Quickdraw, Carol Ann Duffy

This poem is about a relationship that isn't so smooth. There is tension and excitement.

The uses modern technology (phones) and compares it to a gun fight. The narrator seems left hurt and wounded. The relationship seems reactionary and volatile. There is a contrast between old fashioned imagery and technology. In a way, the poem is a parody of an argument and a Western.


The poem has a loose structufe but is Full of enjambment, assonance, alliteration and internal rhyme; the poem has a tense feel to it.

There is a lot of cliched imagery from TV and cinema.

Lines 5 and 9 are split, to reflect the hurt she feels.

The poem expresses ideas about hurt, expectation and tension.

Could compare with: The Farmer's Bride, In Paris With You and, in a different way, The Manhunt.