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OCR Examination Board

GCSE English Literature

A664 - Literary Heritage & Poetry

Carol Ann Duffy –

Revision notes

Answer

A video lecture on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyoRMN_A7XY

Duffy is writing about love in a non-clichéd manner. There is an implied, rather enigmatic, question to which this poem is the answer: “Will you marry me?”; “Will I always love

you?”; “Would I still love you if…?” She uses the traditional idea of the four elements which supposedly made up the whole world – earth, air, fire and water - showing that her

love totally encompasses the person addressed in the poem.

All of the stanzas all have the same structure and meter / rhythm; this regular, constant form helps to reflect her constant, unchanging love. It is calm and considered, not

impulsive and fragile. The answer at the end of each stanza is always a very affirmative yes, yes repeated for extra emphasis. It is eager and enthusiastic – the words every

lover wants to hear.

stone –is used for ‘earth’ – but it is not fertile and life-giving as ‘soil’.

All of the images in the first stanza suggest a lifelessness and lack of passion. There is no chance of a living, loving sexual relationship and yet her love would persist; she would

continue to love this person even though they are incapable of returning that love.

Duffy describes various parts of her love’s anatomy:

your kiss a fossil -lips are metaphorically dead - not sexually responsive.

eyes sightless marble - can’t even see her.

grey hands - implying a statue, so can’t touch her.

legs cold as rivers locked in ice - simile - cold and frigid.

The fire images of the second stanza are ugly, painful and threatening. Even if her lover was violent and abusive she would continue to love him / her.

Again, Duffy describes various parts of her love’s anatomy:

head…Medusa hissing flame – image of the snake-haired monster; effective onomatopoeia for flames & snakes.

tongue a red-hot poker – an instrument of torture, invoking the idea of Hell.

heart a small coal – not living and capable of love.

fingers burning pungent brands on flesh – producing terrible pain & the stench of burning flesh with each touch.

The water images of the third stanza are all dangerous and threatening, again, perhaps even more deadly.

Again, Duffy describes various parts of her love’s anatomy:

voice…roaring, foaming –adjectives imply violence, uncontrolled anger in their voice – ranting and raving.

arms a whirlpool spinning me… - violent metaphor and dangerous verb.

breast…deep dark lake nursing the drowned– ominous adjectives, deadly image.

The last one of the four elements, air, gives a sense of emptiness; there is a feeling that there is no physical body left at all.

face empty…infinite as sky – the face is the most significant part of the body, but there nothing there to see.

words a wind – again, emptiness; the alliteration gives the idea of the sounds being scattered, creating silence.

The image is extended with gusts and breeze there is nothing physically present of the person to love or be loved, and yet her devotion persists.

The final stanza is a repetition, an emphatic reiteration of what had been said before. She has no hesitation in giving this answer which has the tone of a sacred vow. There is a

final, grim surprise at the end – she would love this person even if it meant her death.

Before You Were Mine

A video lecture on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXqdN5CDcVk&feature=related

This is one of the nostalgic poems in the anthology. We can infer that Duffy is looking at a photograph of her mother and her two friends ten years before she was born. The

title fools us at first into thinking of romantic lovers, but it shows the deep love of a mother and daughter. She imagines her mother as a rebellious teenager, going out on

dates and being punished for coming home late. Duffy thinks about how her birth changed her mother’s life forever, putting an end to these ‘glory days’, the best days of her

life when she was young and carefree.

I’m ten years away from – an unusual way of opening the poem; it takes a while before we work out that she is directly addressing her mother in the photograph.
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corner…laugh…pals…shriek – joyful images of teenagers having a good time, hanging around on the street.

Maggie McGeeney…Jean Duff…holding each other – idea created of close friendship; mother must have talked about her friends because her daughter knows their names.

polka-dot dress – this dates the photograph; the style was very fashionable back then.

Marilyn – flattering, maybe slightly-tongue-in-cheek, reference to the iconic image of the 50’s & 60’s film star Marilyn Munroe holding down her dress. She thinks of her

mother as glamorous, sexy and exciting.

The second stanza begins in a similar way to the first, reminding us that her child is not born, but is on its way in ten years’ time. She is still having fun, but this time the focus

is not on her friends but on boyfriends.

ballroom– before discos, the big public venues where teenagers danced & dated.

…thousand eyes – might be the large crowd or a spinning mirror ball.

movie…walk home – meeting a boy who takes her home and asks her out on a date to the cinema.

Ma…waits in the street and gives her a hiding for being late. She likes to paint an affectionate picture of her mother as a rebel, someone with enthusiasm for life.

The third stanza makes very clear the idea of her birth changing her mother’s life.

loud, possessive yell – an unpleasant noise that cannot be ignored. The new baby demands all of her attention. It gives a negative twist to the phrase before you were mine –

Duffy implies that she completely dominated her mother’s life and, in a way, ruined it.

The decade…was the best one, eh? – she imagines her mother looking back wistfully, maybe with some regret, to the carefree teenage years prior to motherhood – the best

years of her life.

She is wearing high-heeled red shoes in the photograph. Red shoes are associated with women wanting to look attractive and exciting, the shoes they wear going out parties

and having a good time.

Duffy remembers the shoes from her childhood. She chooses the word relics to imply that they are now just reminders of her mother’s youth, useless except as playthings for

her little girl – my hands in those…shoes.

The red shoes were associated in the past with scent (perfume) and small (love) bites – Duffy affectionately (sweetheart) imagines her mother wearing them out on a date.

The final stanza continues to explore the idea of Duffy’s relationship with her mother after she was born.

Cha cha cha – Duffy affectionately remembers her mother teaching her old dance steps, a reminder of her own days in the ballroom. They seem to have a happy relationship.

stamping stars from the wrong pavement – strong visual memories of stiletto heels making sparks on the paving slabs, the wrong ones because this may have been rebellious,

inappropriate behaviour in the eyes of the other members of the congregation at Mass.

bold girl winking – as with the dancing, Duffy wanted her mother to retain the high spirits and enthusiasm for life that she had in her youth.

That glamorous love lasts…sparkle…waltz…laugh – even though they are in the past, at least those good times existed and continue to exist in memories before you were mine

and the carefree young rebel had to make sacrifices and assume the responsibilities of motherhood.

Brothers

This is another nostalgic autobiographical family poem looking at her relationship with her four brothers (Irish Roman Catholic family). There are the happy memories of

shared in-jokes, but a gradual distancing as they grow up and apart. She remembers their lives together but does not seem to be that close to them any more. One of them did

something to break her mother’s heart. She still has things in common with her brothers, but they do not keep in touch much now. She ends with the image of a family funeral

in the future, presumably one of their parents, though both were alive when she wrote the poem.

The opening stanza focuses on how close the bond was between the members of the family.

I slept…with four men – surprising opening if we had not read the title. It was a common experience of poverty.

share / an older face – they look like one of their parents.

laugh, even now, random quotes from the play we were in – the humorous repetition of things parents said in the past; the use of the image of a play makes it seem the

comical words are recorded not forgotten in the present.

They grin and nod - and they certainly had fun together.

What was possible retreats and shrinks – their dreams may not have been fulfilled; the optimism of youth fades. Maybe her thoughts of how great her brothers would turn

out have soured / become more realistic.

altar boy…practising scales…playing tennis…a baby – she differentiates between them, summing them up concisely - they shrink.

Like a new sound flailing for a shape – a wonderful simile to evoke the idea of the youngest brother struggling to be recognised, given some attention. There is a hint of

discontent here; maybe he struggled to find a role in the family.

I don’t have photographs – is that the effect of poverty or a sense of losing contact?

I like to repeat their names – this is a way of remembering them, thinking of them without seeing the real people they have become. It is a way of idealising people and

controlling your reactions them.

My mother chose them…her life in the words…breeding words – her relationship with her mother seems more important to her than her relationship with her brothers. Their

names are more important than they themselves are because her mother lovingly, specially selected them.

the word that broke her heart – the name of the brother who did something mysterious: Duffy leaves the impression of a sinister, shameful action because it is not

described in any detail.

The final stanza looks at her relationship with them in the present, and how, in the future, they might only meet at whole family events like funerals.

Much in common – they still have the family bond, a shared heritage – but,

me – not the usual expression ‘we have much in common’, so she seems to show an awkward sense of separation even though they are still connected.

thieves…businessmen…fathers…UB40s – maybe the idea of the roles that her brothers shrink into which is mentioned in the second stanza.

We have nothing to say of now – in the present (now) they have nothing in common which they can talk about; all that is left is the script, the random quotes from the play

of their childhood, their family life in the past (then).

time owns us – this suggests that they have had little control over how their relationship has developed, that their lives have been in the hands of Fate. But the word us does

still show some sense of unity.

