 Hello and welcome to our video summarizing all you need to know about Caroline Duffy's poetry. This video is essentially a summary of Caroline Duffy's poetry which is part of the English GCSE CIE anthology collection. My name is Barbara and in this video I'll summarize each poem which is part of this collection beginning with a little bit of context about Caroline Duffy herself before analyzing each poem within this collection. Do make sure you have your anthology handy and before you listen to each poem analysis read the poem first in this way you'll get a better grasp of its meaning. So let's get started. So now a little bit about the author herself Caroline Duffy. She's a Scottish poet and playwright and she's a professor of contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University and also she was appointed in 2009 Britain's Poet Laureate before resigning in 2019 ten years later. She was the first woman, the first squat and the first openly go poet to hold this position and when it comes to her poetry hit itself her poems express and address issues related to oppression, gender, violence and she does so in a really accessible language for wider reading. Now to begin with when it comes to collection the collection begins with a poem head of English. Now this poem is made up of five stanzas and it's divided into sets of six lines and it doesn't adhere to a particular rhyme pattern however it does contain a number of rhyming lines distributed throughout the stanzas. Whilst it's notable for its more narrative-like structure and it edges close to a stream of consciousness it's still slightly too controlled to be placed firmly in that realm. The speaker in this poem is the head of an English department and they're the only character with any agency in the poem and the entire poem itself is made up of the instructor's dialogue as they address English students. This monologue is about dismissing a visiting poet as well as attempting to keep control over their students. As mentioned before this poem is made up of a monologue told from the perspective of the head of an English program and the speaker seems quite dismissive of the poet throughout the piece as we'll see. Now if we look at stanza one in this first stanza the main character and the only speaker in the narrative starts a monologue. It's easy to imagine this person standing up in front of the class and addressing all the students. The instructor begins by stating that there's a poet in the class today. The students seem to be receiving an out-of-school visitor who's presumably there to speak about their work. The second line in this stanza is more humorous as the speaker the head of English seems to be making fun of the visitor as well as the concept that the published work imbued them with ability to lecture on a subject and we get the sense that perhaps the speaker has a sense of jealousy towards them. The teacher then tells the girls in class to make sure that they take a moment to notice the writer's ink-stained fingers. Now in stanza two the head of English's line of speech is cut off between these stanzas. This is the point in the poem in which the reader will come to understand that no one else is going to have a say or get the chance to speak. The instructor or rather the head of English asks that the girls sit up straight and listen to what the poet has to say. Almost as a side note this head of English reminds the class of a previous lesson in which they learned about assonance and the repetitive rhyming in a poem. They then point out that in the poet's case there is no rhyme in the work. They seem to be denigrating this poet's work. Now in stanza three the teacher then moves on to specifically target the students who are in the class with English as a second language. In other words they're foreign English speakers. The speaker says that these students must see them after the break and the reason for this is unknown however it does make this speech more believable as we can sense normal school politics are making their way into a very planned lecture from a visitor. Once again the instructor says as a poem states we're fortunate to have a person in our midst. It's almost as if this head of English is having to remember not to act too petty or too dismissive towards the poet. Unsurprisingly they then turn the narrative to their own personal work and their own personal poetry reminding the class about that the visiting poet hasn't done equally as impressively as they have. In the fourth stanza the head of English is really trying to wrap up their speech but they seem to be unable to. There's also another passive aggressive comment as they state or rather they point to the poet and it seems like the head of English doesn't really believe that this person is inspirational worth listening to. The teacher is unable to stop speaking and they ask the students to, the poem says, open a window up at the back. They're searching for another thing to say or a way to properly end this extremely strange introduction. This section continues on as instructor asks that the students make sure they take notes but not too many as there's just an essay on the poet's themes due. In the last two lines of this stanza the teacher finally allows the poet to speak. We get the sense that this head of English feels really undervalued in this situation and they feel that their work is going unappreciated. Now in the final stanza the poet has just finished a talk and the teacher is now dismissing the students to run along and go about their day. The speaker states that certainly the talk must have given and as a poem says, inside into an outside view. It seems to be the whole reason for inviting this person at least on the part of the administration is to get this outsider's view. Someone felt it was necessary that the girl's hair from another writer, someone who's not teaching them every day, which the head of English appears to resent a little bit. The students then applaud the poet but not too much. The instructor then asks the writer or rather thanks the writer for coming to the school. However they do tell them that they don't have time to stay for lunch and clearly dismisses them to get them out as quickly as possible. It seems that the teacher is really keen that everything is back to normal after this poet is gone. Now the second poem in this collection is War Photographer and this poem is interesting because it focuses our attention on war photographers who are people who essentially endanger the lives to take photographs of war in war torn areas and it helps us as readers visualise the horrors of war in other parts of the world. The photos we see in Sunday supplements embellishing headlines and posters are taken by these really courageous people and so Caroline Duffy's poem here wants to depict the poet's opinions towards society as well as the agonies of war in addition to the lack of interest in mankind towards it. In the poem itself the photographer has been to all the troubled spots of the world including Belfast, Berylutum, Nampen and of course this is a stark contrast with the home of this photographer which as the poem quotes is rural England. We get this contrast between what is a really idyllic setting where people passively read about others people suffering outside of the world versus also how much they don't seem to care about all this suffering that's going on around the world. The photographer finds themselves in a dark room in other words this room is where they develop these photos. He notices a photograph developed before his eyes and he thinks of the differences between the places he's just visited and where he calls home. He remembers the people in the photographs what they were doing when he was taking the images and he recollects how he looked at one man's wife and he asked for permission to take a photograph of this man who was suffering and dying. The photographer then realizes that people are not really influenced by his work for more than a short time. He knows that all of his work all the danger that he underwent to take these pictures will be reduced to just a few pictures in the glossy magazine and the magazine will ultimately be disposed of. Now in stanza one of this poem though the title of the poem is war photographer in actuality it brings to light the difference between rural England and the places where wars are fought for instance Northern Ireland, Lebanon and Cambodia. We also see a difference or the comfort of the newspaper editor who accepts these photographs as well as the readers in contrast with the suffering of the people who are the subjects of these photographs. There is no name given to the photographer he remains anonymous and thus they could be anyone who's recording these war scenes. It's interesting that the photographer actually occupies a unique position as he's neither an observer nor a recorder of others lives he's just an outsider both where he comes from as well as where he goes to take visits. Also in stanza one there's a simile where the poet compares the photographer to a priest which represents his seriousness towards his job it seems that he's very invested in these images and he to some degree appears to feel that he helps those who are helpless perhaps his photos give them a little bit of a voice. His darkroom is the resemblance of a church wherein the red light is similar to a coloured lantern. The poet also has used this image here which is similar to a priest as the priest gives sermons on how fragile we've become and how short lived our life has become and perhaps a photograph is a similar metaphor. The quotation in the stanza all flesh is grass brings the Old Testament book of Isaiah to mind wherein the latter contrasts the shortness of human life with eternal religious truths. The poem also has a list of several places names wherein he says life is too short to be normal due to wars only. Thus the poem actually discusses the aftermaths of war and death. When the poet says in the poem the only light is red and softly glows. The poet brings to light the connotations of danger and blood loss in the war but also relates us to the light in the room wherein the photographer does development photos that he's taken during the war. There's also a plethora of other religious imagery in this stanza for instance in tone a mass where a church