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The infamous Carol Ann Duffy..... 'Lovesick'?

Has anyone studed her poem 'Lovesick'? What on earth do you make of it?

Here it is:

I found an apple
A red and shining apple
I took its photograph

I hid the apple in the attic
I opened the skylight
and the sun said Ah!

At night I checked that it was safe,
under the giggling stars,
and the sly moon. My cool apple.

Whatever you are calling about,
I am not interested.
Go away. You with the big teeth.

I can't begin to fathom a coherent reponse to this poem! Anyone else like to try?
Could the apple symbolise love? A ripening, forbidden love? Or am I talking rubbish?
Reply 1
I did English Lit at AS and A level, and I honestly found it very difficult to understand why poets such as Duffy and Armitage are so highly acclaimed. Their poems are mediocre.
Reply 2
-=/-\=-
I did English Lit at AS and A level, and I honestly found it very difficult to understand why poets such as Duffy and Armitage are so highly acclaimed. Their poems are mediocre.


Since you think it is so mediocre, the poem should be easily comprehensible to you. What do you think it is about?
Reply 3
I pretty much agree with your speculation.

The poem Lovesick seems very happy and upbeat. It seems to be about someone who wants their love to be known. In the first line, the poet writes “I found an apple, A red and shining apple” I think the "red and shining" apple is representative of a ripening love, or a heart; the fact that the apple has been found could connote a love that has been discovered.
Reply 4
Kenny0709
I pretty much agree with your speculation.

The poem Lovesick seems very happy and upbeat. It seems to be about someone who wants their love to be known. In the first line, the poet writes “I found an apple, A red and shining apple” I think the "red and shining" apple is representative of a ripening love, or a heart; the fact that the apple has been found could connote a love that has been discovered.


What do you make of 'The giggling stars and the sly moon' and 'Whatever you are calling about, I'm not interested' ?
Reply 5
Perhaps its describing a secret love, hence the hiding of the apple and the reactions from friends and family. Sly moon and giggling stars.

Thats my two cents anyway
Reply 6
The Problem with CAD and Armitage is simply their poems are far too symbolic and have too many euphimisms. Obviously the poem is not about the apple, it's symbolic to something she truely cares about; whether this is a person, or an action (such as love, hatred).

"I found an apple
A red and shining apple
I took its photograph"

This gives me the impression that the thing she's referring to is perfect, it's exactly how it should look, this encourages me to think that it's now directed at an individual person, this feeling is exaccerbated by fact she took it's photograph. The language is relatively simple, which indicates to me she's writting this account as a child, or in the perspective of a child, and what does a child love the most? Their mother.

"I hid the apple in the attic
I opened the skylight
and the sun said Ah!"

She doesn't want to share the apple, which again indicates to me she's writing it as if she's a child. The last two lines are very hard to interpret, but I think they have two meanings. Either that the thing the apple is a euphimism for is loved by many other people (people being a euphimism for the sun), or the fact that she's let someone else voice their opinion on the thing she loves. Now the fact she's used the word "sun" is quite significant. The sun, when talking about the world, is an extremely important aspect, it's what keeps our planet going in a number of ways. Translate this into Childs talk and you've got someone who cares for child, feeds them etc. Again it could be a euphimism for the mother, but I'm thinking it's more geared towards the Father.

"At night I checked that it was safe,
under the giggling stars,
and the sly moon. My cool apple."

The language is extremely simplistic and childlike, "giggling stars" she has given personified the objects, which again support my theory that the sun, apple, stars and moon are all related to people. The giggling stars could be a relative, as could the sly moon, both words as a decription to the relevant people.

"Whatever you are calling about,
I am not interested.
Go away. You with the big teeth."

Very hard to interpret this stansa, I'm initially thought along the lines of someone calling her, and she's no interested, she's far too occupied from thinking of her special person. But the use of the phrase "you with the big teeth" really puts me off that theory. I'm now gearing towards two ideas. One is that teeth are a euphimism for someone else, or she's having a dream.

The title Lovesick, is extremely hard to interpret into the relevance of the poem, the only thing I have just thought of is if her mother is in fact dead, and she's simply reminissing about the times she had with her, in a dream. Which would support my last paragraph referring to the dream. Children are well known for associating real people with objects they are familiar with in their dreams, If the theory about her dead mother is correct, here's what supports it.

"I found an apple
A red and shining apple
I took its photograph"

She thinks she found her mother, and she was perfect, she took it's photograph to remember it by, which now is more important than previously.

"I hid the apple in the attic
I opened the skylight
and the sun said Ah!"

The apple is her dead mother, and the attic is a euphimism for Heaven, the skylight would be the door and the sun would be god.

"At night I checked that it was safe,
under the giggling stars,
and the sly moon. My cool apple."

She could've visited her grave in the evening, she's sad and trying to think happy thoughts, so associates the stars with humour.

"Whatever you are calling about,
I am not interested.
Go away. You with the big teeth."

This final stansa keeps stopping me from completing a good theory; it's quite disociated with the rest of the poem, which leads me on to think that it's disjointed in the storyline. So she could be having a bad dream; and the big teeth, could be something like a Truck or similar, the object which could've killed her mother.
Reply 7
I like the poem very much and it does make a lot of sense to me.

The speaker of the poem is lovesick, because she/he got this idealistic picture of love in mind which doesn't get along with the reality of things without being crushed (or gnawed at). Thinking of the photorealistic perfection and dedication still lifes sometimes have, the apple seems to be a great representation of that understanding of love. By trying to be super-realistic, because one got hurt before, is paradoxically making one lose one's sense of reality. Like an old/out-dated painting thats kept in the attic, which is kind of sad, because there is no sharing.

The moon, stars and sun seem to represent all the unreachable/illusionary hopes and possibilities connected to that love. Or not connected to it, thats the problem. They're somewhere in the sky, faraway from the apple, mere phantasies. It strikes as kind of childish (I somehow get the picture of an infant's mobile in my head here).

"my cool apple" underlines this immaturity of the speaker's approach to love. "Go away you with the big teeth" is of course a progression in terms of childishness/childish indignation. But I also think that the poem has a pretty self-ironic feel to it. There's some half-joking, half-bitter exaggeration going on. Maybe.

There may be more layers of meaning hidden there, but to me it seems quite simple, though clever and cohesive.
Reply 8
Thanks for dragging up a thread from 2008
Reply 9
Thanks for being the wonderful, ardent and forever annoyed person that you are.
Reply 10
Thanks for having nothing better to do then follow me around the forum like a love sick puppy. No i won't go out with you.
Reply 11
How about with me? :biggrin:
Reply 12
Go on then :h:
The apple symbolises that idealistic, perfect love/unrequited love that would be destroyed if it ever travelled out of your head and into reality.
Do you not feel that the apple signifies an affair that Duffy is having?

Most poems such as Little Red Cap have indirect references to Duffy's life. As you may know, Duffy married a man when she was a relatively young girl, but she divorced him after 10 years of marriage because she realised that she was lesbian. The apple, therefore, could symbolise Duffy's affair with a woman.

The poem starts with