Carol Ann Duffy Notes

A shift in focus from the students to himself creates an interesting structure in the poem. Collins began discussing his disinterest of his students and their laughable yet pathetic lifestyle. Then toward the end, the author shifts to speak about himself. He expresses the impact of being a long time teacher and the loneliness that comes along with it. Collins creates the detailed image of his colonial house, the deflated car, and vines growing on the porch swing, revealing his depression and sense of being trapped. Therefore, the author connects how past students have driven him to insanity and caused him to create a false reality in his head.

She also presents a slight rhythm to the reading that allows for smooth reading. In keeping with her open form, there is no set scheme to the rhyme pattern. However, there is a single ending sound constantly repeated without a set pattern throughout the work. She also connects pairs of lines at random just for the sake of making connections to make that particular stanza flow. At the same time, she chose blatantly not to rhyme in certain parts to catch the reader’s attention.

The poem also uses end rhyme to add a certain rhythm to the poem as a whole. And the scheme he employs: aabbc, aabd, aabbad. End rhyme, in this poem, serves to effectively pull the reader through to the end of the poem. By pairing it with lines restricted to eight syllables. The narrator creates an almost nursery-rhyme like rhythm. In his third stanza however, his last line, cutting short of eight syllables, stands with an emphatic four syllables. Again, in the last stanza, he utilizes the same technique for the last line of the poem. The narrator’s awareness of rhyme and syllable structure provides the perfect bone structure for his poem’s rhythm.

Despite the achievements of women in many different fields, society still attempts to limit women to certain roles. Furthermore, in the poem, women “… are defined […] by what [they] never will be,” (lines 19 - 21); once again, the author claims that women are defined by what they are unable to do because of gender bias. Instead of being given the chance to be influential, they are continually limited to staying at home or doing jobs “meant for women.” Finally, Boland tells the tutor that women “…were never on the scene of crime,” (lines 27 - 28). This serves as a metaphor for how women are never allowed to do important jobs; instead, they are left at the sidelines due to the repeatedly ignored restrictions placed on women by our gender-biased society.

The poem suddenly becomes much darker in the last stanza and a Billy Collins explains how teachers, students or general readers of poetry ‘torture’ a poem by being what he believes is cruelly analytical. He says, “all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it”. Here, the poem is being personified yet again and this brings about an almost human connection between the reader and the poem. This use of personification is effective as it makes the

The poem does not follow a rhyme scheme or meter, which means that there is rhythm in the poem and it makes the poem more like a song. The poem has four stanza’s and has five lines within each stanza.

The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and

The poem's structure consists of four stanzas. The first, second, and third stanza follow an abcc rhyme scheme, and the last stanza follows an aabb rhyme scheme. A the reader progresses through each stanza, it is seen that the narrator's dissatisfaction of her confinement

In the first stanza(,) rhyme is used to point out the emotional state of the speakers outlook,

Main Idea: The poet, born in Jamaica and moved to America, has to go through the day to day struggles in order to tolerate the hate he receives only because of his race. The people do not see him for who he really is, however, he can see them for who they really are. Ultimately, he sees himself as better than his haters because he never gives into his rage like the people do.

The main person in the poem is the tenant, which in the last line tells us, he is black. The tenant is characterized by his slang and his strong dislike for the landlord. The tenant uses slang, contracted words, and nonstandard grammar. This non formal way of English suggests the tenant’s separation from the world of convention, represented by the formal way of the police and the press, which appear later in the poem.

These two seemingly opposite tones and moods existing in one poem simultaneously resemble the ambiguity in the speaker that he reveals when he describes his condition very ambiguously. For instance, in the first line, he portrays himself as a “dead man”(1), but in the line immediately after, the dead man is moaning, which is biologically impossible. The unclear subject raises the issue of who the speaker is, if he should not be able to comment on himself because he is already dead. When the speaker uses the same pronouns, “he” and “him” from both the first person and the third person perspectives to refer to himself, this becomes even more puzzling; the readers are no longer sure of who the speaker is and who the subject of the poem is. One possible cause of these uncertainties is the discrepancy between the speaker’s real self and his public self; one that resembles who he

The main person in the poem is the tenant, which in the last line tells us, he is black. The tenant is characterized by his slang and his strong dislike for the landlord. The tenant uses slang, contracted words, and nonstandard grammar. This non formal way of English suggests the tenant’s separation from the world of convention, represented by the formal way of the police and the press, which appear later in the poem.

The unfamiliar, snowy weather and artificial 'neon lights' create the impression for the immigrant that the country moved to is 'coming to bits'. This image of fragmentation is, though, not entirely imaginary as he or she has a life splintered from all that is familiar and constantly experiences a sense of alienation. The italicised words at the close of the poem give voice to the immigrant but this only gives away a difficulty with English. The unfinished verbs, 'Me not know' and 'It like they only…' are drawn attention to by Duffy in order that the reader may ponder what it would be like to face the same language problem. The final words of the poem, 'Imagine that' remind us of the opening and there is quite a clear impression that Duffy is adopting an undisguised didactic stance. As a skilled and empowered user of the English language herself she is drawing attention to the lot of those who are marginalised because of their deficiency in its use.

‘Foreign,’ written by Carol Ann Duffy, is a poem depicting the perspective of an immigrant worker who lives in unfamiliar surroundings and narrates their experiences. In this dramatic monologue, Duffy uses language and themes in effective ways that allow readers to interpret the different themes and ideas to highlight the persona’s sense of confusion, feelings, nostalgia, and many more. Through the use of literary devices, regular structure and varied tones throughout the poem, the author presents strong themes that can be related to the audience as well as to gain sympathy to the narrator.