She starved on, stayed in, stared in The Feminine Gospels was published in 2002. The final line of ‘The Diet’, ’trying to get out’ uses the gerund, present progressive tense. In this poem Duffy makes no mention of the expectations of society and doesn’t explain how or why the woman decided to diet. This poem deals with the fraught battle that some women have with their appearance and the damage that can be done by poor body image. This harsh use of sibilance is emblematic of the brutal impact the diet is having on the woman’s body, the sound cutting through the poem as the diet cuts through the woman’s weight. Thediet. Carol Ann Duffy likes the play of words. How a woman should look like, is a mere perception having no connection with reality. The Diet by Carol Ann Duffy Saturday, August 07, 2010 "In the world of British poetry, Carol Ann Duffy is a superstar" - The Guardian I saw this book, "The Feminine Gospels" in my sister's room and opened it randomly. Duffy uses this metaphor to expose the dangers of trying to live up to the expectation placed upon women and the unrealistic examples of body-types seen around the world. Please support this website by adding us to your whitelist in your ad blocker. In "The Diet," Carol Ann Duffy discusses some body image issues that women can experience. 'Beautiful' by Carol Ann Duffy Background info: Characters Cleopatra Helen of Troy - Cleopatra VII Philopator, known to history simply as "Cleopatra", was the last active pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, only shortly survived by her son, Caesarion as pharaoh. Subscribe to our mailing list to get the latest and greatest poetry updates. onto the greasy breast of a goose, opened wide, then She turns into just bones, ‘cheekbones, had guns for hips’, Duffy showing the process of wasting away. The poem “The Diet” by Carol Ann Duffy deals with women and body discipline, through the form of anorexia. Rep:? In the third stanza of ‘The Diet’, Duffy personifies ‘Anorexia’, presenting the woman as her ‘true daughter’, the use of ‘true’ insinuating the faithful obedience to the eating disorder. 137 writers online. Carol Ann Duffy - Poet Laureate 2009 -2019 . and bone. The poem begins by placing ‘The Diet’ as the central focus, Duffy instantly drawing attention to the extreme diet. She loved flesh and blood, wallowed The fifth stanza of ‘The Diet’ focuses on the metaphorical loss of control, the woman being ‘blown’ by the wind and taken away from her home. The connection of body semantics with harsh words is emblematic of the woman’s view of her own body, the blunt plosives reflecting the negative opinion the woman has over her body, represented through the semantics used. The first stanza takes away all weight that is humanly possible, with the rest of the poem sinking into unrealistic exaggeration. Form and structure. There is no rhyme scheme within the poem, although there are several cases of internal rhyme. By the age of 45, the average woman will have been on 61 diets since the age of 16. There is an Alice in Wonderland quality about the story in which the protagonist shrinks in size and embarks on journeys through tunnels and on the wind. But when she squatted the tip of a tongue, The semantics of freedom within ‘fly’, ‘floated’ and ‘breeze’ seems to suggest a positive change. It’s not only about women. blew her away. Tiny others She is a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Poet Laureate in May 2009, resigning in 2019. Although impacting men and women, even from this small statistic it is clear to see how much more dieting and looking a certain way is something on the mind of many women. Rating: 5/5. Start studying Carol Ann Duffy Critics. then it was carrots, peas, courgettes, potatoes. That’s why she “stayed near people”. No sugar, salt, dairy, fat, protein, starch or alcohol. Carol Ann Duffy - The Woman Who Shopped Lyrics | FAST DOWNLOAD. The tone is wry and ironic. What passed her lips? Jack is undertaking a degree in World Literature and joined the Poem Analysis team in 2019. Language and Imagery The diet industry (yes, industry) is a multi-billion dollar faculty, with the modern age only leading to further profit for corporations that base themselves within this area. She said: "What I was trying to do was use the idea of the gospel truth: in a sense the gospels are a tall story told as truth, so these Stanza one. Not a stitch. of a lip. The Map Woman is a poem that collates all of the ideas of one’s past, one’s present and one’s future into something that one can wear, like a piece of clothing. Structure in mud under fingernails, dossed in a fold of fat soured in the fridge, unsupped. About this resource. It is through advertising that we are able to contribute to charity. Duffy depicts eating disorders as a cage, with women unable to escape from the brutality of constant fasting or binging. ‘The Diet’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores the societal pressure placed on women to look a certain way, manifesting in the unhealthy abiding to diet regulations of the character woman. The login page will open in a new tab. For restraining herself ruthlessly, she became like a beast, desirous of only “flesh and blood”. Carol Ann Duffy’s The Map-Woman. The process of being thin is no doubt, caused her so much pain. Please log in again. Get a verified expert to help you with To what extent does Duffy present the body as a key aspect of femal identity . The self-imposed pressure to diet and achieve slimness can have terrible consequences — anorexia, personality change and spiritual diminution. Thank you! She becomes so frustrated that she can’t even get to her senses. