New Selected Poems, Duffy’s latest poetic masterpiece, is a book that contains poems from six

major collections, spanning a grand total of 20 years, from 1984 to 2004. She’s back with this
exceedingly diverse selection of poems, including all sorts of poems like arguably the headlining poem
Standing Female Nude, to more cryptic poems like Prayer. The sheer variety of themes and topics she has
written about in this book speak volumes about her ability as a poet, just as much, if not more, than her
Poet Laureate distinction. Tackling issues like the objectification of the female body while keeping the
flow of the poem completely fluid is truly an incredible feat, and she seems to be able to perform such
feats in almost every poem. Each poem is unique and possesses its own tone and register, creating a
whole spectrum of emotions in anyone who reads it, while also managing to reach out to their minds and
getting the readers to think about what she actually means by her words.
Her use of bathos in Standing Female Nude is a particular example of her language control that
stands out above all others. She is able to create an outcome that the reader almost fully expects to
happen, then abruptly reveals the opposite happened. A woman posing as she is being painted talks about
how she “shall be represented analytically and hung/ in great museums.”, and how “The bourgeoisie will
coo/ at such an image of a river whore”, so logically the ending would be expected to have the woman
proud of the finished result. Instead, she says “Twelve francs, and get my shawl. It does not look like
me.” This kind of turning the readers’ expectations on their heads is what Duffy is excellent at, and that
certainly hasn’t changed this time over. The entire volume of these poems contains such poems that are
engaging not only to read and comprehend at a surface level but also to delve deep into and analyze,
whether it be for fun or as part of GCSE curriculum, for which this book will definitely be too good of an
opportunity to pass up. If you were thinking this book is the same as all other poetry collections, you,
dear reader, are vary much mistaken.