Duffy explores the transition from childhood to adolescence, showing the innocence that has been lost through knowledge and experience in her poem ‘In Mrs Tilschers Class’ Duffy introduces us to a typical day in Mrs. Tilscher’s class, ‘You could travel up the Blue Nile/ with your finger, tracing the route/ while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery. Duffy successfully creates a childhood setting that is familiar to most people. She uses language such as ‘chalky’ and ‘glowed’ to represent a typical classroom scene as well as emphasise the light hearted approach that children have towards life due to their innocence of the world. Duffy highlights the contrast between the trivial priorities that the school children have, receiving a ‘gold star’ , compared to the pressures and priorities that adults have. “A rough boy/ told you how you was born.
You kicked him, but stared/ at your parents appalled, when you got back home” suggests the way in which as children, you’re more likely to act first and ask questions later, the child at this point still has an air of innocence around them as Duffy states that they were ‘appalled’ this shows some irony if compared to the language used in the next stanza as there is an element of awareness (‘Under the heavy, sexy sky’) as the persona grows up, due to the fact that they are developing. ‘ ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ deals with the themes of growth and change which the child has been through since being in her class.
The Essay on In Mrs Tilscher’s Class by Carol Ann Duffy
Task: Write about a memorable poem that portrays growing up and change. Show how the poet recreates the childhood experience and shows the children’s growing independence. Carol Ann Duffy’s memorable “In Mrs Tilscher’s Class” deals with the themes of growing up and change. Set in the eponymous teacher’s classroom the narrator starts by describing a joy and delight in learning which changes into ...
This has presented the persona’s journey from childhood to adolescence and the awareness that this has brought them, to the reader. The poem is voiced through a pupil of Mrs Tilscher’s class. Similarly, Pugh presents the journey that two boys had to make into adult hood in ‘Inter City Lullaby’ “Looking to find the streets paved with brass; fairy tales are practical, nowadays” She shows the ways in which the boys have obviously left their home in search of jobs, there are no fairytales for them now, only real life and the need to grow up in order to find jobs.
She presents the persona of a person who is obviously concerned for these boys “and if I could, I would make away the witch: break spells, change the frog-prince’s shape. ‘ The witch is suggested to be Margaret Thatcher as the poem is set in the time of her government, yet the persona can’t break this down as it’s only a fairytale fantasy, not real life. The streets paved of brass represents the typical image of London streets paved with gold, the oung-men have their lives ahead of them. “I would rebuild your trades and let you play at home all seasons long at doing what you liked, and being young. ” Rebuilding trade, the internal rhyme shows how beautiful this existence is and enjambment shows an easy flowing nature of the poem. Pugh shows that life isn’t what it seems and you may have to go on a journey, mentally and physically, before you get what you wish to achieve.
In contrast to these two poems, Duffy shows the journey through life in ‘River’ ,the poem itself is a metaphor, as you take a journey on a river but in this case, the river represents your life . Some people believe that this poem is about meeting ones maker as the entire poem, from the opening lines, is about a great sense of love, waiting to take the person on a journey to some unknown place. ‘A different babble, even a different name for the same river’ shows the new experiences that people face during their life as well as during their travels.
Duffy explores the ways in which most experiences in life are short lived so you should enjoy them, she shows the way in which there are more than one way to preserve memories such as picking flowers to ‘press’ ‘between the pages of a book’ The last stanza of the poem represents the end of the journey in the metaphoric death of the river as the ‘river runs into the sea’ the poem asks the reader what would you do at the end of your journey? ‘what would you write on a postcard’? It’s as if Duffy is asking you, would you rather keep the memories and savour every moment, or waste time with things like postcards.
The Essay on Emily Dickinson Death Life Poem
The complex fate of human beings in this tragic yet beautiful world and the possible fortunes of the human spirit in a subsequent life is what interests us all in life, and this is the central theme in most of Emily Dickinsons work. In her enticing poetry, Emily establishes a dialectical relationship between reality and imagination, the known and the unknown. By ordering the stages of life to ...
Both Duffy and Pugh explore journey through the depth of childhood and the way knowledge changes the outlook on life, however Duffy realises that, infact, not all transitions from childhood to adulthood run smoothly, and there are many cases in which emotional or physical growth is premature. This leaves the reader with the question: why do we need to grow up so quickly? Duffy and Pugh makes the reader realise that childhood should be cherished and knowledge and experience can taint, and even spoil, innocence, as growing up isn’t always as great as it may seem while you are a child.
