A Critical Review Of 'Text' By Carol Ann Duffey

‘Text’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores communicating by texting and how it can appear

voiceless and impersonal, but is in fact emotionally charged. Duffy does this by using a form

dictated by modern technology, which is therefore appropriate to the modern experience. She uses couplets throughout the poem, appropriating the format of a text message. Her lines are short, mimicking the minimal contents of electronic communication. This theme of texting being impersonal is concluded in the last couplet “Nothing my thumbs press/ will ever be heard”. In fact, all the couplets but one form a pentameter. The contemporary form is filled with the ghost of a traditional metre.

Although she is mimicking the abbreviated form of a text message, the poem is packed with

emotion. Her image “I tend the mobile now/ like an injured bird” parallels how we tend a

small animal and the way we cradle a mobile phone. It’s combining a seemingly impersonal

and staccato form with intense feeling.

Carol Ann Duffy uses form and a rhyme-scheme to emphasize her structure. For example,

using a text message to demonstrate the contemporaneity of the verse. This can also be seen

in ‘Prayer.’ Duffy uses a strict sonnet form to echo the rhythmic nature of worship. She is

versatile in her use of genres. She can use traditional forms with contemporary content and

contemporary forms with traditional metres.

The poet’s use of form is always striking. She is not limited to any specific poetic structure.

This gives her great range as a writer, and lets her inhabit an array of voices. This is one of

the reasons why her ventriloquizing in The World’s Wife is so compelling. She adopts

different voices at will, and finds the forms appropriate to them. She has her own voice as we

see in ‘Text’ and ‘Prayer’, but can find others with great ease.

I find the continual freshness of Duffy’s voice inspirational in terms of my own verse. She

seems to approach each new subject and persona as if it is the first that has ever occurred to

her. She never uses form in a habitual or stale manner. She always uses it as a means of

exploration, an avenue towards discovery in verse.