and he a priest and of course in toning a mass is reciting a religious ceremony. Now in stanza two Carol Andofi writes he has a job to do. So we as readers notice that the photographer is really trying to justify his work perhaps he feels some guilt for taking these images and he's trying to justify that this is just his job. This is when he comes in front of the true reality however and it contradicts his calm nature in photography whilst photographing. The fact that he's at home in raw England might also suggest why he finds his hands are shaking and why it's so personal. While developing the pictures he sees the as a poem states half formed ghost of a man. This emotive language suggests he's now seen the soldiers die instead of then when he was taking the photographs. He thinks that everyone must know what's actually happening in this war but at the same time that there's a sense of doubt and guilt when the readers are told quote how the bloodstained into foreign dust. The use of the phrase a hundred agonies which is a hyperbole. We see the poet is bringing to light the contents of the photos and showing how devastating war can be. However the readers are also aware of the fact that merely a small section will be opted for which might have some impact on the readers whose as a poem says eyeballs pricked but this impact isn't very permanent because they're then going to shift the focus elsewhere and forget about the image. This stanza brings out the differentiation between the two shelves of the photographer. In the first shelf he remains very calm, very cool and dedicated towards his job. However when he comes back to his dark room he starts developing the pictures and his hands are trembling. He sees the ghosts of dead soldiers dead people in the prints of the photographs he's developed possibly for the first time in a real sense. This means that the impacts of the photographs don't leave him after he's arrived home. The use of the words like solutions in the poem not only mean developing the fluid in the trays where you develop a photo but it also means suggesting perhaps a solution to resolving political problems around the world. However we also question whether photographs are a solution at all. Now in stanza three the poet creates a really strange situation for the readers. There's some sense of suspense when the poem states something is happening. It seems that the war photographs have now began to come through onto the print and the tray of solutions. The poet once again takes a photographer to his painful memories and the photographs taken in the war start appearing on the print like a half-formed ghost of the dead man's photograph. The picture of the dead man's wife also come to mind and he remembers her cries and thinks how he was able to seek approval of his wife. Though getting her permission to take her dead husband's photograph was tough enough he could take it without speaking even a single word to her. This however we sense is a really traumatic situation for the photographer. Now in the final stanza the poem talks about the process of photo selection by the photographer's editor. The mixed reactions the reader have when they read it and the photographer's own agony. He says that although he's got a collection of hundreds of war photographs the editor will pick just six or five photos as per his requirements and publish them in the story covered relevant to war. The poet says that photographer knows it's going to be very late for the readers to see the photos taken by him. They may surely look at the photographs on Sunday morning either while having a bathroom or be at lunchtime however they'll probably soon afterwards forget about these images. Of course there may be some readers who feel a little bit teary and tears might come into their eyes after looking at the photos. However the photographer knows the vapid feelings and these people will not be able to truly and intimately understand the real sufferings of the victims that are depicted in these images. Now the next poem in this collection is Recognition. So this poem is an eight stanza poem and is divided into sets of four lines which are also known as quaterines. These quaterines don't follow any specific rhyming pattern and they're often split in half. Now this poem describes the regrets one woman has for the way that her life has progressed and the person that she's become. Throughout the poem the speaker struggles to recognize herself and remember the life she lived in the past. She goes through a number of different experiences and her attempts to improve herself as a woman and a partner to a man who she doesn't want to disappoint. The poem concludes with the speaker as an old woman apologizing to her younger self for the choices she made. Now in stanza one the speaker describes the fact that she seems to have lost the point or direction in her life. There are a number of elements in her life which she's either lost track of or she no longer knows how to consider. She feels this distinctly as having let herself go. It's as if she made a mistake lost her care. Now in stanza two the speaker transfers her worry over to her own body. She's looking back on the life she's lived and attempting to recall her past. She states that she, in quote, strains to remember a time when her body felt differently than it does now. She wants to remember when she felt lighter. And this concept of lightness is most likely in reference to both her physical body as well as her mind. The next line begins with the word years, expanding lightness to encompass her whole life. She longs to fill the freedom and openness and the possibility she had of early years. Now in stanza three, the speaker puts powder on her face. But however, this does nothing. It only flakes off rather than cover her skin as she would but she would. There is no way to hide what her life has become. Additionally, it's important to note that the speaker's first reaction, which is an instinctual attempt to rectify the swollen aspects of her face come from makeup. She's trying to make herself more attractive, hoping it will improve her life. The poem continues on and other characters enter into this drama. The speaker refers to a man whom she's loved. However, she no longer feels a passion she used to. It's a love that comes more from habit. There's no proof of the relationship that she had with this man. This man is frustrated by the trajectory of his partner's life and he gets upset because things aren't how they used to be. In an attempt to remedy this issue, she's done all the essentials. Now in stanza four, these essentials that she mentions are defined and they contain one trip. It was on this trip that she tried to do what was expected of her. She knows that this choice must have been a foolish one, but all the same she tried. The reader gets no more information about what these attempts were, apart from one word, which is quiche. This might lend or rather lead a reader to feel that she did everything she believed a proper wife should do. This might have perhaps involved cooking breakfast, in this case quiche, as has become the pattern in this piece, the next two lines jumped another memory. This one is of the time she met this man with whom she's slowly separating or breaking up with. He was what she calls a blond boy and he promised her the earth. Her partner was idealistic in his vision and she saw him in a similar light. From just these few words, it's clear that when she entered the relationship she wasn't considering the deeper problem she might confront. In stanza five, while considering the memories that were mentioned, the speaker talks directly to the reader and says, you must see this came back. Once more, the poet fuses a mental and physical barrier. The speaker isn't standing on a scale, but on scales. This brings to mind the concept of decision making and the choices that the speaker is having to do, which will be made in the future. It's impossible to escape the reference to femininity and the pressure to maintain a certain weight, a certain youthful beauty and a certain way of being was associated with being an attractive woman. One more single word interrupts the lines here, which is shallots. This is another reference to her attempts to conform to the norm and cook as she believes she's supposed to. This is expanded in the following lines when she looks in the window and sees the creamy ladies who are stuck holding a pose. This is a moment in which the speaker is seeing into a life that she could have had and she sees what she was traditionally supposed to be. Now in stanza six, after the speaker was looking onto the creamy ladies, she's felt feeling as the poem states, clogged and old. The speaker reacted as society would have her to seeing what's deemed a proper life. When she observes others whose lives seem to be better and more beautiful than hers, she feels worse about herself. The next line begins with the waste. She sees herself in this light as if she's thrown away her life. This is embodied in a moment when she's she describes in which she fumbles with her personal store. This is spoken of as being a tragedy, as if no real woman would make this mistake. Now in stanza seven, we learn that the narrator has left this store where she was fumbling for her purse whilst she was shopping and the home she was living in and the structural life she was leading. She's left all of this. She disregards the norm of her world. She wears only his slip or her underdress and enjoys the feeling of the water soaking through her skin. This whole event is prefaced by the phrase, it did happen. This might make a reader doubt what it truly was. This is a very real moment in her life, especially in comparison to the interaction she had with the shop girl in the shop. She's feeling something that's real and truly physical in this contrast with the loss that she felt at the beginning of the piece. She reacts to this contrast by laughing. She releases all the years of her life that she suffered through in constraints. Her released emotions are blind and hot, they're real, new and unstructured and they come in without direction. Now in stanza eight, the second embodiment is really her life as it really is. Her emotions collide and the worried nervous woman really come to the fall and we see how she's actually growing up to be. We