How tall they have grown – we only notice this if we haven’t seen somebody for a long time – or is it that they are more real in her warm memories of them as young children

rather than in the stark, cold reality of adulthood?

a box – a grim image of a coffin at a future funeral. This is a very pessimistic, bleak thought that these might be the only times that they will meet in the future. She thinks

that she will be the one who organises and pays for the funeral – they will have the physical, different burden of shouldering the coffin.

Dream of a Lost Friend

Duffy addresses her friend, telling them of a dream she had about them dying from HIV, which they have already contracted. In the 1980’s, HIV seemed inevitably to lead to

AIDS and death. The idea of dreaming is reflected in the settings, the fragments of conversation in italics and the confusing timescale [there is the past, the future in the

past but still not the present, the present and the future].

You were dead…we met…before you had died immediately shocking information & confusing timescale of a dream: the sufferer is not really dead yet, but they were in the

dream.

Pale…white lips images of ill health & closeness to death – the living death of AIDS.

My dear, my dear, must this be… fragments of conversation – pity for the victim.

A public building a vague location typical of dreams – probably a hospital.

an AIDS poster suspense / tension the first hint that this is about AIDS comes at the end of the first stanza.

Help me stanza ends very dramatically with this desperate plea form the victim.

We embraced obvious show of affection – but in very emotional circumstances. The victim may have just been diagnosed with the illness.

long corridor / which harboured a pain…yet one of those weird dream locations; it will be a place where they both will eventually experience suffering (dying /death / grief)

but not at that particular present.

frenzied…hysterical an understandably panicky reaction to the news of being HIV+.

prayers to Chemistry desperate hope by the friend for medication to cure the virus.

It’s only a dream…only a bad dream poet trying to reassure herself that this is not really happening…but in the future (now present) her friend will be HIV+ and will in the

future-future, die.

Some of our best friends virus not confined to just one victim. Even though they are rich enough – fashionable restaurants – and living a healthy lifestyle - crudités are raw

vegetables – HIV /AIDS is going to kill them – it dreams they dead already – but it is not yet active – idle. There will be a point when they will look back on these good times

after they or their friends are ill / dying / dead.

Backed away…waving saying farewell to her friend in the dream; a sense of guilt is shown by I missed your funeral because her friend is not even dead yet in the present.

Thumbs up, acting / Where there’s life… the saying ends ‘there’s hope’; she is keeping up the pretence that there is hope, but there is none.

Awake, alive…almost hopeful out of the dream and back in the present she thinks of how she felt back in the bad dream about her friend, that there might have been hope,

but now the friend is doomed. In dreams we are helpless, just as she is helpless watching her friend dying.

Head of English

Website for extra notes:

http:www.sheerpoetry.co.uk/advanced/carol-ann-duffy/notes-on-selected-poems-advanced/head-of-english

Duffy uses a very ironic tone in this poem. It may be that Duffy is getting her revenge for her poor treatment as a ‘visiting poet’ to a school at the hands of a very traditional

Head of English. This would have been years before she became the famous Poet Laureate of today. It is dramatic monologue. The voice of the narrator in the poem is that of

the teacher introducing the poet to the class and then, in the final stanza, abruptly dismissing both the class and the poet. We can see how Duffy judiciously selects the
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teacher’s words so that she appears with only negative characteristics: arrogant, narrow-minded, supercilious, offensive, racist, ignorant (of modern poetry), intellectually

limited and rude. She is nothing at all like the sensitive, caring, intelligent English teacher that you are privileged to enjoy...

It is a carefully structured poem of five stanzas with six lines in each stanza. However, like the poetry that the Head of English despises, there is no regular rhythm or rhyme

scheme. In the first four stanzas, the Head of English is introducing the poet to the class in preparation for the poet’s work with the children. This may be a lecture or a more

informal ‘workshop’ session. This should be friendly and welcoming – it is not!

A real live poet...published book – a sarcastic, resentful, smirking, patronising comment.

Notice the inkstained fingers – a critical, inappropriate joke, perhaps about her casual, informal appearance.

hot from the press – piling on the condescension; maybe she is bitterly envious of the poet’s success.

Who knows – one of many short, curt sentences. She is dismissive that they are going to learn anything worthwhile.

clapping. Not too loud / sit up straight and listen…whispering’s out of bounds – an authoritarian, traditional disciplinarian who dislikes any noise, disruption or children

showing their feelings. She is not creating a relaxed atmosphere for the poet to connect with the students.

Remember…assonance…not all poems, sadly, rhyme these days – she is prejudiced against modern poetry; the poets to whom she refers are the traditional dead white males

Keats and Kipling. She has the arrogant attitude of a traditionalist who curtly / rudely rejects modern works in front of this poet – Still. Never mind - without really

understanding them. Duffy includes a rhyme in this stanza - bounds and pounds – almost as an ironic side-swipe at the teacher.

we're paying forty pounds – a veiled insult which implies that she hopes they get their money’s worth”; she takes every opportunity to belittle the professional poet, implying

here that she is demeaning herself by asking for a fee or cheating them out of money.

English second language – this is indirectly racist. She is segregating these immigrant students by singling them out publically for different treatment. She is not cut out for

teaching in our modern multicultural society. This fits with her showing off about teaching Kipling, a poet associated with the authoritarian, imperialist (when Britain had a

large Empire) values of the past. This is picked up in the phrase winds of change in the fourth stanza – a phrase used in the 1950’s, in Britain’s imperial past, when African

countries wanted independence. The phrase is being used as a pun here: she is referring crudely to the possible flatulence of the students (‘passing wind’).

Season of mists – showing off her preference for dead white poets, a reference to Keats’ most famous poem Ode to Autumn, but in a very superficial, perfunctory way not

clever or relevant.

I’ve written…poetry myself – is this the reason for her bitter, cynical envious attitude towards the poet, that she has not been published: there is a saying that “Those who

can, do: those who can’t, teach.”

Right …Fine...Off we go – other short, sharp brisk, business-like utterances typical of teachers.

That’s enough from me – an ironic phrase; she probably does not think so…

Muse – the Greek goddess of poetry. This is another cuttingly ironic, patronising reference to the poet.

reams…themes – Duffy using assonance / rhyme again (because she can, when she wants to!).

Convince us…something we don’t know – a sarcastic, bitchy challenge to the poet. She arrogantly assumes that her students have already been taught the right things about

poetry in her own classes.

The final stanza is the teacher summing up and thanking the poet. This should be polite and appreciative – it is not!

Well. Really. – these are short, rude interjections, which are curtly dismissive of the poet’s message – an outside view – which she seems to reject.

Do hang about – seems to be a polite invitation to stay for lunch but she follows this up rudely with…

I have to dash – she cannot be bothered to spend / waste any more of her valuable time with a worthless visitor.

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

This is a nostalgic poem which begins by describing lovely, simple experiences of her last year at Primary School, and builds towards a rather disturbing, complex conclusion

when that innocent world of childhood is left behind at the end of the final summer term. Mrs Tilscher is a real person who taught Duffy in her last year at primary school.

‘You could travel up the Blue Nile…Tana. Ethopia. Khartoum. Aswan’ exotic, enchanting places which are visited, in the class’s imagination, in a Geography lesson. The use of

you makes it more informal and does not restrict the experience only to the poet herself.

‘a skittle of milk’ delightful assonance to describe the free milk at playtime.

‘chalky pyramids rubbed to dust’ the ritual of cleaning the previous lesson off the blackboard, but also an adult ironic reflection on the crumbling ancient ruins.

The past is nostalgically invoked with the ‘long pole’ for the windows, which has long since vanished from modern schools.

‘the laugh of a bell’ is an original, cheerful metaphor used to invoke SOUND.

‘This was better than home.’ A plain, emphatic statement which may be hard to believe for some of you; she obviously loved school – and for many working class children in the

1960’s, it was a better place to be.

‘Enthralling books’ she seems to have been captivated by learning.

‘glowed like a sweet shop’ a simile using the idea of something which has great appeal to children: Duffy conveys a sense of excitement throughout.
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‘Sugar paper. Coloured shapes’ beautiful images of SIGHT.

‘Brady and Hindley…’ the horrors of life outside the classroom, suggested by these notorious child murderers, could happily be erased in school.

‘Mrs Tilscher loved you.’ Another short, emphatic statement. The teacher is contrasted to the potential abusers outside school.

‘The scent of a pencil’ an attractive image of SMELL.

‘A xylophone’s nonsense’ another happy, appealing image SOUND. Not formal music – but fun.

‘Over the Easter term’ time moves forward quickly.

The children are growing up, reflected by the images of the frogs:

‘freed’ another charming image of fun – causes excitement.

‘Away from the lunch queue’ children not keeping to the rules; breaking free.

Sexual awakening at the end of the stanza.

