- "Rapture" is a collection of love poems - what was your overall feeling about the collection? Did you enjoy it/dislike it? Why?
- How did you feel about the two main characters (the writer and the addressee)?
- What was the relationship like? Did it seem healthy/dysfunctional? Why?
- How did you feel about the use of rhyme within the collection?
- Duffy uses a lot of old fashioned and 'poetic' words in these poems (i.e. grace, pardon, gold) and these words crop up several different poems. What do you think Duffy was trying to achieve by using this type of language? Does it work?
- Did you have a favourite/least favourite poem? Why?
- What do you think of Duffy's use of form in this collection - for example there are quite a few sonnets, does the form fit the subject matter? What did you think about the way that the poems were laid out on the page?
- What was the cumulative effect of the collection on the reader? Is it too much/just right? How did it make you feel?
- Could you relate to the sentiments conveyed?
- Did this book make you more likely/less likely to read another collection by the same author?
- Carol Ann Duffy is the poet laureate, did this collection have any bearing on your feelings about that?
