Answering Back: Living Poets Reply to the Poetry of the Past

by Carol Ann Duffy

Carol Ann Duffy has asked some of the brightest writers in the poetry world to select a poem that is meaningful—or has meant something—to them, and write a response to it. With up-and-coming poets alongside more established names, and original poems alongside the new works they've inspired, Answering Back promises to be a truly unique and insightful anthology.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Nonfiction

Audio CD

First published May 28, 2007

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

[Faye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read: June 2020
Rating: 5/5 stars, best of 2020

This beautiful book of poetry centres the idea that living poets of today can ‘answer back’ to poets from the past and this concept is wonderfully executed. I have been introduced to some contemporary poets that I want to read more from; U.A. Fanthorpe’s passionate retort to Walt Whitman’s The Beasts, Carol Rumens’ own version of Larkin’s This Be The Verse and Clare Shaw’s heart-breaking The No Baby Poem puts them firmly on my radar.
There were also long gone poets that I have never heard of before whose words moved me, especially William Carlos Williams’ 1938 haiku-like poem The Red Wheelbarrow and Greek poet C.P. Cavafy’s Ithaka (1911).
I highly recommend this collection to all lovers of poetry.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not a big reader of poetry, but I'm
glad I read this, both for the opportunity to revisit poems by A.E. Housman, W.H. Auden, Christina Rossetti, Ben Jonson, and D.H. Lawrence (who knew he had a sense of humour?), but also to see how contemporary poets have responded to their predecessors. I particularly appreciated the 'piss-take' poems, the tongue-in-cheek response that Duffy gives to Kipling, that Tony Curtis gives to Allen Ginsberg ('I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by DIY'), and that Carol Rumens gives to Philip Larkin ('Not everybody's / childhood sucked: / There are some kiddies / Not up-fucked'). And it would be difficult not to be moved by the elegy Owen Sheers has written in response to John Donne's 'To his Mistress Going to Bed'. Not all the 'answers back' are successful, though: some are dull, others are pretentious - that's why I've given this 3 stars rather than 4.

[Shriya Uday · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a delightful collection and I loved the idea behind it. It's something I'll definitely be rereading a lot more before I can say anything about the poems.
My favourite poem was Ithacafor , I also really enjoyed My Last Book, Museé des Beaux Arts Revisited, The Revenant, Yehuda Amichai, Grief × 2, and The Yellow Palm

[BetweenLinesAndLife]

The concept behind this collection alone would honestly get 5 stars from me. As it is with many collections by different contributors, I haven't fully connected to every single poem, but the idea is truly brilliant, it really, really got me thinking and I do believe that it would be the perfect book to dissect in a class setting and it would gain even more meaning.

Here are my favorite pairings, meaning those are not necessarily my favorite individual poems, but the poems that worked best for me as pairs:
The Red Wheelbarrow - The Green Wheelbarrow
This Be The Verse - This Be The Verse (Carol Rumens)
Allegro - Ictus
Howl - Trowel
The Suicide - The Manager
The Lake Isle of Innisfree - On Leaving the Lake Isle of Innisfree
Ithaka - Ithacafor
Cynthia's Ghost - The Revenant
Elegie: To his Mistress Going to Bed - Elegy: To her Husband Goint to Bed
the lost baby poem - The No Baby Poem
One Art - Quitting the Bars

I also made a list of my favorite individual poems - both original and new inspired work:
-The Red Wheelbarrow
-The Green Wheelbarrow
-This Be The Verse (Carol Rumens)
-Humming-Bird
-(abstract from) Howl
-Trowel
-Musée des Beaux Arts
-Ithaka
-Ithacafor
-Insomnia
-The No Baby Poem
-One Art
-Refugee Blues

[J.S. Watts · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting anthology, which I am pleased I have read. It provided me with an opportunity to revisit well known poems, read previously unknown (to me) poems by "classic authors" and to be entertained by the response of contemporary poets (some well known to me, others less so).

Like any anthology, it was a bit of a curate's egg. Some of the poems I loved, thought the responses worked well and were extremely interesting. Others worked less well for me, particularly some of the more flippant ones, though I was impressed by Carol Rumens' response to Philip Larkin:

"Not everybody's,
Childhood sucked:
There are some kiddies
Not up-fucked."

All in all an interesting read, but I was not blown away by it (though I rarely am by anthologies, simply because of their inherent variability).

[Book Grocer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchase Answering Back here for just $7!

This collection of poetry, edited by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, is based on a really great concept – there’s something wonderful about the feeling of worlds colliding and time melting away in this dialogue between poets new and old. Enjoyable for seasoned poetry readers as well as for anyone who’s ever felt like they’d like to get into poetry but isn’t sure how to go about it – this gives a taste of both the classics and the works of poets writing today.

Greer - The Book Grocer

[Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoughtful, multidimensional, intriguing. Thoroughly enjoyable. Something for everyone. I revisited several poems again and again. Altogether lovely.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came across this in the library as I was checking out Carol Ann Duffy. What a fabulous idea : get a selection of contemporary poets to 'reply' to a poem of their choice. I love it! I don't normally buy poetry books but had to make an exception.
Some replies are emotional, some play with structure, some follow mood, reflect changing voices and others are just fun. Favourite replies include:
William Carlos Williams - the red wheelbarrow
Phillip Larkin - This Be the Verse
and
John Donne: Elegie On his Mistress going to Bed
But you'll have to get it to find out who replied and how!

[Judith Rich · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite enjoyed this anthology, but not all the poems were successful. I was a little disappointed, having particularly enjoyed the "answer back" section in "How To Be Well Versed In Poetry".