‘hot’ ‘feverish July’ images of heat / sex: the child is going through puberty.

‘Mrs Tilscher smiled, then turned away’ to avoid answering awkward questions about sex. Primary school can’t give the answers any longer; children have outgrown it.

The class is leaving primary school - when the ‘reports were handed out’ childhood has officially ended.

The breaking ‘thunderstorm’ is an apt metaphor for adolescence - a deluge of feelings, hormones and changed attitudes.

In Your Mind

Duffy describes a daydream of a visit to a warm foreign country on a rainy English autumn afternoon. The other country represents freedom and pleasure, England is

unattractive and oppressive. There is also a famous poem that states: ‘The Past is another country…” and there are references to her own past. She imagines, perhaps putting

in details of pleasant memories of her past, the simple pleasures of living and working there for many years. The structure of the poem, four stanzas with six lines in each is

controlled but informal – much like the tone of the pleasant daydream. She finishes by returning to the scene at her desk in England. The second person pronoun (and

therefore point of view) allows a personal and also a general connection with the idea of dreaming a better life. It is written in the present tense which makes it very

immediate, as though it is really happening.

The first stanza is concerned with leaving a pretty miserable life in England.

anticipated or half-remembered? – she is uncertain whether she is thinking of going there in the future OR remembering details from the past. The imagination is a weird

place where both could be true at the same time.

rain falls all afternoon…autumn – uninteresting depressing images of ordinary life in England.

put aside your work – the attractive possibility of escape from everyday life.

credit card – no time to change money; an image which suggests impulsive hedonism – live now pay later.

warm coat…leave on the plane – an image of leaving cold weather for a pleasant, warm country; this may be a symbol of all miserable, depressing things that are left behind in

England.

past fades like newsprint in the sun – a simile which suggests how easily cares can be left behind. There may even be a pleasurable pun on the word sun and The Sun

newspaper.

The first lovely day of the visit ends with a delightfully unusual description of the (foreign) moon.

you know people there – it is not strange and daunting, but familiar and comfortable; perhaps she has populated this land with people she really knows.

photographs…wrong side of…eyes – clear, vivid images in your imagination, inside your head.

beautiful boy…bar…harbour – makes it sound wonderfully idyllic. a life of leisure and enjoyment.

if men can possibly land on the moon – a question asked in wonder by the boy. This is a place of simplicity and innocence; a world away from our complicated, technologically

dependent, unromantic lives.

moon like an orange drawn by a child – a simile to describe the spectacularly beautiful end to the day – a sharp contrast with our cloudy skies. Is it a drawing she remembers

from childhood?

No. / Never. – Short excited exclamations of disbelief at what is being witnessed.

peel itself into the sea – a magically metaphorical description; a fittingly strange image for this exotic location.

In this third stanza, Duffy imagines living and working in this other country, which becomes somehow mingled with her own past life.

Sleep – this signals the beginning of a new day. The pace is picked up by this monosyllabic summary of the night.

rasp – onomatopoeia to evoke the simple technology of this country – No traffic or blaring music, it is so quiet that you are woken by a carpenter at work.

painting lost for thirty years – this is one of the qualities of a dream - you can suddenly realise that you are actually dreaming; Duffy realises that the painting on the wall in

her imagination is from her childhood thirty years ago…of course

You love this job – Even work is a pleasure; this job contrasts with the work in England which has been put aside.
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Seagulls. Bells. A flute – a list of images of beautiful sounds; life is so good.

swap a coin for a fish – makes it sound fun, like bartering or a game – not the weekly trudge around ASDA.

In the final stanza, Duffy shows how temporary the daydream really is; the scene becomes confused then reality quickly returns.

suddenly…dawdling – contradictory ideas which give this stanza its confuse tone. This repeated with the phrase lost but not lost – typical feelings in a dream.

blue bridge…six swans vanish – beautiful serene and calm; there is more time to relax and enjoy looking at the scenery in the other country. But the swans are disappearing as

the dream is about to do.

certainty of place – the place seems so real as the poet’s imagination turns on the lights.

For a moment – Duffy acknowledges that the dream can only be sustained for a short time and

then a desk – and all the other images from the first stanza which show the return to mundane reality…but what a lovely ‘holiday’ it has been for Duffy and you, the reader.

Liar

A video lecture on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdB29DxxCsw&feature=related

Like many of the other poems, the structure of the poem is controlled but informal, four stanzas with six lines in each with no regular meter or rhyme scheme. There are also

many short sentences – some of only one word. All this makes the poem seem conversational and not artificial. The liar of the title was either laudably (worthy of praise)

creative and imaginative or frustratingly delusional, making up all sorts of crazy / amusing stories: she was really a man; she lived in Moscow; she nearly drowned; lightning

struck her; she was taken away in an ambulance when she abducted a child; she went to prison; the psychiatrist who assessed her was having an affair with Princess Diana.

She made things up – typically blunt and direct approach by Duffy

she was really / a man – enjambment at end of the first line creates a short pause, giving more emphasis to the lie.

heavy herringbone (jacket?) from Oxfam – her choice of clothes shows that she is either poor or deliberately unconventional. There is the chic fashion of vintage clothing –

often amongst the well-educated.

she was him all right, in her head – Duffy could be almost admiring Susan’s power of imagination to convince herself of the authenticity of these erroneous / false facts.

eyes in the mirror… she could stare them out – she displays many of the qualities of a schizophrenic, knowing that she / he is Susan actually at the same time as being

someone else.

Of course – the repetition of this when outlining her life makes her quite ordinary in many ways. She lived like you do – a suggestion that we, too, live on the edge of madness,

that we may be in danger of becoming delusional, of fantasising like her. We all pursue a variety of unfulfilled dreams, shown by the metaphor – a dozen slack rope.ends / in

each dream hand. They are all unreliable frayed – not neat and tidy. We try to cling on to the past – memory – and pull ourselves forward with dreams of a brighter future –

hope. But the pessimistic image - tugging uselessly – means that it is all a waste of time. But the word standing out from the italics of her stories emphasises that she is

Rotten at convincing others.

Liar – seems to link and form the phrase ‘rotten liar’ as it is another word emphasised at the end of an italicised line.

Hyperbole, falsehood, fiction, fib – a list of four alternative words for lie; the list goes on and on, just like her lies; however, they make a dull evening interesting – shown by

the metaphor pebbles tossed into a flat pool.

bright eyes / fixed on the ripples – she seems a bit crazy…there is a disturbing intensity in her gaze, but there is intelligence there too.

our secret films are private affairs– Duffy uses cinematic images to describe the thoughts inside all human minds which are difficult for anybody to communicate perfectly.

She spoke in subtitles. Not on. - Whatever was going on in Susan’s head was unintelligible; the ideas did not come out in the right language – she just seemed insane.

From bad to worse – the final stanza might show how her delusions became ever more melodramatic. Because of the line You know the rest I think that this may have actually

happened and been reported in the paper or on the news. She may have really abducted the stolen child, was taken away in an ambulance, tried by the judge in the long white

wig. Being sadly confused, she was obviously unfit to plead guilty or not guilty, so she is assessed by a top psychiatrist in gaol. The last line of the poem, however, is

unbelievably weird, which makes it quite comical (that may just be Sammy, again); what the psychiatrist does every night to the Princess of Wales is left deliberately unclear

and seems quite sinister. This is the type of sexual story that a delusional paranoid schizophrenic would make up…or is it really true?
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Mrs Lazarus

A video lecture on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iJqFAlR2do

Duffy presents a feminist perspective of a famous incident – Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. This is a dramatic monologue, in which the narrator is supposed to be a

character from an event recorded in The Bible who is not even mentioned in the story; Duffy gives us the view of a woman whose voice has never been heard. The title Mrs

Lazarus is one of the many anachronisms in the poem and shows that we have a modern take on the ancient tale. Lazarus was dead for four days before Jesus resurrected him;

Mrs Lazarus is shocked at the reality of her husband’s revival as she has since taken up with, perhaps even married, someone else. Duffy uses poetic licence to increase the

length of time between his death and revivification in order to make his wife's remarriage more credible.

In the first stanza, she tells of how, a long time ago, she observed a decent period of mourning and followed all the protocols associated with widowhood.

howled, shrieked, clawed…bled, retched – very powerful, dehumanised, animalistic emotive verbs in the past tense to convey her grief, but the period of mourning was

definitely in the past and is now over.

dead, dead – the repetition makes his death very certain; she could never expect his resurrection.

The second stanza emphasises her being a widow, then, and having to clear out her dead husband’s possessions, which are, anachronistically, very modern suits and ties put into

black bin bags.

