Carol Ann Duffy: The Bees (June 2024)

Our latest book choice, The Bees,  was a volume of poetry by Carol Ann Duffy, our first woman Poet Laureate (2009-2019). The themes she covered included love, politics, war, death, elegies for her friends and, movingly, her mother and especially the environment with a particular emphasis on bees. The decrease in their numbers is a great concern as they are so important for food production.

One poem described an event in Sichuan when, after the bees had been killed through the use of pesticides, all the orchards had to be painstakingly pollinated by hand.

In another, The Fallen Soldier, she was inspired by Robert Capa’s photograph of the last moments of a Republican soldier in the Spanish Civil War and also drew upon and paid homage to famous war poetry.

There was a mixed reaction to The Bees in our group. One reader said how much she liked her diction, imagery and sound quality and was fascinated by her approach to words. Another said that it left her cold at first but went back to the book and found that she enjoyed it the more she read it. Some of us intend to read her other work, The World’s Wife being particularly recommended. Others, however, did not like the book saying that they thought it was bleak and humourless and that they prefer poetry with a more lyrical quality and rhythm and metre.

It would make for dull meetings if we all agreed and we had a lively chat about poetry in general, the benefits of reading aloud, inspirational teachers and the life cycle of bees.

With ratings varying from 0-5/5 from us, The Bees averaged 3/5.