In a moment of self-indulgence, I would like to add a little verse of my own - to Ernest Dowson from his Cynara:

"Screwing a tart
While thinking of me
Is NO kind of fidelity!"

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

While some of the modern "answering back" poets write insightful deconstructions, you can tell some of them are just phoning it in, with sloppy or silly poems that miss entirely the spirit and purpose of the originals.

[Jenny Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carol Ann Duffy invited 50 poets to choose a poem and then write their own in reply or reaction to it creating a book of 100 poems.

I particularly enjoyed Vernon Scannell's reply to John Donne's 'Holy Sonnets' ('Death be not proud...'), Carol Rumen's rebuttal of Philip Larkin's 'This Be The Verse'(They f**k you up, your mum and dad...) beginning with, 'Not everybody's Childhood sucked', and Ian Mc Millan's come back to William Carlos Williams' 'The Red Wheelbarrow' with his own, The Green Wheelbarrow'. Some are funny, some poignant and some dense to the point of wondering what the poet was getting at and wishing they'd written prose instead. A smattering of sonnets and a wry one-liner fromTony Curtis in reply to Alan Ginsberg.

Obviously, reading poetry is a different undertaking from reading a novel but there's something refreshing in that. This was an admirable idea that seemed a bit hit and miss to me but has still prompted me to actively seek out more poetry collections on my next library trip.

[Raluca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did every poem or set of poems resonate with me? No, of course not, and it's overly optimistic to expect that from an anthology built around a loosely defined "methodology". But I really liked the idea, as well as getting a very brief sense of what's going on in poetry today. (Or 10 year ago. I've previously expressed my skepticism about what passes for poetry today.)
If I had to pick one pair that stuck with me, it would be C.P. Cavafy's Ithaka and Theo Dorgan's Ithacafor, although I also fondly remembering snorting tea out of my nose reading Tony Curtis' brilliantly concise answer to Allen Ginsberg's Howl. A great book to have around, to gift and to reread.

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Living poets reply to the poetry of the past'. This is such a great idea for a poetry anthology that I can't believe it hasn't been done before. Forty-six contemporary poets have each chosen a favourite poem and written a response. There are a multitude of approaches: playful, challenging, echoing and combative. As with any anthology, some poems (or combinations of poems) strike a more resounding chord than others, but the quality is uniformly high and there's bound to be something in here to suit every taste.

[Aliénor Daki-Taine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very pleasant and interesting collection, which allowed me to discover poems of the past and poets of the present. The relations between the poems are very diverse: some are tributes to the original poem, others are mainly jokes, some expand on the original and others contest it. It reminded me of a fundamental quality of British poetry - of which French poetry greatly lack - which is its playfulness and humour.

[Debbie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept of this collection is really fun, and the first few paired poems were of the more accessible variety. But I'm not much of a poetry lover, so many of the more obscure poems, of the ones that refer to things outside the texts were lost on me. Don't pay attention to my rating if you love all kinds of poetry.

[Siobhan Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought that this was such a good concept for a poetry collection. I have found a new love of poets I hadn't discovered if it wasn't for this book, especially Dylan Thomas, Giacomo Leopardi and Yehuda Amichai, amongst many others. A lot of meaningful poems as well, they spoke to me.

[Alicia · Rating 2 out of 5]

The various poets ended up backfiring for me since many of the poems’ messages were lost on me— however the poems that stood out to me were very eloquent.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good selection of poems.

[Aly · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cool collection of response poetry!! It is pretty dense so it's not a quick read even though its short and the pieces are short.

[Stefan Grieve · Rating 4 out of 5]

A response to classic poems, to which I enjoyed most the humorous, sometimes parodic ones.

[Carly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found a few good pieces, but they were too few.

[Amal Joseph Mathew · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Twas pretty.

[Jessica Alves · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretty cool idea, pretty cool execution

[Harry Dichmont · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great idea, and some really nice stuff in here

[Matilda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this anthology. It was interesting, unique, and something that I have wanted to do with poetry more and more as I continue to fall in love with it. There are some beautiful poems in here, and some not so much, but I felt together they made a fascinating anthology that I know I will reread.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the roger mcgoughs response poem to Edna at Vincent Millay his poem being a response to travelling called the quiet room which mocked a woman who sat in the quiet carriage and then talked on her mobile for the whole journey. Great book, really brightened by life after feeling gloomy for a while. I've already recommended it to about ten of my friends and will be returning to this book one day hopefully. But if not I believe that this book has hanged me for the better. On a other note 99 books down this year and only one more Togo before I've read 100 and read double my challenge!!!

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the idea of this book but (as an English teacher and fan of reading poetry for 30+ years) this bored me. A lot of the poems were the type of pieces chosen that put people off poetry, in my humble opinion.

Occasionally there’s a few gems but overall, the poems showcased are a bit dull or obscure.

There are much better poetry anthologies out there if you want a range of pieces that you can actually understand at first reading.

I don’t recommend

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had this book on my bedside table for months and have been reading it sporadically. I like the concept of this book where by a number of contemporary poets select a poem and write their response or reply to it. An interesting anthology of poetry put together by Carol Ann Duffy, her own contribution being one of my favourites.

[Toby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this short compendium of familiar and new poems very much indeed. The tributes include the predictably humorous (On leaving the lake isle of Innisfree by R.V. Bailey) along with the poignant (Elegy: to her husband going to bed by Owen Sheers). It has also introduced me to Sean O'Brien whose poem on Hull (Grey Bayou) I thought especially fine.

[Miranda Saville · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quirky idea, which I've taken over a year to read - dipping in and out and re-reading / revisiting -as one must with poetry. Some if the pairings work brilliantly - often when an explicit reply is made or we see a modern take on a classic idea whereas others, less successful in my opinion, have a more subtle link.