Gutted the place…suits into black bags – short, sharp, brisk sentences to show her getting on with the horrible but necessary task and completing it quickly.

shuffled…dead man’s shoes…– reluctant to throw these reminders of him away; still feeling connected.

noosed…tie round my bare neck – same as above, but possible thoughts of suicide with noosed.

single cot / widow, one empty glove (formerly a pair)…half – all images of her accepting the reality of his death.

The third stanza is full of ironic religious references, ironic because Jesus’s miracle is going to resurrect Lazarus. It covers the long period after his death when her memory

of him gradually begins to fade a little.

gaunt nun – made thin by grief and no longer having sex (yet!).

Stations of Bereavement – a metaphor drawing on the idea of The Stations of the Cross, the scenes painted / sculpted of Christ’s journey to his crucifixion; but it is her

progress away from her grief.

icon of my face in each bleak frame – icons are religious paintings; it was still a miserable journey for her.

going away…dwindling…going – Lazarus is becoming only a memory; she is ready to move on with life.

The fourth verse has Lazarus vanishing even further from her immediate thoughts.

going – added to the last word of the previous stanza, we expect the auctioneer’s ‘going, going gone’.

last hair…His scent went – the last tiny fragments of her dead husband are disappearing.

The will was read – Lazarus legally does not exist. Even if comes back all of his property will have gone.

See – there is a plea for understanding and empathy with her position in this situation.

vanishing / to the small zero…ring – the only thing that remains of their marriage is her wedding ring, but the word zero implies that it does not really signify anything any

longer.

In verse five, Lazarus has completely disappeared and it is time for his wife to rebuild her life. She begins a relationship with another man, but it is all very respectable and

not at all scandalous.

Then he was gone – a collocation, the culmination of the going, going…of stanzas three and four. Lazarus is very definitely dead and never to be a part of her life any more.

legend, language – there is no person there any more, just his name.

arm on the arm– physical image to contrast with the disappeared Lazarus.

schoolteacher – someone respectable, not a scandal for the gossip mongers…until Lazarus returns!

shock / of a man’s strength – she never expected to have a physical relationship ever again.

faithful / for as long as it took – more emphasis on how much time has passed; she is doing the right thing, not jumping into bed with the first man who comes along.

The sixth stanza shows Mrs Lazarus as completely recovered from her grief and able to begin appreciating life again in the world. The end of the stanza, however, contains

tension – something very dramatic has occurred that will affect her.

could stand…in the field / in a shawl of fine air, healed – all lovely images of being able to appreciate the beauty of the world again. The metaphor of the shawl conveys

warmth and comfort, the internal rhyme of healed and field suggests peace and recovery of her sanity.

the edge of the moon occur to the sky – romantic and beautiful.

a hare thump from a hedge – the onomatopoeia shows how much notice she is taking of life after a period of despair.
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running towards me, shouting – A very dramatic end to the stanza, building tension. Her attention is needed for some important event or emergency. Of course, we know the

story of Lazarus, and are tense, wondering how she will react when she knows what has happened

In the seventh stanza, she still does not know that Lazarus is resurrected from the dead, but she can see the odd expressions on people’s faces. We see her in an impossible

predicament. The villagers seem to take delight in her situation as they simply see the event as sensational.

sly light /on the blacksmith's face …shrill eyes of the barmaid - emphasises the idea of melodrama sly and shrill are transferred epithets (adjectives that cannot literally

describe the nouns to which they are applied) which convey the sense that something weird has happened and these two people who deal with a lot of the public in a small

community cannot wait to spread the gossip in a shrill voice and in a sly way.

The final stanza reverses all of the usual ideas about Christ’s miracle. In The Bible, everyone was delighted that Lazarus had risen from the dead; Duffy describes his

resurrection with horrifying diction and absolutely no mention of Jesus.

He lived – a brief, direct, blunt, shocking summary of what had happened.

horror on his face – Lazarus’s reaction either to the experience of being dead or to his wife’s new life.

mother’s crazy song – not a glorious, triumphant celebration; she seems to go mad with the shock

stench…rotting – repulsive diction; emphasis on the long time he has been dead.

the grave’s slack chew – a disgusting, repulsive metaphor. This is perhaps a grimly ironic reference to the idea of the jaws of death. Lazarus is definitely not looking at his

best.

croaking his cuckold name – onomatopoeia to reflect his difficulty in talking after so long, a horrible sound echoed in the harsh consonance of the hard ‘k’ repeated four times.

A cuckold is a man whose wife has been unfaithful to him…but she has been asking us to understand her situation, and we probably do!

disinherited, out of his time – he has lost everything…house, wife, money, possessions...Jesus has not done him - or anybody else - any favours; he does not belong to this time,

he has become an anachronism. He was better off dead.

Nostalgia

A video lecture on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgjKhJfbkI4&feature=related

This poem is written in free verse, but that does not mean that it is not carefully crafted. Nostalgia is a sad longing for the past, the good old days. In Greek it literally means

‘a painful return home’ – homesickness. Duffy creates a legend, an enigmatically timeless, universal tale, in which the term nostalgia was first created. (I suspect that it’s based

on Duffy’s experience of her family leaving for England). An unknown narrator tells a doctor how people left home for a better standard of living in a foreign land as economic

migrants. They began to feel that their environment was wrong for them, and they felt alienated. They created a word to describe their feelings, though this word is never

mentioned after the poem’s title. In the final stanza, the narrator tells how one of them returned home to find everything the same yet, paradoxically, completely different:

ironically, his homesickness ended with ‘a painful return home’, the literal meaning of nostalgia. One interpretation of this poem is that it is a metaphor for ageing: growing up

and looking back on your past, yearning for the glory days of your youth which can never be repeated. This inevitably leads to a sense of loss, and a sense of your own

mortality…

The first stanza describes the people leaving home in search of money; their lives feel wrong and they begin to suffer.

mercenaries – usually a term for soldiers who fight for any country that will pay them enough. It has become derogatory term for people whose only concern is making money.

mountains...high fine air…/ down, down – moving from high to low, images of degradation, demeaning themselves.

money, dull crude coins – words with negative connotations; just gaining the money wasn’t worth what they gave up. The coins are clenched in their teeth implying that they

had to bite them to test their authenticity – they could not trust their foreign employers.

strange…wrong (5 times for each of the five senses) – a long list encompassing everything about their new lives that was foreign, not familiar and ultimately not healthy.

ache here, Doctor – a doctor is being told about the creation of this sickness; an emotional state is being given medical credibility. We can easily visualise the narrator placing

their hand on their chest, over their heart.

ill – of the first line – becomes killing them by the end of the stanza. This appears to be melodramatic hyperbole, but it is fairly common for people to die of emotional stress.

The second stanza describes those who have not experienced it, understanding the power of nostalgia by hearing many examples of what it feels like and what brings it on.

given a name – when humans name a concept, it is defined and it becomes easier to recognise. Humans think in words, even if those thoughts are about emotions.

Hearing of it / those who stayed put, fearful – these are the people who never leave home because they get to hear nostalgia can be a very painful emotion.

sweet pain in the heart – a perfect description of nostalgia; it is lovely to remember home, when you are in a strange land for a long period, even though you suffer for it

emotionally.

hurt, / in that heavier air – the pain is bad down in the lowlands, a reference to the mercenaries leaving the mountains.

music of home – the sad pipes – bagpipes? Remember Duffy’s parents emigrated from Ireland to Scotland where she was born before they moved to England. It may be Scots

leaving the mountains for the flat English plains – music can be very evocative of another time, another place.
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where…you met a girl – a charming romantic memory from their youth.

search for a yellow ball…mother called you in – an even earlier memory from childhood. The émigrés are remembering only the lovely times, not the poverty, the reason why

they left.

the word was out – now that it has been given a name it is more easily recognised, word begins to spread.

some would never / fall in love had they not heard of love . – this refers to the theory that ideas require words attached to them or they cannot be thought about by the

human brain.

priest…schoolteacher – even these respectable, well educated professionals (a male and a female) who are expected to act responsibly, are terribly afflicted by this powerful

emotion. Nostalgia affects both sexes and is not felt only by the stereotypically more emotionally self-indulgent ‘Jeremy Kyle Show’ participants or actors on Oscar night.

the colour of leaves – this image evokes the idea of autumn, a melancholic time when we are made aware of time passing as the summer gives way to shorter, cooler days.

It was spring – a time for new beginnings, fresh life and hope. Ironically, the returner does not find any of this in his old home.

life / in a sack on his back – a rather derogatory effect of a harsh internal rhyme. He hasn’t achieved much or profited by his exile if his possessions can all be contained, his

life summed up, in a bag which can be carried.

same – repeated three times to emphasise the idea that the village has not changed.

everything changed – an surprising conclusion after the previous idea that nothing had changed. He is the one who has changed, perhaps, because of his travels, his contact

with the bigger wider world. He sees his home from a different perspective.

