A Critical Analysis Of A Satirical Piece by Carol Ann Duffy called "Poet For Our Times".

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Paul Barker

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A Critical Analysis Of A Satirical Piece

        The piece of satirical work that I’ve chosen to analyse is a poem written by Carol Ann Duffy, a very successful female poet. The poem itself is called “Poet For Our Times”, it was written approximately ten to fifteen years ago, at the time she was working in a comprehensive school running workshops. This poem bore some personal significance to Duffy because her brother was working as the news editor for the “Daily Mirror”.

        The poem is written in the first person, told from the point of view of a newspaper headline writer. The poem attempts to satirize the culture of the time and there is an underlying political and social contemporary context. The use of the headlines is satirizing the un-poetic nature of the headlines and therefore the newspapers. Duffy also uses the content of the headlines referring to the conservative government of the time in an attempt to satirize both the government’s effectiveness; and the private lives of the more significant figures in the government, such as Cecil Parkinson,

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“CECIL-KEAYS ROW SHOCK TELLS EYETIE WAITER.”

        This headline tells of a row between the politician and his secretary Keays who he allegedly had a love child with. This is satirizing his inability to stick to his marriage vows, so in using this headline she succeeds in exposing the weakness of Cecil Parkinson for another woman, other than his wife. This headline also feature a term which wouldn’t be understood in this day, that is,

“EYETIE”

        This is a racial slang term for Italian, which originated during the Second World War when Italy formed an alliance with Germany. The derogatory term ...

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