Compare and contrast two poems, one by Liz Lochhead and one by Carol Ann Duffy, taking account of the methods (situation, form and structure, and language, including imagery, and tone) which each poet uses to write about childhood.

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Compare and contrast two poems, one by Liz Lochhead and one by Carol Ann Duffy, taking account of the methods (situation, form and structure, and language, including imagery, and tone) which each poet uses to write about childhood.

Two poems which deal with the theme of childhood are In Mrs Tilscher’s Class by Carol Ann Duffy and Lanarkshire Girls by Liz Lochhead. In Lanarkshire Girls the speaker is a fourteen year old travelling from the countryside into Glasgow, whereas In Mrs Tilscher’s Class focusses on a slightly younger child of primary school age. In examining how these poets write about childhood, a good place to start is the title of each poem.

Starting with In Mrs Tilscher’s Class, this title places the poem in a school setting, which is synonymous with childhood. Similarly, the title of Lanarkshire Girls also has a youthful undertone by the use of the word, “girls.” This suggests a certain immaturity in the speaker; she is not yet a woman, she is still a child.

Moving on, key to understanding how the poets write about childhood is their use of imagery. Beginning with In Mrs Tilscher’s Class, Duffy begins by depicting a day in primary school, utilising the method of listing: “Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan.” These names have an intrinsic glamour because they are so foreign, and they help capture the wonder and discovery of childhood. She uses playful imagery, such as, “a skittle of milk,” which is a pun on childhood toys. The sense of playfulness is continued through her use of a transferred epithet, “the laugh of a bell swung by a running child.” In this case the laughter of the children is transferred onto the bell, perhaps to symbolise the vigorous ringing an the joy of playtime. Contrastingly, Lanarkshire Girls uses imagery that conveys a sense of anticipation rather than playfulness, through phrases such as, “old blossom on the roof / chucked hard wee balls of unripe fruit.” Her speaker is at a more mature stage of childhood than Duffy’s speaker, after all. The imagery used suggest that the girls have passed the spring of the childhood, yet are still, “unripe,” and not quite adults. The use of the colloquial phrase, “wee balls,” gives the poem an authentic and local Scottish voice, which contrasts with Duffy’s use of foreign, African words.

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Moving on, both poems create a sense of wonder, awe and discovery as they progress into their second and third stanzas. Both poets make extensive use of the method of listing, for example in In Mrs Tilscher’s Class Duffy lists a lot of sensory imagery to present the reader with a stimulating primary school environment, such as, “the classroom glowed like a sweetshop,” using a simile to create an almost heavenly image of the classroom. She also uses olfactory imagery, “the scent of a pencil,” and auditory imagery, “a xylophone’s nonsense.” Duffy skilfully uses language to capture all the sensory ...

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