Duffy and Larkin Flashcards
Allen Randolph, on the two
“Duffy shares Larkin’s tragic view of the world”
Duffy herself, on Larkin
“I have little in common with Larkin… unlike him I laugh, nay, sneer in the face of death”
Duffy, on her own poetry
“I’m not dealing with facts, I’m dealing with emotions”
Duffy, on poetry
“Poetry and prayer are very similar”
Larkin, on marriage
“The only married state I know is bloody hell”
Britain, on Duffy
“The most irritating aspect of Duffy is her insistence on writing prose as if it were poetry”
O’Keeffe, on Duffy
“a concern with the duplicitous nature of language… matched by a concern for the way language can alienate”
Watts, on Duffy’s writing
“tightly coiled images and precision wording”
Naremore, on Larkin
“seldom presents himself as anything but the onlooker”
Appleyard, on Larkin
“advocate of misanthropy and pessimism” “seldom more than grimly inward and futile”
King, on Larkin’s poetry
“a lucidity of language which invites understanding”
Swarbrick, on Larkin’s life and work
“his writing is driven by a sense of failure in both”
McClatchy, on Larkin’s poetry
“clipped, lucid stanzas, about the failures and remorse of the age”