learned that in the seven stanza the speaker began her phrase, his story rather, with the phrase it did happen. With the addition of the eighth stanza it becomes clear that she did have this release of emotions or if she did it was so far in the past that she no longer experiences the benefits of this moment. She has become most what she feared, the cold, unfeeling woman who strains to remember her past. The speaker imagines this woman reaching out her own reflection and touching the glass she's stirring. She speaks the final words of the poem apologizing for the life that she's lived. Now the next poem in this collection is stealing and this poem is presented in five stanzas with no set rhyming pattern. Duffy has stated that like many poems she writes in a conversational style the poem naturally fell into verses of five lines. The tone is morose and angry and the poem is told in first person narrative and is unlikely to be the voice of the poet herself. The gender of the speaker is never revealed and it's left ambiguous. Now it's a trademark of Duffy to be able to slip into different characters of voices and she shows that in this poem creating a strong narrative voice that's remarkably different from her own. The poem both opens and closes with a question giving it an interesting symmetry. The opening question sounds like the narrator is echoing back a question that's just being asked as if the poem is meandering to answer the question. The last line acts as if having told the story the narrator is frustrated that the person asking the original question doesn't understand the answer. Duffy purposefully uses a snowman as a metaphor for the protagonist and this is clever as people generally associate the cold and adjectives relating to cold with negative personality traits. With a small amount of words Duffy created this cold calculated character who has no problems committing crime just for the thrill of it or out of boredom. However Duffy also creates an element of sympathy for this character. You start to sense that they're not very happy with a lot in life. Now looking at stanza one Duffy as is common in her work addresses the reader directly. The use of a question to open the poem instantly engages the reader and she uses a very strong narrative voice in this poem. She employs short sentences throughout the poem to create a sense of abruptness and hints at the character of the narrator. She shows glimpses of a suggested frailty to the narrator as they refer to a snowman as a mate to signify that they don't have a real friend. The character has a strong but negative opinion of themselves suggesting the coldness of this snowman mirroring their own personality which is a recurring theme throughout the poem. Now in stanza two the opening line in the enjumpment that follows give the character an anti-authoritarian quality. Suggesting that life isn't important if you don't get the things you want throughout the stanza the snowman is almost certainly a metaphor for this character themselves. This idea is solidified in the penultimate sentence when the narrator says they get a thrill out of knowing that stealing the snowman will hurt children. The short sentence life's tough acts as an exclamation point. Now in stanza three Duffy uses enjumpment lines once again. On this first line she states that she joy rides cars or he or she states that they joy ride cars and in the second line to follow the speaker says that they joy ride cars to nowhere and this sentence runs on giving a slight pause as if there's a refrain in a brief second. We wonder if this is the narrator being wistful looking back on the misdeeds. The character reflects on their actions stating watching the gloved hand and this stanza is all about the character being introspective rather than being reviled by their own devious actions. We at this point we find that the character feels no shame and the reader perhaps won't feel a lot of sympathy for them and the actions that they engage in. Now in stanza four we get another insight into the narrator. Before we've seen them as scornful and hateful but here we see them as much angrier. However this ironically could soften them a little bit it perhaps gives the reader a chance to understand why they're so hateful. They see the hatred is fueled by anger and it gives an inquisitive mind the desire to understand the motivations. The act of attacking the snowman which is actually a metaphor for the narrator themselves seems symbolic of self-destruction. Now in stanza five it seems that the character is trying to justify their actions by stating that they're simply bored. However they go on to elaborate. Perhaps it seems that they don't think it's acceptable to do these things out of regular boredom but somehow being bored they could eat themselves means it's okay. The stealing of the guitar mentioned in this stanza represents the character seems apathetic. The fact that the narrator says that they thought they might learn to play suggests that they did it but without starting a new sentence they move on quickly to another strange object that they stole. The next poem is foreign. Now this poem is a four stanza poem which is separated in sets of five lines or quintets. While this piece does not have a particular rhyme scheme the lines are very consistent in length and the number of words used. This gives an overall and even rhythmic sound and feel. Additionally the poem is written in second person. The poet has made use of this perspective of an effort to cast the reader into the role of foreigner that she's crafted. It also reads as if the speaker is attempting to convince the reader of something. It's likely that these are the poet's experiences especially considering the insight into the emotions that they use in the story experiences. Perhaps she's hoping to make others understand. Foreign by Caroline Duffy casts the reader as an alienated foreigner in the city they've lived in for 20 years. The poem begins with the speaker describing the reader's surroundings to them. It's written in second person meaning that you will be the main speaker. It's clear from the beginning that the character the speaker has created doesn't feel at home in this place. They think in a different language and struggle with their own foreign accents. As the poem continues this person's world has developed further and fear is added into their life. There's a moment where they forget how to speak their second language forget how to read coins and are unable to understand the spoken word. This happens in tandem with you observing a derogatory slur written on the wall in spray paint further alienating the you from your place of residence. The poem ends with the person wondering what it would be like to peacefully drift off to sleep without wondering where and how they can belong. So in stanza one the speaker asks of her readers to cast themselves into the position of the main character. She's going to describe a number of different experiences and emotions while referring to the person experiencing them as you. She first asks that the reader imagine that they are living in a strange dark city. They're not new residents of this place but somehow it remains strange. The main character of the poem has lived in this place for 20 years in one of the dismal dwellings on the east side. These places are at once separate and familiar to the speaker. Her main character knows where they live but they do not feel they belong there. When this person is still being referred to as you they enter the home where they hear their own foreign accent echoing in the stairwell. Even though it's been 20 years this person still fills out of place. The accent has not changed nor has the language they think in. This is another element which sets them apart to speak in one way and think in another. Now in stanza two the day this person is living continues on until the moment they're writing home. Time has not made their current house any more like home to them and the only way they can access from their home or rather where they're from is through letter writing. Once more there's a divide between the internal voice and the external. The write in the native language and recite it in that way in their head and outside of this context there's no time for them to use it. These writings that the speaker is describing bring the main character to tears. You is reminiscing on the language that they know best and these memories bring up the sound of this person's mother's voice. The speaker states that this person is unsure why they're feeling so emotional in this moment. To reader though the loneliness and alienation is clearly being felt deeply. Now in stanza three the speaker describes what day to day life is like for someone who's completely fine to the world they're living in. This person is still being referred to as you and is using public transport and working in sleeping. They're functioning but it doesn't seem healthy. The poem then takes a darker turn at this point painting a world which is hostile towards the you that's described. The person who's the main character of the narrative comes upon a name for themselves spray painted on the wall. This is a clear reference to some kind of derogatory term. The speaker is refraining from saying which one so that the reader is able to connect with this moment. The experience would be quite a fearful one and cause someone living in to feel even more alienated. This character's world is described as coming to bits the tiny parts of life that one could hold on to or slipping away. The current home is turning against them. Now in stanza four which is the final stanza. The speaker describes you experiencing a moment where all understanding disappears. The world has been full of so much pressure and the main character is overwhelmed by everything. In this moment they're unable to understand coins in their hands and markings no longer make sense. It's as if the world is fading away and getting harder and harder to understand. The same thing is happening to language in the following lines. You're now pointing at fruit having forgotten the names. The loss goes further into everyday language. You, this person, is unable to understand what others are saying. The speaker then states to conclude that they're astounded by the idea that other people who are at home in the