1. Carol Ann Duffy Megan, Zoe and Saffron
Never Go Back
Carol Ann Duffy
Megan, Zoe and Saffron

2. Never Go Back by Carol Ann Duffy
In the bar where the living dead drink all day
and a jukebox reminisces in a cracked voice
there is nothing to say. You talk for hours
in agreed motifs, anecdotes shuffled and dealt
from a well-thumbed pack, snapshots. The smoky mirrors
flatter; your ghost buys a round for the parched,
old faces of the past. Never return
to the space where you left time pining till it died.
Outside, the streets tear litter in their thin hands,
a tired wind whistles through the blackened stumps of houses
at a limping dog. God, this is an awful place
says the friend, the alcoholic, whose head is a negative
of itself. You listen and nod, bereaved. Baby,
what you owe to this place is unpayable
in the only currency you have. So drink up. Shut up,
then get them in again. Again. And never go back.
The house where you were one of the brides
has cancer. It prefers to be left alone
nursing its growth and cracks, each groan and creak
accusing as you climb the stairs to the bedroom
and draw your loved body on blurred air
with the simple power of loss. All the lies
told here, and all the cries of love,
suddenly swarm in the room, sting you, disappear.
You shouldn’t be here. You follow your shadow
through the house, discover that objects held
in the hands can fill a room with pain.
You lived here only to stand here now
and half-believe that you did. A small moment
of death by a window myopic with rain.
You learn this lesson hard, speechless, slamming
the front door, shaking plaster confetti from your hair.
A taxi implying a hearse takes you slowly,
the long way round, to the station. The driver
looks like death. The places you knew
have changed their names by neon, cheap tricks
in a theme-park with no name. Sly sums of money
wink at you in the cab. At a red light,
you wipe a slick of cold sweat from the glass
for a drenched whore to stare you full in the face.
You pay to get out, pass the Welcome To sign
on the way to the barrier, an emigrant
for the last time. The train sighs
and pulls you away, rewinding the city like a film,
snapping it off at the river. You go for a drink,
released by a journey into nowhere, nowhen,
and all the way home you forget. Forget. Already
the fires and lights come on wherever you live.
In this poem, the narrator returns to the place where they grew up / used to live and feels depressed by the changes to the area that they find and the memories evoked by the trip.
There are overall semantic fields and themes of old age, death, illness, alcoholism, returning to your past and memories within each of the stanzas of the poem.
The narrator encounters people that they were once close to but is unable to communicate with them in a meaningful way.

3. Time and the jukebox are personified to accentuate there
importance to the narrator – the
jukebox is reminiscing as is the
narrator and shows the pain of the
old memories – ‘cracked voice’.
There is a semantic field of old age and death within this stanza.
Oxymoron – symbolising the old or ill or those who have given up on life
The context and theme of a bar and drinking alcohol is frequent throughout the stanza.
In the bar where the living dead drink all day
and a jukebox reminisces in a cracked voice
there is nothing to say. You talk for hours
in agreed motifs, anecdotes shuffled and dealt
from a well-thumbed pack, snapshots. The smoky mirrors
flatter; your ghost buys a round for the parched,
old faces of the past. Never return
to the space where you left time pining till it died.
Antithesis
Metaphor alluding
to the narrator’s
old age / the sense
of giving up on life
/ their almost
non-existent presence
in the bar.
Gambling (physically or
with your life) or luck
Shows an atmosphere
of ambiguity and the
unknown –
mystery / magic
Time and the past
are key themes in
this stanza
The abstract noun, ‘ghost’
suggests that the narrator
doesn’t feel entirely present
in the bar – doesn’t feel like
themselves or the person
they used to be when they
were in the bar before.
Direct address to
audience / narrator talking to
themselves internally and remembering events
Enjambment is used throughout the stanza to emphasise certain lexis such as , ‘hours’ and phrases such as, ‘smoky mirrors’.
Memories and reminiscing
on past events are key
themes in this stanza.

4. declarative sentences
Personification is used as
poetic imagery to show the
desolate and grim setting of
the streets.
Themes of alcoholism,
drinking and death / bereavement.
Personification and
pathetic fallacy show
the ‘tired’ and
gloomy atmosphere
of the setting.
Outside, the streets tear litter in their thin hands,
a tired wind whistles through the blackened stumps of houses
at a limping dog. God, this is an awful place
says the friend, the alcoholic, whose head is a negative
of itself. You listen and nod, bereaved. Baby,
what you owe to this place is unpayable
in the only currency you have. So drink up. Shut up,
then get them in again. Again. And never go back.
Dialogue – written in italics
to show that it is
spoken
Direct address
to audience /
narrator talking to
themselves internally
and remembering events
Metaphor
Repetition
Repetition and consonance – stresses the lexis, ‘up’ and shows the tension felt by the narrator.
Alliteration
Short, simple,
declarative sentences
These features are used to show
the monotony of the actions and accentuate the narrators feeling of being trapped in an unpleasant cycle.

