‘I wonder if the spirit of the water has anything / to say.’ : Water imagery in Carol Ann Duffy’s Poetry: A Pedagogical Consideration

Abstract: This essay presents an ecocritical reading of water imagery in selected poems by Carol AnnDuffy, with focus on Duffy’s personified water-voices, how water illuminates history, andDuffy’s metaphor of language as water. After a consideration of the problematics of teachingpoetry in the EFL classroom, the essay concludes that Duffy’s poetry holds potential forstudents to develop environmental literacy, both in content and in form.