surroundings are able to go straight to bed and dream without worrying about not belonging. So now the next collection or rather the next poem in this collection is originally. So this poem is a three stanza poem which is divided into sets of eight lines and the stanzas don't follow a specific rhyme scheme nor do they contain one overpowering technique. Duffy instead makes use of a number of different ways of contrasting images in her reader's mind and throughout the poem Duffy utilises alliteration. This is most obvious in the first stanza with the repetition of the F sound. It can be seen in fell fields and fathers all within the first few lines. Additionally the first stanza is told from a very personal perspective as if the events are happening almost in real time. On the other hand the two following stanzas seem to come from a place of greater knowledge as if the child from the first section has grown up and is looking back on their life during this time period. It's also important to note the title of this piece originally. The word only comes into its full relevance in the final lines as the speaker contemplates what it means to originate from somewhere. She's clearly torn between the world she has made for herself part of and the place she physically came from. Originally by Caroline Duffy describes a child's transformation after emigrating to a new country. The poem begins with the speaker describing a car ride that took her and her family from the home country to a new one. They were all jammed in together and thinking the same thoughts that they wanted to go home. That was not possible though as the place they loved was many miles in the past and vacant. It was no longer home. In the second stanza the speaker has started to become part of her new settings but is still frightened by the voices and actions of people around her. She doesn't know how to contend with the boys who seem so grown up or with her parents' anxieties. In the final stanza she describes what it was like to lose her original accent and begin to sound like the other students. She also speaks on all the things she knows she's lost since coming to this country and the questions she still has about high identity. So let's begin with stanza one. In this first stanza the speaker begins by letting the reader know that she's traveling with a group of people. These events are not happening in the present moment they're being recalled at a later time. All the same this first stanza seems to be more confined to the moments of the present then do the following two sections. The speaker describes the family traveling together as being in a red room while and while this phrase seems strange and out of context one continues through the section and it becomes clear that's in reference to the car that they're driving. It's become much more than a car and they've spent so much time in it with all of their possessions as if they live there. The mother and father are struggling with this journey just as much as the children are. He's driving and she's his name to the turn of the wheels. The mother is constantly telling him what to do and where to go. On top of this the speaker's brothers are crying. One of them is truly bawling. She sees them all feeling the same way. Their thoughts are cast back to the place they came from which is home. It's many miles away by now back in the city they used to love on a street and in the house that's now vacant. It seems as if the family is moving unwillingly or at least the children are. The speaker's quite young at this time and is not crying like her brothers but contemplating what's happening while staring at a stuffed animal's toy which has lost its eyes. She holds its hand for comfort. In stanza two the speaker's clearly much older and she's looking back in times of her childhood in which she felt like an immigrant. She sees childhood as being one constant emigration which one is forced from one situation to another and is made to learn and relearn the culture in customs. Some of these moments of emigration are slow and leave one feeling resigned. Others are sudden and provide no time for preparation. No matter what type of emigration it is it always leaves one with the wrong accent and without an understanding of the familiar. Nothing is comforting and everything seems to be out of place. It's easy for one especially a child to get lost physically and mentally. When growing up in a moment in different places a child could also be comforted with big boys eating worms something which is seen as quite intimidating and the sounds of shouted words that are not understood. The speaker continues on to state that in her situation her parents were always anxious and the anxiety was transferred to her. She never stopped wanting to go back to their own country. Now in stanza three and this is the final section of the poem the speaker explains what it means to become a custom to a new home and culture. Eventually one forgets the past and all other places have called home. A transformation takes place this process is something the speaker is easily able to recall. She remembers forcing herself to speak in a new accent and how it felt like her tongue was shedding skin like a snake. She finally heard her voice become identical to those in her classroom. Now she's grown up and long since moved past the childish fears of a new place. There's still something however that's out of place in her identity. She knows how much she's lost from her past and when she's asked where do you come from she doesn't know how to answer. She wonders whether she should claim to her birthplace or maintain her new identity to which she's become accustomed. So now the next poem is in Mrs. Tilshia's class and this poem paints a vivid picture of a young child's experience in primary school under the tutelage of the much loved Mrs. Tilshia. The poem also traces the end of the child's journey from innocence to the tumult of adolescence signalled by the poem's lost word thunderstorm. In Mrs. Tilshia's class it's set out in four clear stanzas the first two of eight lines and the latter of seven lines each. It's cleverly structured since it builds in momentum. The first two stanzas are slow or almost languorous, describing a lesson and the school day. However, it suddenly builds up and before we know it it's after Easter and the summer is upon the children. By the final stanza this theme almost spaffled by the speedy passage of time and the energy is very different as the poem progresses. The rhythm is loosely iambic pentameter and the poet often uses internal rhyme. The poem begins with the second person you and she continues to use the second person throughout, giving the poem a direct and emphatic feel. So now to begin with stanza one. There's an immediate sense of how Mrs. Tilshia holds the children wrapped during a geography lesson as she chanted the scenery. The list which follows Tana, Ethiopia, Khartoum, Aswan is like an incantation. The full stops after each suggesting a pause in which the child can imagine the exotic nature of the place. The image of the chalky pyramids rubbed into dust, work on two levels as they are, literally rubbed off the chalkboard, but the children also imagine the dryness of the desert. The verse follows the routine of the morning as the children learn for an hour before they skittle of milk, as the day heats up so the windows are opened with a long pole. The use of personification into quote, the laugh of the bell and the noun skittle instead of bottle of milk, inject a playfulness into the poem and captures a childlike feel of wonder and exuberance. The eighth line also chimes with the assonance of swung and running as the poet makes effective use of internal rhyme. Now in stanza two, Duffy continues to include tactile images which recreate a child's experiences in the classroom. The verse begins with an affirmation, the full stop after which magnifies her point. Duffy makes good use of simile to liken school to a sweet shop which suggests that it must have been a magical place indeed. Something of the light assonance of sugar paper makes us almost fill the fragile parchment between our fingers. It's thus a shock to the reader to see the names of the notorious malls murders just supposed alongside the classroom decorations. The joy of Mrs. Tiltious classroom almost manages to erase the horror of these atrocities, but not quite. And although faint, the horrors have not receded. And this simile effectively conveys how the shadow cast fractured lives behind them. Now in stanza two, the choice of the words smudged is effective since we can almost emerge in the mad murders being a blemish on this otherwise joyful and sunny period of life. The use of alliteration in faded and faint combines the soft assonance a sounds to lengthen out this sentence on Mrs. Zo the horror lingers on. Life, the affirmation before is a simple statement. Mrs. Tiltious loved you, followed by a list of her actions which proved this such as a gold star and the sharpened pencil. This is a poem which embraces all the senses as though the poet kindly knows that everyone can recall some of the smells in the primary school, even the xylophone's nonsense is a pleasure to hear. Now in stanza three, the tone begins to change like the tadpoles the children are getting bigger and less easy to govern as they follow the frogs jumping and croaking away from the lunch queue. Duffy cleverly uses the classroom vocabulary to describe the tadpoles which are inky and progress from commas to exclamation marks. The sudden change in wildlife could also symbolise the children who are growing up to, seemingly all of a sudden, more aware of the bodies and each other. When the rough boy takes it upon himself to explain the facts of life it signals a loss of innocence. The child's shock is conveyed by their inability to cope with this information as she kicks the boy but then after looks at the parents appalled. Now in stanza four, this stanza changes the mood of the poem and it indicates a burgeoning awareness of sexuality that comes with the onset of adolescence. The heart of the summer unsettles the children and it's clearly not just the July sun which renders them feverish. The tension in the air is like electricity and Duffy piles adjective upon adjective to accentuate the sense of discomfort the pupils feel. It becomes