Stealing

Not the easiest poem to understand on first reading: the whole poem, like its last line, is a challenge to the reader / listener - You don’t understand a word I’m saying, do

you? It is a dramatic monologue in which Duffy creates a rather strange, disturbing character. A persistent, unrepentant, possibly psychotic thief speaks about the most

unusual thing they (no gender is given) have ever stolen – a snowman. They mention other activities and items which they have stolen, before returning to the snowman, an

action which they found ultimately disappointing. They seem to be alienated, antisocial and bitter with a sadistic streak. However, despite their unnerving psychopathology,

they do not seem to be a physical threat to anybody. Some even see them as comical. The title, Stealing has other connotations– it also means moving quietly and stealthily so

nobody notices you creeping around.

The first stanza suggests an interview of some kind with the thief describing the theft of the snowman.

The most unusual thing I ever stole? - Duffy challenges the reader by having the character start with what sounds like the repetition of a question asked by a listener –

perhaps a psychiatrist, a social worker or a police officer.

A snowman – a very unexpected answer, which may cause an amused reaction; this person is seems very odd already!

Midnight – sums up the scene in a single word: the witching hour; an image of darkness– a suitable time for evil deeds.

a…mute – a silent, odd choice for a mate. No interaction with it except on physical level - suggests narrator's social difficulties.

mate – friend / sexual partner / soulmate - narrator strangely able to identify with the inanimate snowman. The simile shows both their minds as ice - cold minded, indifferent,

uncaring of people's reactions to their actions - an archetypal psychopath.

I started with the head – this disturbing decapitation, even of an inanimate object, sounds brutally sadistic.

The second stanza develops their antisocial, cruel characteristics with them wanting to cause distress to innocent children.

Better off dead than giving in / not taking what you want – a powerful expression of their twisted moral perspective; taking what you want is totally acceptable, the best

way of living - seeking thrills, to feel alive…otherwise you might as well be dead.

He weighed a ton - Huge effort to steal something that has no monetary worth. The snowman's only value lies within the feelings that it invokes in both the thief and the

victims.

fierce chill - character gains some sort of perverted emotional reaction unattainable in normal circumstances.

Part of the thrill…children would cry - the narrator steals with the aim that their cruel, selfish actions will distress children.

Life's tough – short brutal dismissive phrase; an excuse for their actions, doing them a favour - teaching about the ‘real world’. This suggests that their lives are miserable and

unfulfilled – they might feel ignored and overlooked.

The narrator describes other minor crimes in the third stanza. They may not seem physically harmful, but they are the sort of things which do cause inconvenience and often

distress.

things I don’t need – a possible implication that they did need the snowman in some way, which is weird.

joy-ride… break into houses just to have a look - no lasting harm is caused by these actions, but it is a creepy idea to think of this disturbed person stealing (creeping

unnoticed, quietly and stealthily) around your home.

mucky ghost - a malevolent image, not a normal human being; the ghost is never seen, only its actions.

leave a mess - narrator deliberately defiles people's homes - part of cruelty and thrill derived from other's misery and suffering.
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gloved hand - intelligent, leaving no fingerprints but also a barrier, no direct physical contact between them and society.

Mirrors - image of insubstantiality - reflections formed by mirrors, links to ghost and snowman.

I sigh like this - Aah – soft onomatopoeic sounds; narrator gains joy / relief. Some critics find this weirdly sexual.

The fourth stanza returns to the theft of the snowman, bringing it home, reassembling it and destroying it. The narrator appears to take out all their frustrations with the

world and their life. This suggests another attempt to find emotional release, this time in particularly violent action, which does not actually harm anybody, but the potential

danger is there.

he didn’t look the same – the act of stealing and reassembling ruins the snowman; it was pointless.

booted him. Again. Again. – short repeated words; this sounds an incredibly violent act of destruction; full of uncontrolled rage. This could have been done at the original site,

with more effect on the children who built it, so why move it at all? It suggests that the original intention was not to destroy the snowman.

It seems daft now - realises futility but makes no apology for actions lack of remorse is a psychopathic trait.

Alone - key word, no place in society, like the ghost they compare themselves to, insubstantial within society.

Sick of the world - no place within the world and no reasons to stick to its rules.

The final stanza has the narrator explain that they are bored by life and go on to list two other things they have stolen. They end by accusing the listener of not understanding

them, but I reckon we’ve got their number, don’t you? The narrator's life seems to consist of boredom, punctuated only by random acts of vandalism, theft and cruelty. There

is no meaning to their actions other than to satisfy their needs at other's expense.

Boredom. – the stereotypical excuse many teenage delinquents use for acts of vandalism.

eat myself – intense, comical image of boredom, or more seriously the self-harm of a person with psychological problems.

guitar…Shakespeare – images of music and literature, society’s culture which is not on offer to them; a suggestion they have to forcibly take the education denied to them.

nicked…flogged – the colloquial language of the uneducated.

You don’t understand a word I’m saying, do you? - An overt challenge to the reader. This shows that the narrator considers themselves to be misunderstood and alone, that

their experience is something outside of normal understanding and comprehension. Possibly this is some sort of way of excusing themselves for their actions.

The Good Teachers

This is apparently another autobiographical poem, with Duffy reflecting on an old secondary school photograph. It was one of those taken on a motorised camera which slowly

panned across the group of pupils; she ran around the back and was photographed on both ends - what a rebel! She has mixed feelings about her teachers: one was good, the

others thought they were a different sort of good - morally correct role models.

‘You’ not ‘I’ – the pronoun distances her -she is looking at her former self.

to be in it again’ a reference to the photograph which is explained above.

‘No bigger than your thumbs’ teachers reduced in size in the photo – and importance in her life?

‘virtuous women size you up’ sarcastic tone to the judgemental, critical teachers – they still seem to be doing it from the photograph.

‘Miss Ross...making a ghost of her say’ she has power (of life and death) over her now, sarcastically mimicking and mocking her.

‘South Sea Bubble Defenestration of Prague’ two events from history, reduced to phrases which now sound comically meaningless...but despite the parody of the teacher,

they have stuck in her memory.

‘You love Miss Pirie. So much...so much’ possibly a teenage crush, but her of love the subject (English, obviously) implies that she was an inspirational teacher, but could still

be strict, hinted at by her different coloured eyes ‘Her kind intelligent green eye. Her cruel blue one’

‘serious, passionate’ strong adjectives show how she was an intense student.

She learns a collection of poems by Kipling ‘by heart’ to impress her, as well as creating an original one for her ‘in your head’, she remembers as she looks at herself in the

photograph.

‘But not...But not...Never...’ Stanza 3, in contrast, has three strong negative references to teachers – mocked by their own words like Miss Ross and curtly dismissed.

‘Look’ we are reminded that it is a photograph.

The use of repetition of ‘and’ in the final line emphasises each of the critical adjectives which sum up her attitude to these conservatively dressed women who are so arrogant

and aloof: ‘snobbish and proud and clean and qualified’ those hard alliterative ‘k’ sounds of the last adjectives are bitterly mocking.

Final stanza employs lots of clichés used by teachers ‘got your number’, ‘you won’t pass’, ‘could do better’, ‘you’ll be sorry one day’ . Again, Duffy is using their words as

sarcastic mockery.

‘roll the waistband of your skirt’ rebelliously making a long skirt (see previous stanza) shorter.

‘smoke rings’ typical teenage rule breakers showing off whilst smoking.

‘But there’s the wall you climb’ perhaps she spots the actual wall in the photograph – a literal and yet powerfully metaphorical image of containment / imprisonment /

restriction. ‘But’ shows that there is an end to oppression by the teachers; graduation is an escape.
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‘dancing, lovebites, marriage, the Cheltenham and Gloucester’ a list which shows experiences as you grow up / older: meeting a boy and raise a family

‘today. The day you’ll be sorry one day.’ She realises she is now back in the present. Ambivalent ending...were the teachers right or wrong? She did escape, but does she

have possibly have regrets?

War Photographer

A video lecture on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNDSJBLZ5sA&feature=related

A war photographer, having returned to his country home in England, is described developing his horrific pictures of conflict. Duffy’s language contrasts the shocking details of

life in a war zone with ordinary life in England. The poem tells how a few of these photos will be chosen for a Sunday newspaper and become part of the reader’s ordinary

Sunday life. The end of the poem sees him flying over a war-torn country, seemingly indifferent to and detached from the horrors of his chosen profession. Duffy wrote of

the photographer’s ‘dilemma’. Her poem is ambivalent: is he simply a mercenary, making money from misery; is he having to remain detached in order to preserve his sanity; does

he help the victims by publicising what happens to them? The form of the poem, four sestets with a regular rhyme scheme, seems to impose some order, making sense out of

the chaos of war.

