Nostalgia Carol Ann Duffy

Starter To explore and understand what Duffy thinks about the term ‘nostalgia’ using language and structure

Starter What is homesickness? What is nostalgia? Can we ever revisit the past?

Swiss Mercenaries In the 1700’s Swiss mercenaries (soldiers) came down from the mountains and worked for the French army. Many of them became sick and some even committed suicide. It was agreed that these men all suffered from a strange illness. This illness later became known as nostalgia.

Content Read through the poem and discuss what the poem is about. The poem seems to be about the Swiss soldiers and how there nostalgia for their homes and families started to make them ill. However, when one soldier returns, life has moved on.

Title The Greek ‘nostos’ means return. The Greek word ‘algos’ means suffering. An ancient Greek mythological man named Odysseus was kept apart from his wife and family for twenty years. His story is about his trials and tribulations in returning home.

Stanza 1 The repetition of ‘down, down’ has both a literal meaning and a metaphorical meaning. What are they? The alliteration in line four is very harsh. What is the meaning for this? Why are the coins referred to as ‘strange food’? What word is repeated throughout the last half of the stanza? Why? Where do you imagine the men point when they say, ’they had an ache, here’?

Stanza 2 What was given a name? The ‘sweet pain’ is an oxymoron. What does it mean in reference to nostalgia? The alliteration in lines three and four creates a sense of heaviness or even sighing. Why does it do this? Find the personification in the stanza and comment on the effect. Why is ‘summoning’ separated from the rest of the poem through a caesura? Why is it a ‘yellow ball’ and ‘long grass’? What does this tell us about memory?

But, the word was out “Some would never fall in love had they not heard of love.” This is a difficult idea to understand. But, put simply, if we didn’t have a word for a concept, like love, would we know what we were feeling? Language has so much power.

Final stanza What does the priest look back on in regret? Why is the teacher sad? When a soldier finally returns home what does he find at first? At the end of the poem, what has the soldier realise?

Structure The poem has irregular stanzas and no rhyme scheme. What could this disorder relate to?