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. Every single person that visits PoemAnalysis.com has helped contribute, so thank you for your support. The lines are uneven in length, with the final short sentence or phrase providing a sharp, pithy conclusion to each stanza that represents a stage of the story. From 3 hours. She lived in a tear, swam The internal rhyme furthers the speed of the meter, emblematic of the quick weight loss the woman is going through. Figuarative meaning = Insecurity within women. English Literature, Carol Ann Duffy, Feminine Gosples allstoriesrtrue Badges: 12. ‘The Diet’ by Carol Ann Duffy begins by outlining what the woman is going to cut out, removing essentially everything from her diet. Four hundred years of male domination came to an end today with the election of Carol Ann Duffy as poet laureate. The poem comprises eight free-verse stanzas of seven lines each. She woke alone, The final line of each stanza is shorter than the rest, always containing an end stop that bluntly ends each stanza. Then it was stilton, in the lining, hearing the avalanche munch of food, A PowerPoint guiding student through analysing Carol Ann Duffy's poem 'The Diet', part of the Feminine Gospels. The use of asyndeton within this list allows for the list to flow quickly, Duffy moving through food groups as if they were insignificant, reflecting the woman’s attitude towards food. Essays for Carol Ann Duffy: Poems. Conforming to society's demands in terms of body shapes results in unhappiness. Hire verified expert $35.80 for a 2-page paper. Y 2 g Duffy's Feminine Gospels: The Collection Written in 2002, Duffy dedicates her 21 poems to her brothers "Frank, Adrian, Eugene and Tim". The key technique used in Duffy’s ‘The Diet’ is a metaphor. in the caves of an ear. This was created as part of paper 2b: Texts in Shared Contexts: Modern Times: Literature from 1945 to the Present Day. head splitting, mouth dry, hungry and cold, and made the famous poems written by Carol Ann Duffy, In Mrs Tilscher’s Class By Carol Ann Duffy. She was all eyes, started to sing, down, out, nobody's love. An empty beer bottle rolled in the wardrobe fitted. Like ‘The Diet’, one of the famous poems written by Carol Ann Duffy, here is a list of some poems that talk about the theme of expectation vs reality. Air, In the modern world, people being in good shape is synonymous with being beautiful and glamorous. One reaches the extremes and the body sorrowfully suffers. joined in. then it was carrots, peas, courgettes, potatoes, We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously. Duffy splits ‘The Diet’ into 8 stanzas of 7 lines each. Especially in a modern-day reading with social media leading to body dysmorphia and widespread insecurity, Duffy’s Diet hits home. “She” can also represent all women who diet and suffer consequently. These are used to speed up the rhythm of the poem, pushing the woman ever-onward in her diet journey. 90% of people with eating disorders are female. Eating disorders are thankfully becoming more discussed within society, with Duffy using ‘The Diet’ to create a platform that explores the impacts of these disorders, presenting the chaos it can bring to an individual’s life. As the diet progresses, the woman begins to physically disappear. ‘The Diet’ by Carol Ann Duffy contains several themes. Apt. The use of asyndeton following this diet exposes the ridiculous nature of the fasting, the woman cutting out essentially everything, ‘sugar, salt, dairy, fat, protein, starch’ covering every single food group. Orders: 19 16 students ordered this very topic and got original papers. A Comparison of Before You Were Mine and Pluto; Men, Women, and Representation in Duffy's ‘The Worlds Wife’. It landed on this. The use of caesura following this phrase, ‘girl, a shadow, dwindling’ create a sense of melancholy, the woman unable to stop, shown through the connection of phrase. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy. Although the diet is realistic, the impacts are exaggerated, with the woman turning into a tiny ‘thimble’ sized woman who floats away. aged in the fruit bowl, untouched. chomped and chewed and gorged; inside the Fat Woman now, Dame Carol Ann Duffy DBE FRSL HonFBA HonFRSE (born 23 December 1955) is a British poet and playwright. The second stanza of ‘The Diet’ further the ‘slimmer’ journey of the dieting woman. By the end of week one, she was half a stone. You can read about 10 Heartfelt Poems about Depression here. with scrambled eggs, hot boiled ham, plum flan, frogs' The poet specifically talks about the illusion of physical beauty. Society creates this fading-definition of beauty from time to time and women get mad about keeping themselves in the shape created by others. Some depressing dieting facts! Tall by Carol Ann Duffy. 