Stanza one describes the old way of developing photographs before digital cameras. The description of the process is orderly, methodical and precise – so different to the

violence which the pictures capture. Duffy also uses religious imagery showing the process like a priest leading a church service.

darkroom…spools…red light – diction all connected with film processing.

spools of suffering…ordered rows – the sibilance and alliteration links the film with the horror it captured, now being sorted and controlled.

rows…softly glows – this soft sounding rhyme also gives a feeling of peace, tranquillity and order after the chaos & violence.

church…priest…Mass – a simile which evokes the idea of a ritual (a habitual, repeated action) and Christ’s suffering. The WP is in control of this process as the priest, leading

the prayers for victims. Is he compassionate or just doing his job like a priest?

Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. – these were cities in turmoil at the time the poem was written; chanted like a litany, a prayer.

All flesh is grass – emphasised by the caesura before it; fatalistic phrase from The Bible about mortality, not to put too much value on life. This does not seem particularly

compassionate, sensitive reaction to death in war.

The second stanza focuses on him remembering the horrors he has experienced while he does his job here / did his job there.

He has a job to do – sounds very matter of fact and dispassionate; he daren’t think, just get on with the job.

Solutions slop – possible pun on chemicals to develop the film and sorting out conflict – but slop shows it is messy

hands…not tremble then / …do now – he seems more affected now than he was when he steadily and professionally took the photographs.

Rural England. Home again -

fields which don’t explode…running children – contrast of violent experience abroad and peace in England; innocent children running into minefields is a particularly horrific

image. (Famous photo of Vietnam with children running burned by napalm).

nightmare heat – phrase evokes hot weather and explosions.

The third stanza focuses on one photograph and he remembers photographing a man who is wounded, probably dying, and seeking approval from his lamenting wife.

Something is happening. – this opening to the stanza creates a tense atmosphere; we expect to see something dramatic.

stranger’s features – he never makes personal or emotional contact with the subjects of his photgraphs.

twists before his eyes – evokes the agonised movements of the victim and the flexing of the photographic paper in the solution.

half-formed ghost – cleverly ambiguous: this metaphor perfectly describes picture gradually emerging on the paper and a dead man coming back from the past.

cries of this man’s wife – personal grief coming into focus

sought approval / without words – we can imagine him feeling pity for the man, not a typical heartless paparazzi barging in.

to do what someone must – he does not seem to want to take the photograph, but someone must bear witness to the outside world to publicise this horror.

blood stained…foreign dust – horrifying detail which brings the scene very clearly into focus.

The final stanza widens our view to incorporate the hundreds of photographs from which only a few will be selected for viewing by the general public in their Sunday

newspapers.

A hundred agonies – not just the one death outlined in the previous stanza.

in black and white – pre-colour photos in newspapers.

five or six – trivialises the agonies of the victims of war; these cannot possibly convey a true ‘picture’ of war.

eyeball’s prick with tears – the public seem to be genuinely affected at first but this is changed by placing them in context.

prick with tears…pre-lunch beers – the jingling rhyme trivialises the English newspaper reader’s sadness as a momentary, passing emotion. It may be that the war

photographer’s work, therefore, is not really worth doing.

from the aeroplane…stares impassively – the WP appears to be returning to a war zone; he is literally above the land and emotionally distanced

where / he earns his living– the emphasis is on his mercenary motives;

and they do not care – this ending has been much debated: who are they? They could be the people of the country who do not mind his presence and his profession, exploiting

their pain; they might not care about his possible suffering if, indeed he becomes at all compassionate; they could be the British public who do not care very much about wars in

foreign parts. They might even have become inured to war and feel that all flesh is grass – rising above personal suffering and viewing life fatalistically.

Who Loves You

This is another of Duffy’s poems which examines the theme of love. The personal pronouns ( I, me / you, your) focus our attention on the idea of the narrator directly

addressing their partner who is travelling alone. The title does not have the expected question mark, so it implies that it is a poem about the narrator, the person Who Loves

You. Each stanza ends in the same way: a brief refrain, like the chorus to a song, or a chanted prayer for their safe return home. It may simply be about the intensity of love.

It is true that when we are parted from anyone whom we love deeply, we can imagine them in unrealistic danger. However, with all the focus on dangers, the tone seems a little

odd for a love poem, again rather too centred on the anxious, possibly neurotic, overly possessive, personality of the narrator. There is a feeling that the narrator fears

something more than simply the physical dangers that their lover might encounter.

I worry – Notably, the first word draws attention to the narrator, not their lover. It is their anxiety which is in focus.

mystical machines – a strange description of aeroplanes; we question the narrator’s normality and clear-thinking.

Every day people fall from clouds – again very strange choice of diction, certainly an exaggeration of the dangers of flying. This connotes fallen angels, people who stray off

the straight and narrow path, so perhaps they fear their lover being unfaithful.

dead – emphasises their exaggerated fear by coming at the end of the line.

Breathe in and out and in and out easy – surprising words, as though they are trying to calm themselves down; or a plea for the lover to keep on living.

Safety, safely, safe home. – the repeated refrain - a song’s chorus, a chanted prayer; seems a little too needy for them to be back.

photograph…in the fridge – a very strange place to keep it. We are faced with all sorts of possible interpretations: they not want to grieve by being reminded of their face;

they want to be surprised at seeing their face in unusual places; they are keeping their love fresh in some way – or on ice, on hold.

All the time / Every day / Too many people / Nightly people – Duffy begins the second line in each stanza with the paranoid fear that death is all around. This sounds like

an obsession – they are not mentally balanced.

burned in the public places – it could simply be a reference to sunburn. There is the odd use of the, as though the only place to be safe from people is at home, in private, back

in the arms / under the protection of their lover. It may be a very violent, vicious image of horrific public executions, obviously a paranoid exaggeration, again.

cool trees…shade – continues the idea of sunburn by telling them to keep in the shade. It is a possible ironic reference to a peaceful, beautiful traditional love song, ‘Where'er

you walk cool gales shall fan the glade / Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade’. There are not the same peaceful images evoked in this poem.

where the hole in the sky is – an odd, non-scientific reference (like mystical machines) to the hole in the ozone layer and the dangers of sunbathing; again it is unrealistic as

the hole is over the North Pole.

Too many people being gnawed to shreds– but the gruesome, paranoiac fear of deadly dangers is evoked again – melanoma, eaten by cancer.

Send me your voice – an odd, non-scientific reference (like mystical machines / hole in the sky) to telephones. They are desperate for contact in any way possible.

loveless men…homeless boys…angry –diction conjures danger and threat; may be physical or they may represent the idea of sexual seduction, tempting the lover into infidelity.

Nightly …end lives…shortcut – frightening image of people get killed when they stray off the main road in alleyways / parks every single night. Perhaps shortcut may also be

the idea of straying off the straight and narrow path of fidelity.

Walk in the light – Christian metaphor for keeping to the path of goodness; also, obviously, keeping out of dark dangerous places.

steadily hurry towards me – oxymoron which shows their anxiety: they want their lover to keep safe but are desperate for them to return as quickly as possible. The last word

before the refrain focuses on the narrator, as did the first word in the poem. There is something self-centred and selfish about their concern for their lover.

(Who loves you?) - Finally, the title reappears in brackets. This may be more than a reference to themselves, the person they are constantly reminding their partner loves

them; it may be that it is a genuine question, a paranoid fear of an unidentified stranger who is loving them whist they are away.

Wintering

A video lecture on YouTube -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQl6LktBtvg&feature=related

This is another of Duffy’s poems which examines the theme of love. The form of the poem shows tight organisation, a close, methodical analysis of a romantic relationship. The

title is a gerund whose image suggests that this relationship is continuing through a cold, dead period; however, revitalisation in spring seems possible at the end. The personal

pronouns (I we you ) focus our attention on the idea of the narrator directly addressing their partner. Pathetic fallacy is used throughout to reflect the narrator’s feelings.

In the first section, day has turned to night and an abandoned lover lies awake awaiting a phone call from their partner.

All day, slow funerals…rain – slow, plodding rhythm to echo a funeral procession; they are all negative, miserable images.
13

again / …trick of turning love to pain –implies the ease with which they keep on making themselves unhappy.

Grey…black – nightfall after a miserable rainy day; all negative feelings. Black connotes mourning and death.

stars…lies – starlight is usually associated with romance, but it is ominously personified as deceitful.

shroud of cold – image of death and also lack of love / passion.

Night clenches in its fist – aggressive personification of how brutally she feels the night is treating her.

moon, a stone – romantic image becomes changed into what it literally is – dead lifeless (links with shroud, funeral, black).

wish it thrown – romance thrown away or a stone thrown at their partner or simply that night is over.

clutch…stiff body of my phone – imagery implies no longer a means of communication but desperately wants it to be.

