Answering Back: Living Poets Reply to the Poetry of the Past

by Carol Ann Duffy (editor)

Genres: Poetry
Pages: 144
Rating:

Synopsis:

Carol Ann Duffy has asked some of the brightest writers in the poetry world to select a poem that is meaningful—or has meant something—to them, and write a response to it. With up-and-coming poets alongside more established names, and original poems alongside the new works they've inspired, Answering Back promises to be a truly unique and insightful anthology.

Answering Back is a fascinating idea for a poetry collection, edited by Carol Ann Duffy, but shaped by the fact that each poet chosen has selected a poem by another poet to respond to. This gives the collection quite a range, with some of the responses being more like they were inspired by the poem, others being direct refutations, some being answers/echos…

Most of the poems being responded to were ones I knew, but not all, and there’s an interesting range of responding poets. Inevitably, it’s a mixed bag where some speak to me and some don’t, and there are some I didn’t appreciate much at all, but overall it’s an interesting idea with some interesting selections.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)