clear that Misha's tiltshires cannot answer all the questions and although she remains kindly the children must now go it alone. The caesera pause reinforces this by adding a sense of finality as does the short sentence reports are handed out. The images in this stanza are a stark contrast to the first as here they're fraught with nervous energy, danger, even as opposed to gentle benevolent images earlier. One can't imagine these children sitting calmly for an hour listening to their teacher. The metaphor of running through the gates symbolizes leaving behind childish things even if it means running headlong into a thunderstorm. Now the next poem is We Remember Your Childhood Well So this poem is a very frightening piece of poetry. It's told from the perspective of a parent or possibly two parents talking to the reader often as the narrator describes themselves as we who ostensibly is their child. It highlights the difference in opinions on how well the child in question is raised. The narrator is very domineering and dismissive which adds the chilling nature of the poem. The poem presents itself in six stanzas all consisting three lines and the occasional use of rhyme gives the poem a jarring erratic rhythm that coupled with the short sentences adds to the uncomfortable feel of the poem. Now in stanza one a recurring device throughout the poem is starting each stanza with a statement which seems to refute the unstated claims of the child who's the reader. In this case nobody hurt you. This is a very matter-of-fact sentence and the entire stanza is filled with denials giving the impression that the narrator is trying to defend themselves against various allegations. Most of the sentences are very short and sharp which helps create the edgy feel of the poem. Perhaps it's just me but the imagery of the bad man on the moors makes one think of Ian Brady the famous serial killer who with Myra Hindley were known as the moors murderers. In stanza two the fact that one sees so many answers but never hear the questions gives the poem a certain sense of uncertainty. The questions are being asked and one could sometimes guess who it's to. However what exactly the question is and what answer is it is is anyone's guess. It literally is very unclear within the poem. In this stanza again the narrator seems very assured and assertive as they state that didn't occur. It's as if the question the memory of the child and the line you couldn't swing anyway suggests that whatever the accusation is even if there was a modicum of truth in what they're being accused of it wouldn't have mattered anyway. In stanza three the entire stanza appears to be about a specific event and it seems to reveal a clue as to the gender of the child. It states you chose the dress and the narrator has seemingly resorted to using photographic evidence to strengthen their viewpoint. We sense an almost psychological attack with the narrator accusing the child of their memories being all in their head. Now in stanza four this stanza is insidious as the narrator furthers their point at how the child remembers the childhood isn't correct by saying that the memories are just in pressures and what they're saying and that they are saying the actual facts. They refer to themselves as secret police another menacing piece of imagery and the fill the need to mention that they are bigger. This makes us feel like they're trying to enforce the superiority. The narrator then uses onomatopoeia in order to refer to the sound of the voices. The boom boom boom gives the impression of the voices being explosive which almost creates a paradox as they are trying to insulate the child's negative memories as incorrect but describing the voices in a way that seems quite destructive. Now in stanza five this stanza refers to a specific event and these events which we don't get a lot of information about create intrigue but also add more suspense to the poem. It essentially makes us question why the child is seemingly accusing this parent. Now in stanza six having appeared so self assured throughout the poem the narrator seems to admit a small element of guilt as a question what does it matter now as a way of saying that perhaps they weren't perfect but it no longer matters. This isn't a complete acknowledgement of undoing but it does suggest a softening of their manner. However the narrator then follows up with nasty imagery including words like skidmark and hell which creates a very bleak image and their softening seems to be almost instantly regretted by them and they feel the need to go back to the previous approach. The stanza here is very uneven and the narrator or rather like the narrator we can't decide what approach to take about the rant about the child's soul being open for hell. They tell them they were loved the use of past tense is interesting here as well because we wonder if they did something to make that love go away. The person then defends their actions by claiming what they did was best and the last line acts as an exclamation point suggesting emphatically that the parents believe they remember their childhood better than they did. The next poem in this collection is The Darling Letters so this is a three stanza poem that's divided into sets of six lines or set stanzas. Additionally each stanza is made up of a different number of phrases which carry the reader through to an understanding of what a love letter is in its conception and what it becomes as the relationship progresses. This poem describes the way that love letters transition from being full of devotion to containing nothing but recriminations. The poem begins with the speaker describing how lovers from all different places keep and store their letters from the past. Some she states are kept in boxes where they can't be seen unless the speaker keeps them out. This does happen once every once in a while and brings to surface the elements of the past that one forgot. These elements are often deeply moving and embarrassing as they're used or rather read out of the original context. These letters are full of moments which make one feel awkward and unnerved about how they were in the past. Additionally the speaker raises the question of why the letters are even kept at all especially if they raise all these uncomfortable emotions. She clarifies that she thinks this is the case because one is still able to fill the promise of the future that's present in the writings. This is something that they can't part with. So in stanza one the speaker describes the initial impression of a love letter from where it is found and kept to how they begin. She makes clear in the first lines the way that lovers handle letters is different from relationship to relationship. With this in mind she describes that some of these letters are kept in shoeboxes away from light. This raises an interesting question about why one would hide away something that's written out of devotion. What's the reasoning behind keeping these objects out of sight? In the second line she emphasizes through personification what the impact that hiding one's current or past emotions results in. She states that when one is ready to finally have the letters resurface again perhaps long after the relationship is over they come out as sore memories blinking in the light of the room. The writer of these letters will then be confronted by a version of themselves are no longer familiar with. These letters will bring back to one's mind the past private jokes which can no longer be comprehended as well as leading statements like what are you wearing? One's forced to contend with their own recklessness. In the second stands of the speaker continues their narration about what these letters are revealing to the recipient and the reader. Another phrase that sticks out to the speaker from the general histories of letters is don't ever change. These simple and uncreative messages meant something to the one receiving it but now they stick out as being purposeless. The pace continues with the narrator describing how a relationship evolves through the letters. They might start out as being full of love and end up with recriminations. The lover blame one another for any flaws in the relationships and everyone ends up with a sense of absence and loss. It's clear in the following lines that the speaker is considering why letters between lovers are kept. She comes to the conclusion that this is because one can still imagine the future one saw then and believed in. The future appears as budding flowers and is appreciated through the tracing of each line of text on the paper. No one the speaker states would dare burn this vision of the future instead they're put away with cardboard coffins. Now in stanza three this stanza is striking as that in that it begins with one of the pet names that might be used by lovers so babykins. The speaker hears the strangeness of this word and how it now it might make someone blush. The words of this past make one feel as though they'd murdered someone under an alias. It's like a dirty past that's coming off from the basement to confront one with how they were in another life. The poet adds in another few words and phrases which might come from love letters and provide later embarrassment for the reader. In the final lines the speaker re-engages with the idea of putting away and rediscovering the letters. This experience makes one's heart thud a sound which resembles a sound of a spade hitting buried bones. This is yet another reference to a resurfacing of the past and how dramatic and emotional that moment can be. Now the next poem is in your mind. This poem is a four stanza poem which is separated into sets of six lines or set stets. The poem doesn't contain a structured or consistent rhyme scheme. The lines are somewhat similar in length and run together to create a narrative. The poet has chosen to tell a story through his work with a second person narrator. The main character is the reader who's taken through a series of dreamlike memories of a trip to another country. Now in this poem Caroline Duffy describes a detailed daydream into which the reader of the poem embarks. The poem begins with the speaker stating that there's another country in the mind of her intended listener and that you are able to put aside your work and travel there. It's here that this person feels most at