Rapture Poems

Winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize, "essential reading for the broken-hearted of all ages" ( The Guardian) The effortless virtuosity, drama, and humanity of Carol Ann Duffy's verse have made her much admired among contemporary poets. Raptureis a book-length love poem and a moving act of personal testimony. But what sets these poems apart from other treatments of the subject is Duffy's refusal to simplify the contradictions of love and read its transformationsinfatuation, longing, passion, commitment, rancor, separation, and griefas either redemptive or destructive. This is a map of real love in all its churning complexity, simultaneously direct and subtle, showing us that a song can be made of even the most painful episodes in our lives. With poems that will find deep resonance in the experience of most readers, it is a collection that can and does speak for us all.

Carol Ann Duffy was appointed British poet laureate in 2009. She lives in Manchester, where she is a professor and the creative director of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University.