Thursday Short Poem: Duffy's "Crush"

Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy won the T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize (one of the most prestigious in the UK) last month.  I've read a fair amount of her stuff recently, and this is my current favorite. The last stanza is devastatingly good, of course, but the build-up is excellent as well.

Crush

The older she gets,
the more she awakes
with somebody's face strewn in her head
like petals which once made a flower.

What everyone does
is sit by a desk
and stare at the view, till the time
where they live reappears.  Mostly in words.

Imagine a girl
turning to see
love stand by a window, taller,
clever, anointed with sudden light.

Yes, like an angel then,
to be truthful now.
At first a secret, erotic, mute;
today a language she cannot recall.

And we're all owed joy,
sooner or later.
The trick's to remember whenever
it was, or to see it coming.

Comments

[Jendi]

Duffy is wonderful. Hugo, you would probably love her earlier book "The World's Wife" in which each poem is a feminist twist on a the story of a famous historical or mythical male figure - e.g. Orpheus, Freud, the Beast from "Beauty & the Beast".

[Hugo]

Thanks for the recommendation, Jendi -- I haven't read it. Is it like Sexton's "Transformations", the feminist re-telling of classic fairy tales?

[simone]

can anyone analyse this poem for me?
i really need help understanding this + "first love" for my english course.
thank you.

[tara]

Hi, I was wondering whether anyone knew one of Duffy's poems taht shows a search for identity ? please help !

[Medic Blog]

I've read a fair amount of her stuff recently, and this is my current favorite. The last stanza is devastatingly good!!

[pharmacy]

well, it is really important, in my opinion it can be so good if we read more about it