100% plagiarism free. She slept for hours, left at dawn lunch, dinner, thinner; a fortnight in, she was Our writers can help you with any type of essay. Carol Ann Duffy files the first in a series of reports from the Shore to Shore nationwide poetry tour, written as the writers gather for their first gig in Falmouth Published: 20 Jun 2016 . In doing this, the poem has a sense of jolted rhythm, moving forward only to be yanked back and stalled. Duffy’s woman takes her diet to the extreme, stopping eating everything and giving her whole life to fasting. These are metaphors for her physical and spiritual sufferings. It commonly refers to the capacity of an agent, (in the case of the poem Tall, the persona), to recognise forces of socialisation and alter their place in the social structure.. An appreciation of the social theory of reflexivity is the key to understanding the meaning of Carol Ann Duffy's poem; Tall. Minute, she could suit herself from here on in, go. of a girl, a shadow, dwindling away. Dame Carol Ann Duffy (* 23.Dezember 1955 in Glasgow, Schottland, Vereinigtes Königreich) ist eine schottische Lyrikerin und Dramatikerin.Sie hält eine Professur für Gegenwartslyrik an der Manchester Metropolitan University inne und war von 2009 bis 2019 Poet Laureate. Views: 952. The metaphor of being consumed represents the total obsession, Duffy presenting the mental and physical destruction that an eating disorder can have on a person. Carol Ann Duffy - The Diet Lyrics | FAST DOWNLOAD. shy of ten and shrinking, skipping breakfast, - Born: 70 BC, Alexandria, These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy. The next day, she wakes alone having no one to love her as she is. The first stanza of “The Diet” opens up with just that: the woman is dieting to the extreme. Her life has become consumed by the desire to lose more and more weight, losing everything that is dear to her in the process. Sentences are of varying length. Yet, the woman takes the diet further, never eating at all until she was whittled down to nothing. By the end of week one, she was half a stone all cheekbones, had guns for hips. Another technique that Duffy uses when writing ‘The Diet’ is the linking of the semantics of the body with plosive sounds. She is the first woman, the first Scottish-born poet and the first known LGBT poet to hold the position. Join the conversation by. Info. The narrator doesn’t need to express sympathy; the sad story speaks for itself. However, the lady wasn’t mentally stable. lay in the tent of a nostril like a germ, dwelled Yet, they are actually just reaffirming the presence of the wind, constantly acting on the woman – representing how she has become a passive participant in her life, controlled by her eating disorder. Carol Ann Duffy: Poems essays are academic essays for citation. 95% of Weightwatchers members are female. In the first stanza, Duffy emphasises that this decision affected her entire family unit through the first person plural in the opening line: We came from our own country. 24th June 2017. by Aimee Wright. Ads are what helps us bring you premium content! Carol Ann Duffy’s, The Diet, employs a variety of literary techniques to explore loss of identity, dieting, eating disorders and the ways in which these themes interconnect with feminism and femininity. Moreover, there is a theme of physical beauty in the poem. where she pleased. She crouched The diet worked like a dream. The persona looks like a “seed” after a few days of dieting. In 15-24 year olds, the death rate from Anorexia is 12 times higher than from any other cause . Her life spirals out of control, Duffy using the metaphor of being eaten to reflect how the woman herself has become consumed by her dietary practices. Especially considering the instant window social media provides into the lives of others, dieting, fitness, and looking your best for the camera has become a pandemic across the world. She becomes smaller and smaller, eventually being blown away by the wind. In this course, Professor John McRae (University of Nottingham) explores Carol Ann Duffy’s 2002 collection, ‘Feminine Gospels’. By the end of week one, she was half a stone shy of ten and shrinking, skipping breakfast, lunch, dinner, thinner; a fortnight in, she was eight stone, by the end of the month, she was skin and bone. in mud under fingernails, dossed in a fold of fat. Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site. Especially in stanza six, Duffy connects parts of the body, ‘fingernail’ and ‘mouth’ with harsh plosive words, ‘kipped’ and ‘dossed’. could breathe, if it rained, underwater. for the light. Carol Ann Duffy is considered to be one of the most significant contemporary British writers. The last line depicts weight as a prison, the woman trapped behind the figure that has come to define her life. This ‘trying’ suggests that the woman is still ongoing, trying day after day to escape the horrific cycle of binging and fasting that she has fallen into. Yet, the woman takes this too far, fasting until she is ‘skin and bone’ by the end of the stanza. But when she squatted the tip of a tongue. under its tight flesh dress. Subscribe to our mailing list and get new poetry analysis updates straight to your inbox. Like much of Duffy’s work, the poem has a regular structure and the three stanzas of eight lines help to divide the poem into a straightforward chronology. Carol Ann Duffy, British poet whose well-known and well-liked poetry engaged such topics as gender and oppression, expressing them in familiar, conversational language that made her work accessible to a variety of readers. Moreover, her physical pain was unbearable. she went to a hotel bar that she knew and floated into Seed small, she was out and about, She knew where she was all right, clambered on a waist. The diet worked like a dream. There is no rhyme scheme or regular metre. Here, the poet ironically refers to the “fold of fat” that still gave her warmth, a sensation of life. the width of a stick, she started to grow smaller -