Mean Time

Varty, A. (2023) ”Under the clock’ with Mean Time’, English Review, 33(3), pp.8-10.
Anne Varty looks at Carol Ann Duffy’s influential collection 30 years after its publication, and its evocation of time in many forms. Look out for the practice exam questions in this article.

Baty, K. (2019) ‘Nostalgia and the (un)reliability of memory in Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Mean Time”, Emagazine, 86, pp.12-15.
A Level teacher Kate Baty suggests that, rather than producing a warm glow of pleasure, looking back at the past for Carol Ann Duffy is always fraught with pain, complication and uncertainty.

Bleiman, B. (2015) ‘More than a collection of parts: studying the poetry of Carol Ann Duffy’, Emagazine, 70, pp.25-27.
‘Emagazine’ co-editor, Barbara Bleiman, tries to put her finger on what makes Carol Ann Duffy special, asking whether her whole oeuvre, from early collections like ‘Mean Time‘, to later ones like ‘Rapture’, has qualities that are truly distinctive and unique.

Wheale, N. (2031) ‘Carol Ann Duffy’s dislocating language’, Emagazine, pp.61-62.
Nigel Wheale explores the themes of migration and passing time in Duffy‘s poetry and how she uses language to convey the uncertainty, anxiety and dislocation bound up in these experiences.

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