The Bees-------pan macmillan
The critically acclaimed new collection from the Poet Laureate.
,br>The
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.