After winning prizes such as the Signal Prize for Children’s Verse, the Forward Prize, and the T. S. Eliot Prize, becoming the poet laureate seemed like a natural move for Duffy. This collection has been eagerly awaited, and the standard presented in The Bees deems our anticipation most worthy.
Quality Exceeding Existing Volumes
I’ll admit it, I’ve not always been a fan of Carol Ann Duffy. So there was her The World’s Wife collection, which was undoubtedly a work of genius; witty, clever, and expertly executed. And a certain War Photographer poem studied at GCSE that has always ranked in my favourites. But on the whole, I’ve often found Duffy’s work to be hit and miss, with her artsy, abstract poems leaving me confused and unimpressed.
The Bees, however, is a collection that is breath-taking from start to finish. Duffy tackles many themes and ideas in the one collection, such as politics, family, nature, war - and all of it done with the not so distant hum of a bumble bee somewhere in the background.
Basic Forms Brought To Life
One of the first ‘big poetry words’ I learnt in English was ‘alliteration’. The simple bringing together of words with the same starting letter, creating an effective devise in poetry of all kinds. Then after five years of studying poetry, alliteration seemed dull and old, something childish to fall back on. But in The Bees, Duffy uses alliteration frequently, and rather than subtracting from her work, it adds a new flavour to poems that are free and unconstrained. From the simple “Here are my bees,/ brazen, blurs on paper,/ besotted; buzzwords” and “bled bad blood” found on the first few pages, to the poem Cockermouth and Workington (Page 55) that is almost entirely alliterative “No folk fled the flood,/ no flags furled or spirits failed.” Duffy uses alliteration and makes it grown up. She takes it to another level.
Duffy Takes On Current Issues
Addressing current subjects – be them much talked about or taboo – is something that Duffy does without trepidation. Her poem Big Ask (Page 9) tackles many such headliners: Barack Obama, Guantanamo Bay, Saddam Hussein. The ease with which such topics are dropped into her poetry brings a lightness to, in some cases, very serious subjects. Again in The Dead, (Page 70) Duffy mentions “hunger, earthquake, war, suicide bomber, tsunami.” These subjects are dealt with delicately, giving a big impact with few choice words: “We count the numbers.”
Inspired by the Robert Capa photograph, The Falling Soldier captures a solider at the moment of death. Duffy manages to amuse the reader in what is otherwise a sombre poem, by playing on the different ways a photograph can be taken on first glance. Has the solider been shot down dead, or is he doing an Elvis impression? At a time when the war in Iraq is still very much on our minds, Duffy’s light-hearted, yet truly heart-felt approach is both welcomed and appropriate. Again she uses simple statements to make a big impact. “The shadow you shed/ as you fall/ is, brother, your soul.”
In Passing-Bells (Page 80) another emotive statement on the topic of war starts the poem, “That moment when the soldier’s soul/ slipped through his wounds, seeped/ through the staunching fingers of his friend/ then, like a shadow, slid across a field/ to vanish, vanish.” Duffy addresses subjects that are current, relevant, and rather than them brushing us by as they do on the news, when we hear the same headlines day in day out, she makes them real. Makes her readers feel it.
Tragedy and Comedy Found in The Bees
Among the more serious poems, there is much lightness and humour to be found. Mrs Schofield’s GCSE (Page 15) is a witty poem that will amuse all who studied Shakespeare in school. It draws on several of his works, and involves exophoric references that many will recognise. Also, The Shirt (Page 18) is an entertaining piece that takes inspiration from the plight of a football player, living up to his aspirations.
Something Duffy does particularly well is giving a human voice to objects, such as in her poem Nile (Page 32). In this piece she gives a voice to the river Nile, making it seem living, breathing, “Cleopatra’s faint taste still on my old tongue.” Her poem The Woman in the Moon (Page 49) rings resemblance of her ‘World’s Wife’ collection, giving an unheard voice to the woman in the moon, “Darlings, what have you done, what have you done to the world?”
Feminine Theme Serves Most Evocative Poems
A theme touched on frequently in The Bees, and one that provides inspiration for the most moving poems, is theme of feminine presence in family. In the collection are several poems encircling the relationship between mother and daughter, some poems a tribute to Duffy’s own daughter, Ella, and also to her mother. Cold (Page 58) details experiences of freezing temperatures, ending with the profound line: “But nothing so cold as the February night I opened the door/ in the Chapel of Rest where my mother lay, either young, nor old,/ where my lips, returning her kiss to her brow, knew the meaning of cold.” The two emotions of immense love and great sadness combine in these earnest poems, creating beautiful, lasting images, brought to life by Duffy’s words.
In essence, The Bees is full of poetry that is striking and exquisite. There are little lines here and there that are just so delicately constructed, so beautifully crafted, that one would like to pluck them out into the air and frame them, just as they are. For example, “the last ounce of a hummingbird”, “my scrumptious cousin in Somerset/ with her cidery lilt” and “a bat hung like suicide” are just some of the lines one could easily choose as favourite. The physical book itself – baby blue with glittery gold honey-comb pattern – is undeniably beautiful, something you couldn’t help but picking out on the shelf. Carol Ann Duffy’s collection The Bees is nothing short of genius.
The Bees, by Carol Ann Duffy
84 pages
£14.99 on Amazon (released 7th October 2011)
ISBN: 978-0-330-442442
Celia Jenkins - Hello, my name is Celia Jenkins and I have just graduated with 1st class honours in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. I am a ...
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