Winner of the Costa Poetry Award 2011.
Shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize for Poetry 2011.
Shortlisted for the Galaxy UK Author of the Year Award 2011.
Reviewed and selected by our poetry expert, Liam Parkin.
Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy’s new collection is a diverse range of poetry in both technique and form. Her talent at capturing the essence of moments in time is on full show, and her explorations of war survivors, companions and historical figures are suitably surrounded by thematic investigations into the life of bees.
The bees that pervade the anthology - both explicitly and implicitly – contain a variety of interesting and unique motifs; of nature, beauty and a profound awareness of our spiritual encounters in life. As is written, ‘Yes, I think a poem is a spell of kinds/ that keeps things living in a written line’ (Spell), and it is this sentiment that captures the tone of the collection.
Duffy contains what is important within her lines, and it is a beautiful reminder of what life can, and should, be about.
Click here to visit the Poetry Book Society page for Reading Groups and to download extracts from the T S Eliot Prize shortlist.
'Swooningly glorious' The Times'Indisputably her best volume' Sunday TimesThe Bees is Carol Ann Duffy's first collection of poems as Poet Laureate. In it she uses her full poetic range: there are drinking songs, love poems, poems of political anger; there are elegies, too, for beloved friends, and - most movingly - the poet's own mother. Woven and weaving through the book is its presiding spirit: the bee. Sometimes the bee is Duffy's subject, sometimes it strays into the poem, or hovers at its edge. In the end, Duffy's point is clear: the bee symbolizes what we have left of grace in the world, and what is most precious and necessary for us to protect. The Bees, at once intimate and public, is a work of great power from one of our most cherished poets.
| Primary Genre | Poetry |
| Recommendations: |
'Swooningly glorious' The Times'Indisputably her best volume' Sunday TimesThe Bees is Carol Ann Duffy's first collection of poems as Poet Laureate. In it she uses her full poetic range: there are drinking songs, love poems, poems of political anger; there are elegies, too, for beloved friends, and - most movingly - the poet's own mother.
The Bees features in the following genres: Poetry, eBooks of the Month, Biography, Literature and Literary studies, Recommendations
Paperback, Hardback. £9.89, down from the £10.99 cover price. In Stock.
The Bees was written by Carol Ann Duffy and published by Picador an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Bees has 96 pages
£9.89, reduced from £10.99. In Stock.