home. Everything rather is oddly familiar from the people to the job, hotel and streets. Before long hair the past has faded away. The simpler, presumably less pleasant real life led by this person never existed. By the end of the poem the speaker has made a home in this imaginary world but is forced back to the present. You are once more made to confront the English rain which is pouring down on your real home. Now in stanza one the speaker begins this piece by asking her listeners a question. You are thinking of a country a place you can bury recall. The memory is so loose that you do not know whether it's anticipated meaning it was created or half remembered. It's as if you knows enough about the place to have visited before but not enough to fully recall if they have actually been there. It's at this point in the poem that it's unclear what sent the speaker to the thoughts of another country or whether these almost memories are good or bad. In the next few lines the speaker centers the setting and informs the reader where the poem will take place. You are in England and it's an autumn day. It's raining outside and it's been all afternoon. The world you are attempting to penetrate is muffled by the rain. Although England is attempting to keep this person in the present they're able to in their mind set to work on one side and head for the airport. Everything which is to follow from now until the end of the poem occurs within the speaker's mind. This listener is embarking in a journey with them and it will end in an unknown country. Now the character with the speaker it's crafting is heading off to the airport. This person has with them a credit card and a warm coat which will be left on the plane. The small entertaining detail adds a realistic element to the narrative. Although everything's not going perfectly there as the poem states past fades like a newsprint in the sun. The listener to whom this poem is directed is heading off on an adventure with this person does not even fully understand. In stanza two the speaker's character has made it to the destination. This person as they were in the first lines is recalling some elements of this place. They see the residents of the city or town and know it's them. It's still unclear if there's a real person or if this is occurring or if this you is simply engaging in a repetition of memory. It's likely that the main character frequently engages in this kind of day dreaming and the faces of those in your mind or common sights. The next phrase states that these images are like photographs on the wrong side of your eyes. Now in stanza two the memories are so vague it's like seeing photographs inside of one's head rather than real emotion tinted recollections. The next lines bring the poem into a day-like dream-like world in which the phrases seem to slip in and out of narrative without too much direction. The main characters at harbour sitting at a bar and a beautiful boy asks if men could possibly land on the moon. The speaker replies by saying no this couldn't happen. They see the moon as moments and being drawn rather moments that are like an orange drawn by a child. Other thoughts and experiences are intruding on the dream. No. The person states this could never happen. In stanza three the speaker continues to describe the strange trip they are on. This person wakes from sleep to the rasp of carpentry. This sounds like construction which rouses the main character and they look around the room. This place like all others visited in the narrative feels familiar and this person has returned home after a number of years. It's like you belong there. The intended listener of this piece leaves the hotel to go to the job. There are a few navigational directions which are followed by a profession of love. You love the work you're engaged in as well as the sounds on the street. There are seagulls and bells is also the sound of a flute practicing scales. On the way home from work this person buys fish. The narrative is taking on the feeling of a routine and this places how the main character's home is like. It's become a normal part of their life. In the final stanza you is thrust back to reality and this shock is preceded by a few more moments of peace in which you are walking the streets of the city dawdling on the blue bridge and watching this one simmering in the water. The main character of the poem is so comfortable where they are that it's like all the lights turn on all over town. The world is lit up by the feeling of comfort. The last two lines bring the poem back to its beginning. The main character is forced from the daydream back to the desk newspaper window and the English rain. Now the next poem is The Good Teachers and this is a 24 line poem which is written in second person and it doesn't follow a set rhyme scheme. The poem has chosen to write this piece in a second person in an effort to personalize the situation she describes and allow reader to cast their own experiences on those she speaks of. Ones are able to place themselves in the story and feel the main character is meant to feel. The Good Teachers by Caroline Duffy describes a school laugh of a young girl who has strong opinions about which teachers are good and which are not and the poem begins with the speaker addressing the reader as you. The second person tense will remain throughout the poem allowing any reader to empathize with the main character. This girl who's at the center of the poem feels strongly about certain teachers in her school. Someone gets her love and full cooperation while others inspire her to rebellion. By the end of the poem she still being spoken as you has become so fed up with the educational institution that she takes up smoking starts talking back and delves into explorations of her sexuality. So starting with lines one to six the poem has written this piece in second person meaning that all of the main character's experiences become yours. The poem begins with the speaker who's revealed to be a young girl describing your excitement over a school photo. The speaker is able to run around the back to be in again. You starts out in front of the photo on the front row and then before the camera can finish to take in the picture you mix it to the back. This allows one to appear twice in the same image. The action represents the love that this character has for some aspects of the school. The number of teachers will be mentioned in this work who are not held in high regard by the students but a few are dearly loved. This is the case for the very first teacher in the poem Miss Ross. The student is contemplating her future at the school and thinks that soon Miss Ross will take her for double history. You or this person is hoping that this teacher accepts her into the class. It's so important to the student that she's dreaming about it outside of class time. They breathe on some glass and draw a ghost of Miss Ross on an effort to remind themselves of the teacher and the joys of being in their class. The student speaks South Sea bubble defenestration of plug prog and this mismatch of different terms has come from the same place and emerges from the student's mouth like a mumbled prayer. Now in line seven to 13 in this section the speaker continues to refer to the reader in second person using the pronoun you. She states that you feel great love for Miss Prairie as well. The speaker's main character has so much love for this teacher that she's worked her way to the top of the class. She demonstrates her respect for Miss Prairie by working hard improving herself against her classmates. The speaker returns to the idea of appearing twice in the photo in the third line of this section. She describes how you care so much about this teacher's good opinion that you need two of you to state out from the year. The photo is going to be reappearing in the year book and now Miss Prairie is able to see this person twice. The student continues to speak of Miss Prairie's class and it's revealed that she's the English literature teacher. This becomes clear and the speaker states that you memorize the poem The Rivers Tell by Rudyard Kipling. This is also in an effort to impress the teacher and make sure she understands how much they care. Clearly you, the primary person in this poem is deeply concerned with the teacher's good opinion and they describe making up a poem for her in their head. The following lines introduce teachers who are not held in quite so high self-esteem. One of these is Miss Sheridan who's a French teacher who the person doesn't very much like and this is made clear by the phrase comm'en vous appeler which means what's your name. Now in lines 14 to 18 another teacher who's also not liked in the school is Miss Applebee who teaches math. Just as has occurred with the other teachers mentioned in this piece a bit of information about the class follows a name or description in this case equal to the square of the other two sides referring to geometry. This is immediately followed by a third disliked teacher Mrs. Webb and the following phrases Daress alarm in Kilimanjaro suggests that she's the geography teacher as Daress alarm is the capital of Tanzania and Kilimanjaro is the tallest mountain in Africa. The title of the poem good teachers appears in the same line. The student is pointing these particular teachers out in the hallway describe how they swish down the corridor. The following line speaks of the personalities and hints at the fact that the speaker doesn't truly see them as good but rather is putting on an appearance of goodness. They might be considered good educators but to her they're not good teachers they're instead snobbish and proud and clean and qualified. Lines 19 to 24 are the final section and here the speaker continues a discussion of this good teachers on how they interact with her. She states that they've got your number they know how you feel about them and we're watching you closely. The next lines describe the main character still being referred to as you on what she does in rebellion against the practices. The characters in the hall and she rolls up the waistband of her skirt it rolls higher and higher until all that can be seen as leg. The student also engages in dumb insolences or back talk as well as taking up smoking. They're doing everything possible to rebel against the good teachers and the type