1. The Biographer
Carol Ann Duffy 1

2. Summary
Duffy uses a male speaker who is plagued by feelings of inadequacy. The biographer measures himself against a great writer whose work he admires, but whose success and talent he could never hope to emulate.
Main themes: feelings of failure, power, success, disappointment, memories, the power of language 2

3. Stanza 1 The Biographer Because you are dead, I stand at your desk,
“blue” is typically a colour associated with sadness.
“small” surmises that there is no space for movement in the room.
The verb “echo” shows that the biographer was very fond of the writers work and was maybe inspired by them.
The verb “caressing” suggests that the biographer had a warm, tender attitude towards the subject and maybe even saw them as family.
The biographer is reciting a quote from their idols work. The fact they “manage”(verb) shows that they are struggling, and maybe about to cry. This could also suggest the biographer is attempting to enter the writers mind and understand their creative process.
The Biographer
Because you are dead,
I stand at your desk,
my fingers caressing the grooves in the wood
your initials made;
and I manage a quote,
echo one of your lines in the small, blue room
where and early daguerreotype shows you
excitedly staring out
from behind your face,
the thing that made you yourself
still visibly there
like a hood and a cloak of light.
The first four words that I write are your name.
A daguerreotype: an early type of photograph. Could symbolise the earliest memory the biographer has of the writer/how old and possibly admired the writer was.
“excitedly staring out” suggests that the biographer still feels the writers presence
Simile- the picture and the memory of the person is bringing in the light to the “small, blue room”. Could be symbolic to the themes of death as a cloak is typically associated with the grim reaper, however the fact that it is “of light” suggests moving on towards a better place for the biographer, who is seemingly grieving over the writer.
The biographer is directly addressing the writer throughout this stanza which tells us that they still feel a presence and could also show that they do not want to move on

4. Stanza 2 I’m a passionate man with a big advance
This could be literal- the biographer could really be physically living as the writer.
It could be a mental journey where the biographer is attempting to live as the writer and experience everything once experienced by the writer.
In this stanza the biographer is now describing himself. He is representing himself as an adoring fan, motivated to write about the subject
The biographer is coming to realise how big of a gap there is between the writer and himself: the writer was incredibly successful, whereas the biographer feels as though he would be considered inferior by the writer
I’m a passionate man
with a big advance
who’s loved your work since he was a boy;
but the night
I slept alone in your bed,
the end of a fire going out in the grate,
I came awake-
certain, had we ever met,
you wouldn’t have wanted me,
or needed me,
would barely have noticed me at all.
Guilt and rage
hardened me then,
and later I felt your dislike
chilling the air
as I drifted away.
Your wallpaper green and crimson and gold.
Caesura introduces a shift to the poem: the biographer is describing himself living in his idols house, when he suddenly comes to the realisation the the writer would not have respected the biographer
Description of subject's wallpaper, stands alone and has no immediately obvious link to the rest of the stanza.
It could suggest the writers wealth: crimson and gold are colours generally associated with wealth, whereas the green could represent the envy of the biographer and how he could never be the writer.
Metaphorical language tells how the biographer is resenting himself at his failure to be as successful and talented as the writer
An enjambment is also used here to emphasise the biographers resentment towards him self- continuous and never ending.

5. Stanza 3 How close can I get to the sound of your voice
Words and images that depict the speakers feelings of weakness and inadequacy
How close can I get
to the sound of your voice
which Emma Elizabeth Hibbert described-
lively, eager and lightly-pitched,
with none of the later, bitter edge.
Cockney, a little.
In London town,
the faces you wrote
leer and gape and plead at my feet.
Once, high on Hungerford Bridge,
a stew and tangle of rags, sniffled by a dog, stood, spoke,
spat at the shadow I cast,
at the meagre shadow I cast in my time.
I heard the faraway bells of St Paul’s as I ran.
The narrator(biographer) is borrowing words from another biographer and relying on these to describe the writer, giving the effect that the biographer has nothing new to add.
The syndetic list conveys continuity and repetition, as if quite boring after a while
The abstract noun “shadow” is repeated. This implies that the speaker views himself as obscured, irrelevant and almost invisible to others.
Use of sibilance suggests that the biographer is feeling harassed by these inspiring places as they could be slowly pushing them away; again,intensifying the feeling of inferiority.
The biographer is visiting all the places that inspired the writer in an attempt to get to know him better. However, the biographer unwelcome is in these places.

6. Stanza 4 Maestro. Monster. Mummy’s Boy. My Main Man.
Repeated alliteration and repeated adjectives convey the obsession of the writer by the biographer
“maestro” is Italian for master, or teacher. This shows how much the biographer looks up to his subject.
The biographer is now focussing on similarities between himself and the writer. They both seem to take pride in their sexual conquests as he is intimating that the writer would have “approved” of his affair with a “Thespian girl” (actress)
Maestro. Monster. Mummy’s Boy.
My Main Man.
I write you and I write you for five hard years.
I have an affair with a Thespian girl-
you would have approved-
then I snivel home to my wife.
Her poems and jam.
Her forgiveness.
Her violent love.
And this is a life.
I print it out.
In all of your mirrors, my face;
with its smallish, its quizzical eyes,
its cheekbones, its sexy jaw,
its talentless, dust jacket smile.
Minor sentences portray his relationship with his wife as very mixed. With violent and love juxtaposing each other, this suggests that their marriage is unhealthy.
No matter how close the biographer gets to his subject, he will always lack his greatness and literary talent. This is conveyed by a list the biographer uses the describe himself: starts off positive with adjectives such as “sexy” and finishes with negative adjectives such as “talentless”
The use of the word “sexy” depicts the writer as powerful and masculine, however these are undermined by the use of “talentless” and “dust jacket smile”
The use of the mirrors could convey the two subjects as doubles- mirror images of each other. This creates the effect of finally achieving that desire, however due to the last three lines, the biographer has almost fulfilled that, but not quite due to the literary differences.