Contemporary Literary Reading: A Must for English Education—Carol Ann Duffy’s Poetry as an Example

Abstract

The importance of literary reading for English education has long been widely recognized. With the development of society and academic research, the function of contemporary literary reading is highlighted. Like Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry, having inherited the valuable skills of artistic creation from literary canon, contemporary poems directly represent contemporary social problems and values of contemporary people, bringing to readers a thorough picture of the society and up-to-date use of traditional poetic art, which can help students acquire cultural knowledge, improve language proficiency, find pleasure in literary appreciation, and get moral lessons at the same time, thus achieving the aims of English education: to be good at cross-cultural communication and be individuals of integrity.