inspired by carol ann duffy's poem 'litany', taken from her collection 'mean time'. duffy is a british Poet, playwright and freelance writer. she was born on 23 December 1955 in Glasgow and read philosophy at Liverpool University. She is a former editor of the poetry magazine Ambit and is a regular reviewer and broadcaster. She moved from London to Manchester in 1996 and began to lecture in poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her papers were acquired by the Robert W. Woodruff Library of Emory University in 1999, and in October 2000 she was awarded a grant over a five-year period by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

Duffy's style, inspired by philip larkin (see i listen to money singing, it's like looking down ...) varies between a shorthanded free verse - clipped phrases and one-word sentences - and formal stanzaic work in traditional rhyme-schemes. Her dominant form, which opens and closes Selected Poems, is the dramatic monologue. These reverberate with a babel of voices, giving Duffy's verse a feeling of density and population. in her poems nostalgia for a vanished cultural life dominates the private life, and empties the present of its reality. Moments from the past seem more real to Duffy's speakers than the present. But Nostalgia In Duffy's work is also connected to themes of the loss and change brought about by aging. Her most eloquent poems are about the "other country" of childhood and the past, the tricks of memory, the effects of language. her poetry had a strong influence on the lyrics of many songs on lifeblood.the first part of 'litany' is as follows:

The soundtrack then was a litany - candlewick
bedspread three piece suite display cabinet -
and stiff-haired wives balanced their red smiles,
passing the catalogue. Pyrex. A tiny ladder
ran up Mrs Barr's American Tan leg, sly
like a rumour. Language embarrassed them.

The terrible marriages crackled, cellophane
round polyester shirts, and then The Lounge
would seem to bristle with eyes, hard
as the bright stones in engagement rings,
and sharp hands poised over biscuits as a word
was spelled out. An embarrassing word, broken [...]