Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy is a Scottish poet and playwright whose work often gives voice to outsiders and reimagines familiar stories. She served as the United Kingdom’s Poet Laureate from 2009 to 2019.

Dramatic monologue: A poem or speech in which a speaker reveals character through a sustained address to an audience. Many of Duffy’s poems use invented speakers whose words disclose more than they intend.
The World's Wife: Carol Ann Duffy’s 1999 poetry collection that retells myths and stories through women’s voices. Its monologues, including “Mrs Midas,” exemplify her feminist revisions of familiar narratives.
Ted Hughes: An English poet who served as United Kingdom Poet Laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998. Duffy succeeded Hughes’s laureateship after the post remained vacant for a decade.
Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom: An appointed poet who produces work for significant national occasions and holds an honorific public role. Duffy’s 2009–2019 appointment brought her poetry into ceremonies and public life.
Women poets in Britain: A broad tradition of poetry written by women in Britain across historical periods and literary forms. Duffy’s appointment made a woman the UK Poet Laureate for the first time.
Persona poem: A poem spoken by a constructed character rather than directly by its author. Duffy uses imagined voices to explore lives and viewpoints beyond her own.
Standing Female Nude: Carol Ann Duffy’s 1985 poetry collection, named for a poem about a model and the artist who paints her. The title poem brings class, gender, and artistic power into a working woman’s voice.
Liz Lochhead: A Scottish poet and playwright who served as Scotland’s Makar from 2011 to 2016. Her work offers a prominent Scottish comparison for Duffy’s poetry and theatrical writing.
The Christmas Truce: An informal ceasefire between British and German troops along parts of the Western Front in December 1914. Duffy’s poem “The Christmas Truce” commemorates the wartime event and its human cost.
British poetry: Poetry written in Britain, encompassing its many languages, regions, periods, and traditions. Her work and public role form part of contemporary British poetry’s varied landscape.

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Andrew MotionRelated: Duffy succeeded Motion and continued the office’s modern public profile.