartache and finally to death in one of her most moving shows of literary talent to date. As the end of her time as Poet Laureate draws near, it seems only fitting that this, arguably one of her best collections (and winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize), should be brought into the spotlight once again.

Carol Ann Duffy
Photo via Wikimedia

In truth, not many people like reading poetry. It brings out the worst in writers: a pretentiousness not to be found in novels. They either sound childish if they rhyme, or try-hard intellectual if they don’t, and many people simply have great flashbacks to schoolboy English whenever poetry is mentioned. Yet Duffy speaks of human experience in a modern, accessible voice that doesn’t distance her readers and instead simply makes us believe she must have been spying on our private emotions, so accurate is she in expressing our hidden thoughts.

"Falling in love is glamorous as hell"

Rapture is much riskier than most of her earlier works: she maintains a profound sense of emotional detail across the story arc, whilst continuously altering between contrasting tone and structure. Whilst poems such as Quickdraw take on more humorous characteristics, “I wear the two, the mobile and the landline phones, / like guns, slung from the pockets on my hips”, she also explores love in such an incredibly pure and private way that it stays with you long after you have closed the back cover. Her use of the natural world places many of her poems in the realm of the fairy tale, but still there is such an evocation of raw emotion that it remains grounded in reality. She even includes a number of sonnets, altered in the Duffyesque way to twist the sense of love and romance into something almost unrecognisable.

"I found the words in the back of a draw, wrapped in black cloth."

Although the umbrella theme of love does provide a cohesion to the collection which makes it better read as a whole narrative, the poems themselves are still equally impressive read individually (although they might prove less punchy in this way).

Characterised by lyricism and use of bold imagery, Duffy’s writing is peppered with clever rhyme and a distinctively intelligent use of wordplay. Whilst still maintaining that crucial element of tradition, it is both modern and fresh; she plays with the languages of past and present to create something for any literary lover’s delight. And if you do sometimes have to work hard to unknot Duffy's sense, the unravelling rewards. Clear, candid and colourful with imagery, the feelings in these poems are tangible to any reader, without the gooiness of sentimentality.

"I want to call you thou, the sound of the shape of the start of a kiss – like this, thou."

One of the most beautiful pieces, The Love Poem contains phrases from well-known love poems of the past which help Duffy speak the rapture of her intense emotions. Love, she says, brings life and death. It’s tangled in the sheets of her passion. It’s framed in the picture of her loss. It darts from the page to stab the reader with understanding experience.

Duffy's collection is uplifting, sad and beyond lyrical, but more than that it knows the truth of love poems. The structure of her poems mimics the similar shakiness and reverence of love, and with references to great poets, Rapture is almost an ode to poetry in itself. An outstanding example of the Duffyesque style, the poet laureate undoubtedly convinces us that a song can be made from even the most painful episodes in our lives, and it is highly worth a read.

“No brief steam on the mirror there for a finger to smudge in a heart, an arrow, a name.”

Author: Carol Ann Duffy

Genre: Love Poetry
Publisher: Picador
Publication Date: 2005