5. Direct address to audience /
The atmosphere in the house is described with emotive language as hostile and full of tension.
Direct address to audience /
narrator talking to themselves internally and remembering events
The house where you were one of the brides
has cancer. It prefers to be left alone
nursing its growth and cracks, each groan and creak
accusing as you climb the stairs to the bedroom
and draw your loved body on blurred air
with the simple power of loss. All the lies
told here, and all the cries of love,
suddenly swarm in the room, sting you, disappear.
Personification
Theme of illness
and frailty
Metaphor – ambiguous – symbolic of a hazy memory
Internal rhyme
Enjambment is used throughout the stanza to emphasise certain lexis such as, ‘creak’ and ‘love’ – creating a clear image of the narrator’s feeling and the setting. It is also used to create caesuras that mimic natural speech.
Triplet
Metaphor

6. You shouldn’t be here. You follow your shadow
Enjambment is used throughout the stanza to emphasise certain lexis such as, ‘pain’ and ‘rain’ – creating a clear image of the narrator’s feeling and the setting. It is also used to create caesuras that mimic natural speech.
Direct address to audience and repetition / narrator talking to themselves internally and remembering events.
Rhyme of ‘pain’ and ‘rain’ – creates a structure and rhythm for the poem and emphasises each of the lexis individually.
You shouldn’t be here. You follow your shadow
through the house, discover that objects held
in the hands can fill a room with pain.
You lived here only to stand here now
and half-believe that you did. A small moment
of death by a window myopic with rain.
You learn this lesson hard, speechless, slamming
the front door, shaking plaster confetti from your hair.
Metaphor
Pathetic fallacy – showing the mood
of the narrator to be unhappy
“myopic” –> short-sighted
Alliteration
Another reference
to death
Metaphor
List – creates a long, complex,
declarative sentence to aid emotive description of events and the creation
of imagery.
Onomatopoeia is used to highlight
the narrators mood as they leave the
house. The verb, ‘slamming’ suggests
that the narrator is unhappy with the
the memories brought back to them.

7. The description of a taxi as ‘implying a hearse’ can suggest
Metaphor – changes in a familiar place – ‘theme park with no name’ (the town / the narrators life) – the demise of a place they once new
The description of a taxi as
‘implying a hearse’ can suggest
that the narrator feels as if the old
personality that they had when they lived in this area is now dead.
Like life in the town, the
long way round – can’t
get out of the town fast
enough
A taxi implying a hearse takes you slowly,
the long way round, to the station. The driver
looks like death. The places you knew
have changed their names by neon, cheap tricks
in a theme-park with no name. Sly sums of money
wink at you in the cab. At a red light,
you wipe a slick of cold sweat from the glass
for a drenched whore to stare you full in the face.
Alliteration – highlights
the cunningness of the
people of the town and
the narrators disgust
of the money and
the town.
Theme of death
Personification – shows the vulgarity of the town and the temptation of the narrator.
Metaphor for condensation
or actually sweat on the
glass.
The narrator sees the town as a grotesque / ‘cheap’ and they no longer fit in there and are relieved to be leaving / escaping.
Direct address to audience /
narrator talking to themselves
internally and remembering events.

8. Repetition – puts stress on the lexis and shows its importance.
Direct address to audience
/ narrator talking to themselves
internally and remembering events.
Shows that it is a sign and is
juxtaposing to her leaving the town.
Capitals
Personification – symbolising the narrators relief of escaping the town
You pay to get out, pass the Welcome To sign
on the way to the barrier, an emigrant
for the last time. The train sighs
and pulls you away, rewinding the city like a film,
snapping it off at the river. You go for a drink,
released by a journey into nowhere, nowhen,
and all the way home you forget. Forget. Already
the fires and lights come on wherever you live.
Never going back to the town again – it is not home to them anymore. They escape to their new ‘home’ where they feel accepted and happy while ‘forget[ting]’ about the town they just came from.
Simile
Nonsense word – slight
repetition
Repetition – puts stress on the lexis and shows its importance.
Short, sharp, declarative sentence (only one word)
- Stresses the importance of the lexis, ‘forget’. This shows that the narrator really does want to forget this experience and the town.
Warm / happy – the opposite of the town that she just came from – somewhere that she loves.

9. How do Nostalgia and Never Go Back present the theme of memory?
Returning to your home town
Both feature pain of returning but in different ways/ for different reasons.
Theme of death in both poems (one is physical illness, one metaphorical).
Both about fear (Nostalgia – fear of (not) leaving, NGB fear of memory).
Sense of regret.
Second person pronoun (direct address) “you” in NGB whereas Nostalgia uses the situation of Swiss mercenaries to convey the idea of nostalgia.
Subtle internal, irregular rhyming – Nostalgia (“kill” and “ill”) and NGB (“pain” and “rain”).
Use of imagery – metaphor and personification in both poems (WHAT DO THESE CONVEY?)
Nostalgia has lexical field of war, NGB has lexical field of illness.
Use of oxymoron: Nostalgia (“sweet pain”) and NGB (“living dead”).