Dawn mocks…gibberish of birds – feeling stupid for staying up all night waiting for call.

your words / …broken chords – implies possible hurtful words she keeps recalling; relationship no longer in harmony.

In the second section, the narrator’s emotional suffering throughout the next winter’s day is described.

garden tenses…bereaved…wept – personification for images of her own grief projected onto what she sees.

blur like belief – simile used to show lack of trust in partner’s love.

walk on ice / it breaks – a metaphor of her nervous, fragile emotional state; she breaks down.

All my mistakes – she blames herself for the situation, as people tend to do.

trees…arms, beseech, entreat / cannot forget – another projection of emotions onto inanimate trees; she is desperate.

clouds sag – full of rain; she is also collapsing emotionally.

wind screams…bitter, betrayed – projected feelings - imagery reflecting extreme emotions of an angry argument.

sky flayed – grotesque imagery – the sky has been skinned by the wind – they feel tortured, tormented.

moon a fingernail, bitten and frayed – crescent moon becomes an image linked to her own anxiety.

The third and final section, snow falls on a second night and the lover comes and goes, but the morning brings a change in mood – the certainty that love will flourish again, that

wintering will soon be over.

smuggling in - something being secretly brought in; signifies a possible change coming.

You come and go / your footprints like a love letter - there are sure signs that the lover wants contact.

something shifts…out of sight – continuing the impression that a change is on the way, but not obvious, yet.

a tide of light – a bright, clear, promising, morning; a metaphor for a fresh start, full of hope.

soil grows hesitant – another image of new life and therefore hope for the relationship…but only gradually happening.

blurts in green – image of speaking out after the silence of the previous stanzas.

has been / …will be, certain, unseen – more suggestions that the situation is changing slowly but surely.

pain turns back again to love – the culmination of the whole movement of the poem, from despair to hope.

flower kiss – idea of spring with its new life and hope is linked to a physical reconnection between the lovers. First attractive image in the poem.

winter thaws…melts, cannot resist – the metaphor of love conquering everything; warmth returns to their lives.

____________________________________________________________________

GEORGE ORWELL: 1984

Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing. Either Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it:

Parsons was Winston’s fellow-employee at the Ministry of Truth. He was a fattish but active man of paralysing stupidity, a mass of imbecile enthusiasms—one of those

completely unquestioning, devoted drudges on whom, more even than on the Thought Police, the stability of the Party depended. At thirty-five he had just been unwillingly

evicted from the Youth League, and before graduating into the Youth League he had managed to stay on in the Spies for a year beyond the statutory age. At the Ministry he

was employed in some subordinate post for which intelligence was not required, but on the other hand he was a leading figure on the Sports Committee and all the other

committees engaged in organising community hikes, spontaneous demonstrations, savings campaigns and voluntary activities generally. He would inform you with quiet pride,

between whiffs of his pipe, that he had put in an appearance at the Community Centre every evening for the past four years. An overpowering smell of sweat, a sort of

unconscious testimony to the strenuousness of his life, followed him about wherever he went, and even remained behind him after he had gone. ‘Have you got a spanner?’ said

Winston, fiddling with the nut on the angle-joint. ‘A spanner,’ said Mrs Parsons, immediately becoming invertebrate. ‘I don’t know, I’m sure. Perhaps the children——’ There was

a trampling of boots and another blast on the comb as the children charged into the living-room. Mrs Parsons brought the spanner. Winston let out the water and disgustedly

removed the clot of human hair that had blocked up the pipe. He cleaned his fingers as best he could in the cold water from the tap and went back into the other room. ‘Up

with your hands!’ yelled a savage voice. A handsome, tough-looking boy of nine had popped up from behind the table and was menacing him with a toy automatic pistol, while his

small sister, about two years younger, made the same gesture with a fragment of wood. Both of them were dressed in the blue shorts, grey shirts and red neckerchiefs which
14

were the uniform of the Spies. Winston raised his hands above his head, but with an uneasy feeling, so vicious was the boy’s demeanour, that it was not altogether a game.

‘You’re a traitor!’ yelled the boy. ‘You’re a thought-criminal! You’re a Eurasian spy! I’ll shoot you, I’ll vaporize you, I’ll send you to the salt mines!’ Suddenly they were both leaping

round him, shouting ‘Traitor!’ and ‘Thought-criminal!’, the little girl imitating her brother in every movement. It was somehow slightly frightening, like the gambolling of tiger

cubs which will soon grow up into man-eaters. There was a sort of calculating ferocity in the boy’s eye, a quite evident desire to hit or kick Winston and a consciousness of

being very nearly big enough to do so. It was a good job it was not a real pistol he was holding, Winston thought. Mrs Parsons’s eyes flitted nervously from Winston to the

children, and back again. In the better light of the living-room he noticed with interest that there actually was dust in the creases of her face. ‘They do get so noisy,’ she said.

‘They’re disappointed because they couldn’t go to see the hanging, that’s what it is. I’m too busy to take them, and Tom won’t be back from work in time.

[Turn over ‘Why can’t we go and see the hanging?’ roared the boy in his huge voice. ‘Want to see the hanging! Want to see the hanging!’ chanted the little girl, still capering

round. Some Eurasian prisoners, guilty of war crimes, were to be hanged in the Park that evening, Winston remembered. This happened about once a month, and was a popular

spectacle. Children always clamoured to be taken to see it. He took his leave of Mrs Parsons and made for the door. But he had not gone six steps down the passage when

something hit the back of his neck an agonisingly painful blow. It was as though a red-hot wire had been jabbed into him. He spun round just in time to see Mrs Parsons

dragging her son back into the doorway while the boy pocketed a catapult. ‘Goldstein!’ bellowed the boy as the door closed on him. But what most struck Winston was the look

of helpless fright on the woman’s greyish face. [from Part 1]

How does Orwell make this such a disturbing moment in the novel?

___________________________________________________________________

Extract 2:

GEORGE ORWELL: 1984 Remember to support your ideas with details from the writing. Either

Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it:

‘Do you remember,’ he said, ‘the thrush that sang to us, that first day, at the edge of the wood?’ ‘He wasn’t singing to us,’ said Julia. ‘He was singing to please

himself. Not even that. He was just singing.’ The birds sang, the proles sang, the Party did not sing. All round the world, in London and New York, in Africa and

Brazil and in the mysterious, forbidden lands beyond the frontiers, in the streets of Paris and Berlin, in the villages of the endless Russian plain, in the bazaars of

China and Japan—everywhere stood the same solid unconquerable figure, made monstrous by work and childbearing, toiling from birth to death and still singing. Out

of those mighty loins a race of conscious beings must one day come. You were the dead; theirs was the future. But you could share in that future if you kept alive

the mind as they kept alive the body, and passed on the secret doctrine that two plus two make four. ‘We are the dead,’ he said. ‘We are the dead,’ echoed Julia

dutifully. ‘You are the dead,’ said an iron voice behind them. They sprang apart. Winston’s entrails seemed to have turned into ice. He could see the white all round

the irises of Julia’s eyes. Her face had turned a milky yellow. The smear of rouge that was still on each cheek bone stood out sharply, almost as though unconnected

with the skin beneath. ‘You are the dead,’ repeated the iron voice. ‘It was behind the picture,’ breathed Julia. ‘It was behind the picture,’ said the voice. ‘Remain

exactly where you are. Make no movement until you are ordered.’ It was starting, it was starting at last! They could do nothing except stand gazing into one

another’s eyes. To run for life, to get out of the house before it was too late—no such thought occurred to them. Unthinkable to disobey the iron voice from the

wall. There was a snap as though a catch had been turned back, and a crash of breaking glass. The picture had fallen to the floor, uncovering the telescreen behind

it. ‘Now they can see us,’ said Julia. ‘Now we can see you,’ said the voice. ‘Stand out in the middle of the room. Stand back to back. Clasp your hands behind your

heads. Do not touch one another.’ They were not touching, but it seemed to him that he could feel Julia’s body shaking. Or perhaps it was merely the shaking of his

own. He could just stop his teeth from chattering, but his knees were beyond his control. There was a sound of trampling boots below, inside the house and outside.

The yard seemed to be full of men. Something was being dragged across the stones. The woman’s singing had stopped abruptly. There was a long, rolling clang, as

though the washtub had been flung across the yard, and then a confusion of angry shouts which ended in a yell of pain. ‘The house is surrounded,’ said Winston. ‘The

house is surrounded,’ said the voice. He heard Julia snap her teeth together. ‘I suppose we may as well say good-bye,’ she said.

