Hand in Hand

by Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy has selected 36 of the best world poets writing today and invited each of them to select a love poem written by the opposite sex which will appear opposite their own love poem. The poets have been encouraged to look to other centuries for their choice as well as to our own time. Simon Armitage, Hugo Williams, Billy Collins, Jackie Kay, Don Paterson, Jo Shapcott sit alongside Stevie Smith, Seamus Heaney, Elizabeth Bishop, John Donne. This is a wonderful, heartwarming collection for Valentine`s Day and for every other day of the year...

Genres: Poetry, Love

100 pages, Paperback

First published February 9, 2001

About the author

Dame Carol Ann Duffy, DBE, FRSL is a Scottish poet and playwright. She is Professor of Contemporary Poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and was appointed Britain's Poet Laureate in May 2009.

She is the first woman, the first Scot, and the first openly LGBT person to hold this position.

Her collections include Standing Female Nude (1985), winner of a Scottish Arts Council Award; Selling Manhattan (1987), which won a Somerset Maugham Award; Mean Time (1993), which won the Whitbread Poetry Award; and Rapture (2005), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize.

Her poems address issues such as oppression, gender, and violence, in an accessible language that has made them popular in schools.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting idea for an anthology, pairing up contemporary writers with an opposite-sex poet of their choice. The poems don't seem to be necessarily related, though some are; it's just a collection of poems that spoke to different people, and what different people have to say about love. As with most anthology situations, there are some gems here and some I couldn't care less about.

As you might expect, I liked the contributions or inclusions of poets I'm already a fan of: Simon Armitage, Pablo Neruda, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Duffy herself. I was more bewildered by the proliferation of Robert Burns, whose work I've never really been attracted by, and the absence of Shakespeare. Overall, those surprises make the anthology a more interesting one: it's not whatever stereotype you might conjure for an anthology of love poetry, but something different: a conversation about love, in many different forms, moods and tenses.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've no idea how this came to be in my possession, although it must be second-hand as it has some very strange annotations. It's a wonderful anthology, encompassing all aspects of love; from the initial heady madness to the pain of loss and everything in between. Each featured poet has chosen a poem written by someone else, which is very insightful and an interesting way of structuring the collection. My favourites were Simon Armitage's To His Lost Lover, Ian Duhig's From the Irish ("I want to love you properly, according to Dinneen") and most of all - Moniza Alvi's A Bowl of Warm Air which is disconcerting and dreamlike. I feel a bit dizzy and head-achy after reading it - like I've overdosed on vicarious passion. I need a lie down now.

[Jacqueline Brocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eclectic and intriguing collection of poems, more quietly mature about love than one might expect from love poems. These are not sappy, sickly sweet, or given to those tremendous teenage aches and longings (though there is ache and longing here - it can't not be) but often thoughtful, reflective, intense, and about the quiet joys of love.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in one sitting.
Poetry has never been my favourite thing mainly because I don't understand it so well.
Some of the poems in here I did enjoy.

[frackletum · Rating 2 out of 5]

One great thing about this anthology is that the poets that are featured recommend the upcoming poem. So, a great love chain :)

[StephenWoolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the premise. It was published in 2001 so its binary quality might want an update: 36 contemporary poets select one of their own love poems as well as another poet's (must be from a different gender).
A pretty rich harvest:
- To his lost lover, Simon Armitage
- Song for a stone, Colette Bryce
- Static, Nick Drake
- Tell me about it, Ruth Padel
- Poem, Christopher Logue
- Pillow talk, Paula Meehan
- One Cigarette, Edwin Morgan
- Five Glimpses, Alice Oswald
- What lips my lips have kissed, Edna St Vincent
- The Lisboa, Hugo Williams

[J Grimsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this anthology of love poems with a contribution from a modern poet and a choice from that poet. I regret that there was no or very little traditional love poems.

[Cameron Garden · Rating 2 out of 5]

some good cavafy some bad lots of other stuff

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked about one-third of the poems, and really liked a handful - a proportion that I don't consider to be bad at all for an anthology of poetry. My only real disappointment was how many poems were written in dialect! Maybe that's a problem on my end, but I really struggled in deciphering a few of them, for example some Robert Burns poems - there were three of his in there, one I rather liked, but another was largely unintelligible to me!

[WYKW · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love poems they might be, they are not saturnine sweet nor about red red roses. This anthology constitutes the works by 36 poets, half of which are men and the other are women and a poem of their choice written by another poet of the opposite gender.

Poems about love are also poems about the loss, the ambiguity, the evasiveness and the rare attainment of love.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favourites:
"You Are at the Bottom of My Mind" Ian Crichton Smith
"Patagonia" Kate Clanchy
"Japan" Billy Collins
"The Linen Industry" Michael Longley
"The Breakfast" Alan Jenkins
"Hurricane Blues" Linton Kwesi Johnson
"A Letter" Anne Ridler
"The Spinning-Wheel Song" John Francis Waller
"Five Glimpses" Alice Oswald
"What Lips My Lips Have Kissed..." Edna St. Vincent Millay

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good anthology for beginners of poetry.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little poetry book. Great concept of letting male/female poets choosing poems writing by the opposite gender. Ideal for Valentine's Day.