of student that they would like her to be. The next two phrases seem to come from the teachers themselves. They say you won't pass you could do better and these are clearly things which have been said multiple times to this person which the student marks. The poem concludes with another phrase from the teachers being mocked by the main character as she mimics the day you'll be sorry one day and the instructors have been telling you that you'll be sorry for this kind of behavior one day and it's at this point that you doesn't appear to believe it. Now the next poem in this collection is Valentine and now this poem specifically is written in free verse with no rhyming pattern. The tone is unusual as that it's a love poem of sorts but it has an unsettling feeling to it due to the way the poem uses an onion as a metaphor for its love itself. Now to go into the poem in some detail beginning with stanza one. This is the first stanza whereby Duffy uses alliteration to symbolize cuteness associated with items traditionally used as part of Valentine's gifts. Now in stanza two from early on we can see that this poem isn't going to go quite the way one might expect of a poem titled Valentine. The narrator tells the partner that they're giving them an onion and continues to describe this onion by likening it to the moon wrapped in brown paper. This in itself is an interesting metaphor as the moon is considered a symbol of beauty and femininity but it's covered in brown paper which is used for wrapping presence but one wouldn't associate it with wrapping Valentine's presence. This could symbolize the humble nature of the gift but also simultaneously represent the brown skin of a french onion. It promises light which suggests the onion is somehow metaphor for love itself but the metaphor continues as the narrator talks about the careful undressing of love which makes this makes one think of how carefully you have to be when you're peeling the skin of an onion to avoid tears. Now in stanza three the first line of this stanza is quite clever as it leaves a lot of ambiguity about the narrator and what they're saying. We wonder what's going to blind them to tears is it a reference to the onion or to the love itself and the use of a pronoun here is what makes the line so clever. In the next line which has enjambement it makes it seem like the narrator is talking about the onion all along. Here things start to take a slightly airy turn as the narrator states it will make your reflection a wobbling photo of grief. We wonder what this is referencing whether it's love or the onion and either way it's not a very pleasant description. In stanza four this stanza really highlights an ad's emphasis to what is seen as the truth. Now in stanza five which ties up this emphasis we have the notion of acute card which is an example of alliteration. Again this line stands in isolation to highlight the importance of dismissing these materialistic things. In stanza six the stanza is full of confidence the narrator is not to be doubted here the slightly troublesome undertones appear just as briefly as the narrator talks of its first kiss and how it's possessive suggesting that like the onion love can be first it's not always a picnic. The metaphor is mixed in with love itself and the line between them is so fine as not to exist. The comparisons of paradoxes at work here the first kiss is an oxymoron as is the possessive and faithful tome which are used to show the highs and lows of being in love. The last two lines are almost like a wedding vow quality as they run on from what the narrator is mentioning that the lovers must be faithful. It could be that this narrator is trying to say that real love is mainly enduring and there's a matrimonial theme that runs into the next stanza. In stanza seven the two word sentence take it is very assertive and striking. The narrator is forcing this gift upon the partner and they continue to compare the rings of an onion to the platinum wedding ring and the if you like run on suggesting a proposal of sorts. It seems like the narrator is saying that the onion could be a proposal and this is then subverted in the single word sentence lethal and we question whether this is meant to mean that marriage is lethal or if a platinum wedding ring is. We wonder if Duffy is suggesting that material objects are the enemy of love and they're somehow lethal to romance or we also wonder whether she's suggesting that marriage itself is fatally damaging. Once again the metaphor and reality are hard to prize apart and the striking metaphor further adds to the redis confusion. The last two lines are quite harrowing if about love and quite mundane about the onion. The mention of a knife is particularly interesting especially having just mentioned the word fatal coincidentally and this poem could be about a man that stabs his wife. Now the next poem is called a child's sleep and this poem is a five stanza poem which is separated into sets of four lines of quadrants. Each of these quadrants follow a specific rhyme of A B C B D E F E and so on. This pattern remains consistent throughout the piece and has been crafted in an effort to emphasise the simple, peaceful and fluid nature of the child's sleep which is described throughout the poem. This poem describes the ideal peaceful sleep of a child who's washed over. Now the poem begins of the speaker at the mother of the child entering into a room to view their sleeping child. The little girl is completely still and the mother is fighting between not wanting to disturb her and wanting to enjoy the calmness of the moment. The speaker continues on to describe what she thinks the child's sleep is like. She's so quiet and still that she resembles a small forest. It's a magical place her daughter resides in and she sees her as being the sole resident of the woods. In the final stanzas the speaker moves to rouse her daughter speaking her name. The sudden intrusion of sound is like a pebble dropping in a pond. The child hears her but doesn't wake up. She moves in her sleep and the goodness of her inner life is only clearer when she gets closer to consciousness. In the last lines the speaker moves to the window and looks out into the night at the moon. It's there staring back at her. She feels as if the moon is reflecting her own emotions. It's maternal and understands all the love she feels for her daughter. Now in stanza one the poem begins of the speaker observing her child sleeping. This is to be the main theme of the poem and the gentle action around which the speaker places herself and their emotions. In the first line the speaker is coming to visit her child as she sleeps. She edges up to her child's bed careful not to disturb her. The speaker doesn't spend time describing the physical observations of the child but instead focuses on what they can hear and imagine. The first thing they do hear is the sound of their breathing. This is a tense but also peaceful moment. The speaker doesn't wish to disturb the child but also can't seem to pull themselves away. She must find a balance between these two states. She speaks of her child's sleep as being something that she couldn't enter. There's no way for her to join the child in her particular sleep. She can only imagine what she might be dreaming. This is the emphasising the next line in which she states she's unable to leave. This can be interpreted as meaning that she physically doesn't feel as if she can leave the room but also she can't stop imagining what might be going on her child's head. Now in stanza two these imaginings in which her speaker engages take on a life of their own and make up the next two stanzas of the piece. The speaker in an effort to imagine the best possible world for her daughter crafts dreams and a type of sleep which places a child in a small wood. She's not exactly dreaming of this space but instead the image represents a child's sleep as a small wood. The surroundings in which her daughter resides and represents smell vibrantly like flowers. They're dark but also peaceful and scared. There's no real sense of time in this place. The child's world has hours to spare. In stanza three the description of the child's sleep has continued. The speaker has already crafted a world of magical peace for her daughter to reside in but now she creates a sense of being for her child. The woods in which she resides might not might be notably beautiful but nothing comes close to the child who was the spirit that lives in the heart of Sarge Woods. If the woods are as special as the speaker described then the child must be even so. The place in which she lives is without time. There's no pressure or concern for the future bearing down on her. Additionally the world is without history. There's nothing to live up to or worry about from the past. All that resides in the woods is worldlessly good and it's a general feeling of goodness which inhabits the place and radiates out from her daughter. In the fourth stanza the speaker describes that she's going to riles her daughter. She speaks her name and it's like a pebble dropping in the still night. The girl begins to stir and she opens her hands to cut the light. His skin is radiating the goodness of the forest. It's only increasing as the girl moves closer to wakefulness. In the final stanza the speaker is able finally to turn away from her child. She moves to the window of the room and gazes out into the night. She's contemplating what it means to be a piece and what it means to be a mother. As she's looking out the window she feels as if the face of the moon is gazing back at her. She feels the presence of the moon in the distance and knows that it understands her. It's maternal and wise. Now the next poem is the death of a teacher and this is an 18 line poem which is structured into sets of cupboards and doesn't follow a specific rhyme scheme The poem has been written as a frame story with the beginning told by the speaker in present day while the middle is constructed of the speaker's memories now passed on who's a teacher. The speaker's tone throughout this work is one of quiet one-done sadness. She's mourning the passing of the person she's cared so much about but also basking the beautiful memories and emotions she provided. This poem seems to be a eulogy to teacher who now has passed on and it shows the speaker has a lot