‘You may as well say good-bye,’ said the voice. And then another quite different voice, a thin, cultivated voice which Winston had the impression of having heard

before, struck in: ‘And by the way, while we are on the subject, “Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!”’ Something

crashed onto the bed behind Winston’s back. The head of a ladder had been thrust through the window and had burst in the frame. Someone was climbing through

the window. There was a stampede of boots up the stairs. The room was full of solid men in black uniforms, with iron-shod boots on their feet and truncheons in

their hands. Winston was not trembling any longer. Even his eyes he barely moved. One thing alone mattered: to keep still, to keep still and not give them an excuse

to hit you! A man with a smooth prizefighter’s jowl in which the mouth was only a slit paused opposite him, balancing his truncheon meditatively between thumb and

forefinger. Winston met his eyes. The feeling of nakedness, with one’s hands behind one’s head and one’s face and body all exposed, was almost unbearable. The man

protruded the tip of a white tongue, licked the place where his lips should have been and then passed on. There was another crash. Someone had picked up the glass

paperweight from the table and smashed it to pieces on the hearthstone.

Explore how Orwell makes this moment in the novel so shocking.

_______________________________________________________________________
15

Extract 3:

GEORGE ORWELL: Nineteen Eighty-Four Either 10

Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it:

It was the lonely hour of fifteen. Winston could not now remember how he had come to be in the café at such a time. The place was almost empty. A tinny music

was trickling from the telescreens. The three men sat in their corner almost motionless, never speaking. Uncommanded, the waiter brought fresh glasses of gin.

There was a chessboard on the table beside them, with the pieces set out but no game started. And then, for perhaps half a minute in all, something happened to

the telescreens. The tune that they were playing changed, and the tone of the music changed too. There came into it – but it was something hard to describe. It

was a peculiar, cracked, braying, jeering note: in his mind Winston called it a yellow note. And then a voice from the telescreen was singing: Under the spreading

chestnut tree I sold you and you sold me: There lie they, and here lie we Under the spreading chestnut tree. The three men never stirred. But when Winston glanced

again at Rutherford’s ruinous face, he saw that his eyes were full of tears. And for the first time he noticed, with a kind of inward shudder, and yet not knowing at

what he shuddered, that both Aaronson and Rutherford had broken noses. A little later all three were re-arrested. It appeared that they had engaged in fresh

conspiracies from the very moment of their release. At their second trial they confessed to all their old crimes over again, with a whole string of new ones. They

were executed, and their fate was recorded in the Party histories, a warning to posterity. About five years after this, in 1973, Winston was unrolling a wad of

documents which had just flopped out of the pneumatic tube on to his desk when he came on a fragment of paper which had evidently been slipped in among the

others and then forgotten. The instant he had flattened it out he saw its significance. It was a half-page torn out of The Times of about ten years earlier – the top

half of the page, so that it included the date – and it contained a photograph of the delegates at some Party function in New York. Prominent in the middle of the

group were Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford. There was no mistaking them; in any case their names were in the caption at the bottom. The point was that at both

trials all three men had confessed that on that date they had been on Eurasian soil. They had flown from a secret airfield in Canada to a rendezvous somewhere in

Siberia, and had conferred with members of the Eurasian General Staff, to whom they had betrayed important military secrets. The date had stuck in Winston’s

memory because it chanced to be midsummer day; but the whole story must be on record in countless other places as well. There was only one possible conclusion: the

confessions were lies. Of course, this was not in itself a discovery. Even at that time Winston had not imagined that the people who were wiped out in the purges had

actually committed the crimes that they were accused of. But this was concrete evidence; it was a fragment of the abolished past, like a fossil bone which turns up

in the wrong stratum and destroys a geological theory. It was enough to blow the Party to

if in some way it could have been published to the world and its significance made known. He had gone straight on working. As soon as he saw what the photograph

was, and what it meant, he had covered it up with another sheet of paper. Luckily, when he unrolled it, it had been upside-down from the point of view of the

telescreen. He took his scribbling pad on his knee and pushed back his chair, so as to get as far away from the telescreen as possible. To keep your face

expressionless was not difficult, and even your breathing could be controlled, with an effort: but you could not control the beating of your heart, and the telescreen

was quite delicate enough to pick it up. He let what he judged to be ten minutes go by, tormented all the while by the fear that some accident – a sudden draught

blowing across his desk, for instance – would betray him. Then, without uncovering it again, he dropped the photograph into the memory hole, along with some other

waste papers. Within another minute, perhaps, it would have crumbled into ashes.

That was ten – eleven years ago. To-day, probably, he would have kept that photograph. It was curious that the fact of having held it in his fingers seemed to him

to make a difference even now, when the photograph itself, as well as the event it recorded, was only memory. Was the Party’s hold upon the past less strong, he

wondered, because a piece of evidence which existed no longer had once existed?

What makes this such a powerful moment in the novel?

________________________________________________________________________

Extract 4:

Read this passage, and then answer the question that follows it: ‘Do you remember,’ he said, ‘the thrush that sang to us, that first day, at the edge of the wood?’

‘He wasn’t singing to us,’ said Julia. ‘He was singing to please himself. Not even that. He was just singing.’ The birds sang, the proles sang, the Party did not sing.

All round the world, in London and New York, in Africa and Brazil and in the mysterious, forbidden lands beyond the frontiers, in the streets of Paris and Berlin, in

the villages of the endless Russian plain, in the bazaars of China and Japan—everywhere stood the same solid unconquerable figure, made monstrous by work and

childbearing, toiling from birth to death and still singing. Out of those mighty loins a race of conscious beings must one day come. You were the dead; theirs was the

future. But you could share in that future if you kept alive the mind as they kept alive the body, and passed on the secret doctrine that two plus two make four.

‘We are the dead,’ he said. ‘We are the dead,’ echoed Julia dutifully. ‘You are the dead,’ said an iron voice behind them. They sprang apart. Winston’s entrails

seemed to have turned into ice. He could see the white all round the irises of Julia’s eyes. Her face had turned a milky yellow. The smear of rouge that was still on

each cheek bone stood out sharply, almost as though unconnected with the skin beneath. ‘You are the dead,’ repeated the iron voice. ‘It was behind the picture,’

breathed Julia. ‘It was behind the picture,’ said the voice. ‘Remain exactly where you are. Make no movement until you are ordered.’ It was starting, it was starting

at last! They could do nothing except stand gazing into one another’s eyes. To run for life, to get out of the house before it was too late—no such thought occurred
16

to them. Unthinkable to disobey the iron voice from the wall. There was a snap as though a catch had been turned back, and a crash of breaking glass. The picture

had fallen to the floor, uncovering the telescreen behind it. ‘Now they can see us,’ said Julia. ‘Now we can see you,’ said the voice. ‘Stand out in the middle of the

room. Stand back to back. Clasp your hands behind your heads. Do not touch one another.’ They were not touching, but it seemed to him that he could feel Julia’s

body shaking. Or perhaps it was merely the shaking of his own. He could just stop his teeth from chattering, but his knees were beyond his control. There was a

sound of trampling boots below, inside the house and outside. The yard seemed to be full of men. Something was being dragged across the stones. The woman’s

singing had stopped abruptly. There was a long, rolling clang, as though the washtub had been flung across the yard, and then a confusion of angry shouts which

ended in a yell of pain. ‘The house is surrounded,’ said Winston. ‘The house is surrounded,’ said the voice. He heard Julia snap her teeth together. ‘I suppose we may

as well say good-bye,’ she said.

‘You may as well say good-bye,’ said the voice. And then another quite different voice, a thin, cultivated voice which Winston had the impression of having heard

before, struck in: ‘And by the way, while we are on the subject, “Here comes a candle to light you to bed, here comes a chopper to chop off your head!”’ Something

crashed onto the bed behind Winston’s back. The head of a ladder had been thrust through the window and had burst in the frame. Someone was climbing through

the window. There was a stampede of boots up the stairs. The room was full of solid men in black uniforms, with iron-shod boots on their feet and truncheons in

their hands. Winston was not trembling any longer. Even his eyes he barely moved. One thing alone mattered: to keep still, to keep still and not give them an excuse

to hit you! A man with a smooth prizefighter’s jowl in which the mouth was only a slit paused opposite him, balancing his truncheon meditatively between thumb and

forefinger. Winston met his eyes. The feeling of nakedness, with one’s hands behind one’s head and one’s face and body all exposed, was almost unbearable. The man

protruded the tip of a white tongue, licked the place where his lips should have been and then passed on. There was another crash. Someone had picked up the glass

paperweight from the table and smashed it to pieces on the hearthstone

Explore how Orwell makes this moment in the novel so shocking.

Essay based questions:

What striking impressions of the Parsons family does Orwell create for you?

Explore the ways in which Orwell makes O’Brien’s treatment of Winston in the Ministry of Love so disturbing.

How does Orwell make Winston’s relationship with O’Brien such a striking part of the novel?

What striking impressions of the Parsons family does Orwell create for you?