The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

It's a long time since I read poetry. It's even longer since I read a poetry book in one day. And I'm not sure if I've ever enjoyed a book of poetry so much.

The thirty poems in this book take well known tales (or at least tales that should be well-known; I'm not convinced many of my pupils would know them all) that have traditionally been told from the male point of view, and, well, not exactly retell the stories from the wives' points of view, but give a different viewpoint anyway. I particularly liked the brevity of Mrs Darwin, but the poignancy of Anne Hathaway, writing about her and Shakespeare's second best bed, was beautiful; Mrs Faust made me laugh out loud (even though I've never read the original: I knew enough to know that she was insightful here) and Mrs Icarus raised a smile.

I read a number of poems to H in bed; he wasn't too keen at first to hear them, and thought that one would be enough; however, he let me read four or five of them and enjoyed them too. I enjoyed being able to read them out loud, to hear the rhythm, rhyme and assonance.

I had heard of this book before; it had come highly commended by a friend - I can't remember by whom. I would highly recommend it myself. And I would be interested in reading more of Duffy's poetry. Go on - give it a go!

God's Grandeur

God's Grandeur
By Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

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I just wanted to share one of my favourite poems ... and if it's here, I know I can find it easily!