of poetry and teaching. The poem begins with the speaker stating that she's looking around her in the present day and seeing the trees moving in the hands of a poker player. The world is in action the trees are falling from the trees and being swept up by the wind a reference to the endless progression of time and how everyone gets caught up in it. The speaker has suffered a loss that of an old teacher. She spends the next section of the poem recalling the meaningful moments of her education in which this person imbued her with the true love of Keats and Yeats. These poets opened her experience of the world as well as provided her with the drive to take on a teaching career. She suddenly saw the true worth and beauty in teaching all due to this one instructor who's now passed away. Now in lines one to four the speaker begins by describing her present day surroundings. The bulk of this poem is told through a memory of an important moment in the speaker's past but first she must set the scene and provide the justification for delving into her history. The first sign describes how the speaker understands her surroundings. She sees the big trees and observes how the leaves fold and turn in the wind. They fly from the branches and drift down onto the lawn. All of these actions are seen to be reminiscent of the actions of a poker game. The motions of the wind cause the branches and leaves of the trees to act like the hands of a dealer and mimic the movements of the cards. This whole piece is written with a sadly reminiscent tone that helps to craft the scenes that are both beautiful and sad. The leaves fall from the trees come close to the ground and then float away. These actions represent the progression of time and how there's no steady memory moment in history. It's described as a prelude to the next time in which the speaker relays the fact that someone you died the day before. While the text of the poem does not yet provide enough context to understand who this person is, if a reader refers to the title they'll immediately understand the loss that's been suffered. A teacher who was of some importance to the speaker has passed away. Now in lines 5 to 11 the poem continues with the memory through which the majority of the eulogy is told. The poet has decided to ease the reader into the memory by having the speaker hear a sound, the last bell of a school day and allowing that to cast her back into her own past. She's been meditating on the death of her teacher and when she hears the bell ring out she's brought back to an integral moment in her education. She closes her eyes and remember and the memory to which she returns to is three decades back when she was still a student. She was only 13 at the time and tells of the events surrounding this moment from that perspective. It's interesting in this piece to hear the memory retold from the age speaker but through the lens of the 13 year old girl. The memory begins to the speaker seeing her teacher, the one who passed away sitting on her desk swinging her legs. She's recalling these images and directing them at the teacher. She uses a second person pronoun you to speak to the teacher. In this moment the teacher is reading aloud a poem by Yeats. The classroom is filled with other girls and all of them aboard except for the speaker that is. The speaker has deeply moved by the verses she hears. It's like her heart stumbled and blushed. She was instantly drawn to the poet's work and feels as if she was falling in love with the words themselves. The moment takes her out of her body and away from the mundane world she lives in. Yeats's poetry makes her re-see and re-analyze all the everyday objects around her. These include the wood of her desk. It appears to her now as a tree from which she came. She can feel the scratches and know where it came from. At the same time she hears the birds outside and imagines how it scribbles and moves itself in the air. In line 12 to 18 by this time the experience starts to come to a conclusion. She's been completely grounded. She's fully living here and now, the present. She again addresses these words to the teacher explaining that it's this moment that she, miss, created for her. She records the words of poetry she heard and the revelation she had later whenever she sees the smoke from her black cigarettes. It's intertwined with the lines from not only Yeats but also other poets such as Keats. The final four lines of this poem bring to conclusion the experiences of the speaker's youth. From these moments she learned to love poetry but she also came to love teaching. She speaks of teaching as being an endless love. It involves learning poems by heart which act like spells. The lessons that one learns and then teachers are things which stick with one for life. The last two lines she returns to are moments of appreciation for the natural environment and how in her present life the love that her teacher imbued with her burns like gold light. It emanates from her pages of a book and speaks to her of its preciousness. Books became to the speaker something to be cherished and long for. They call to her the pages waiting to be turned. Now the next poem is Prayer. And this poem is divided into three sets of four lines and one set of two lines. The quatrains follow a consistent rhyme scheme of C-D-C-D-E-F-E-F with the ending two line couplet rhyming G-G. The poet has chosen this particular rhyme scheme in an effort to mimic the sing song like nature of an actual prayer. The poem begins with the speaker describing a moment in which they one has run out of options. All the subjects of a poem are in this same space. They have nowhere to turn and run out of faith to fall back on. She continues on to describe how the simplest things a sound, sight or memory can bring one back to happier moments. These serve as remedies as a prayer might have in the past for dark and depressive moments. The poem contains a number of different descriptions of these moments that range from reconnecting with nature to hearing a piano scale to the sound of a mother calling her child. By the end of the poem the speaker has concluded her array of prayer by mentioning the BBC ship in forecast and how the regularity of its broadcast can bring one piece and induce calmness over times of stress. Now in stanza one the speaker begins by describing the situation in which one feels stunted. This moment and ones like it are times that drive a person to prayer. The speaker specifically states though that this moment is overwhelming that one cannot pray. Even the refuge from chaos which prayer is considered by many is inaccessible. The speaker has yet to make clear what would have to be happening for a person to feel this way at least within the context of the poem. That being said it's quite easy to find these emotions within one self while reading. All people no matter where they're from have felt desperation and the inability to act. In the following lines the speaker describes what happens next. A person in this case a woman who's found themselves in the brink of emotional or perhaps even physical desperation might hear something that allows them to lift their heads from the sieve of their hands. The speaker is describing a very familiar pose in which one rests their heads in their hands and the fingers separate around their face creating what she calls a sieve. When this happened and the woman has heard the familiar sound she lifts her head. She's hearing the minims or half notes sung by a tree. This moment is a gift and one that lifts her spirits and reminds her of better times. Now in stanza two the speaker continues to describe another standing for prayer. She understands that on some nights ones unable to believe or devote themselves to religion. Ones become faithless. In this instance there are other outlets to relieve stress and pain. Prayer can take other forms aside from the traditional recitations and pleas. In this particular instance while one is feeling faithless a shrewth is able to enter one's heart. There's a revelation or the feeling of coming to terms with the reality of one's situation. The pain one experiences is familiar and that familiarity is a comfort. In the second half of this stanza the speaker describes another person a man who's standing stock still. His recalling a sound from his youth and being transported about her happy time. This moment places additional emphasis on the importance of simple actions, memories and experiences. The person can hear this youth through the Latin chanting of a rain. He has made a connection through the world around him. In the final quadrant of this poem the speaker moves to include herself within the body of people who suffer from moments of desperation. She asks that the readers or any listening to the poem pray for us now referring to all of those suffering. In the final lines of this section she brings up two more memories that might take someone away from the pressures of the world and bring up more pleasant thoughts of the past. She speaks of the sounds of grade one piano skills that a lodger is about to hear while looking out across the town they're staying in. Once more this featured person is being transported to the past. In the next memory the speaker recalls a sound of someone calling their own child and the sounds that make up the child's name helping to console another for their loss. Now in the final two-line stanza the speaker brings all their memories of various experiences and alternatives to prayer to conclusion. She describes how there might be a darkness outside and one's outlook might be dimmed by the events of life but inside something else is going on. There's always a radio's prayer to fall back what she states. The following lines bring this reference further as she names a shipping forecast for the areas around the British Isles. This is a piece of BBC Radio programming that's quite familiar to those who reside in Great Britain and is providing the reader with an amount of comfort and dependability in the desperate moment. So that's all. If you found this video useful do subscribe to our channel and give this video a thumbs up but also visit our website which is www.firstrate tutors.com where you will find useful revision guides, model answers written at an A grade and exam papers you can use to practice. Thank you so much for listening.