New Year: Key Quotes

“New Year: Key Quotes”

“but in my mind, I catch the world”

  • This line begins the poem and immediately presents the narrator’s introspective, reflective stance.
  • The phrase ‘catch the world’ suggests an attempt to understand and capture the complexity of human experience.

“whole cities that could fill a glass”

  • Duffy employs metaphor to depict the magnitude of human life and experience, suggesting the vastness of cities could be condensed into something small enough to fit within a glass.
  • This also emphasises the fragility and transient nature of human life, with cities fitting into glass, which can be easily broken or emptied.

“I breathe an air of loss and leave”

  • The use of alliteration here, with the repeated ‘l’ sounds, creates a musicality in the poem, enhancing its reflective tone.
  • This line also captures the mixed feelings associated with the New Year, combining the sense of loss from leaving the past with the hope for what lies ahead.

“on a door-step, a dark-clothed child”

  • There’s a heavy sense of foreboding and uncertainty underscored here, as the ‘dark-clothed’ child at the ‘door-step’ could symbolise the unknown troubles of the upcoming year.
  • The child is also a potent symbol of change and growth, commonly associated with the New Year.

“The century turns its frosted head”

  • This line uses personification to characterise the turn of the century as a living, sentient being looking back, and hence reinforces the poem’s reflective mood.
  • The ‘frosted head’ perhaps suggests a sense of age, wisdom, but also coldness and detachment, perhaps reflecting the narrator’s view on the passing of time and changing years.

“I wish you, in elegant script, a happy new year”

  • The direct address here contributes to the personalised and intimate tone of the poem.
  • Despite the poem’s reflective, somewhat melancholic tone, it ends on a note of hope and positivity, expressed in the traditional New Year’s well-wishing. This demonstrates Duffy’s characteristic layering of different emotions and perspectives.