Larkin & Duffy critical quotes (copy)

john preston (pressing tons of bricks on you causes lots of…)

there is a persistent sense in her work that love involves as much suffering as it does joy

margaret reynolds

she succeeds in making an ordinary “I love you” into something extraordinary

elizabeth o’reilly (elizabeth i was a complex woman)

duffy often writes about love […] but never sentimentality […] its pain as well as it’s bliss

charlotte runcle

duffy sees love as not fairytale-perfect but sharp, sexy and terrible, and more desirable for thst

nicholas marsh

larkin distinguishes love and sex, classifying love as an illusion and sex as reality

it is unhappiness that provokes a poem. being happy doesnt provoke a poem

larkin

P.R King (hopes and dreams)

earlier hopes and dress which as we grow older, we realize will never become a reality

P.R King (passage of time)

man is always in thrall to time

love isn’t stronger than death just because statues hold hands for 600 years

larkin

eric homberger (where do you buy burgers)

the saddest heart in the post-war supermarket

charlotte mendelson (you should never meddle with time, but if you did you’d have to be a…)

she is a time-traveller and a shape-shifter

christopher ricks

deep and true feeling of human loneliness and longing

james naremore

larkin presents himself as a sceptical, less decieved observer of ordinary life

deceptively simple (unlike the life of which queen…)

elizabeth o’reilly