The thrill that the thief seems to get out of it is wickedness, that children will cry in the morning. The alliteration used here is a ‘T’ sound. Not as much alliteration and assonance as the first stanza, but the effect is the same.
In this third stanza the thief confesses that he often steals things that he simply does not need. For instance he joy-rides cars and leaves them anywhere. He breaks into houses to basically devastate people but not to deliberately take anything. The exceptional camera is stolen, but not because he feels he needs one, just so he can destroy it, ie. to destroy the family holiday pictures that are left on the film. This is putting the point forward that he steals out of jealousy, not necessity. He steals to hurt people and to then laugh at them. The thief acts as though he has conquered the world and is bored. He steals for the adrenaline rush.
The alliteration used here is the M letter as the feelings portrayed are again spitefulness.
The thief wears gloves, this reveals that although he is fed up, he does not want to be caught. Everytime he steals, it seems as though he is looking for something special, but is let down each time, and in frustration destroys objects with personal values like cameras, snowmen etc and then retreats.
In the fourth stanza the thief has reassembled the snowman in his backyard and feels it does not look right. He kicks it repeatedly until it falls. All that time and effort that it took to build and within minutes it is crumbled because the thief feels it did not look right in his back yard. The stanza closes with the thief stood by the once magnificent snowman, sick of the world.
No real alliteration was used here although you could see a few letters that were used as alliteration. These letters were A, B, R and S, it seemed like they were only used once when next to each other but were actually used constantly throughout this stanza, mixed in with one another.
For instance the poet chose to write…I took a run and booted him, Again, Again. My breath ripped out in rags…
This sentence contains assonance as well. Although UN-noticed the sound is ‘Ar’
The final stanza closes with the thief quoting that he feels bored. He says he stole a guitar once in the hope he could play it. Again stealing to damage people. The guitar will have been of sentimental value, so the thief took it because of this. The thief stole the head and top half of a bust of Shakespeare once as it would have been priceless to one person. He says the Snowman was the strangest. All the things he stole were not really worth anything to him, only to the people he stole them from.
The thief has total lack of awareness of people’s objects. He acts as though he is selfish and he backs this up by constantly talking about himself and no one else throughout the poem. He excludes everyone from his world and this comes across as chilling. In the first stanza the poet writes … “I wanted him, a mate with a mind as cold as the slice of ice within my own brain”…
He is a cold selfish person but looking for something not so evil within his evilness.
The poem is left open so the reader decides their own outcome, and to let the thief’s actions speak louder than his words.
Maybe he is looking for love or to be loved?
The guitar to keep him company, the car to run away, the camera to find a family and to seek happiness, the snowman-a mate to confide in. Perhaps these are the ways he will find love in his life.
In Miss Tilscher’s Class
This Poem is slightly different to Stealing, mainly because of the way it is written.
This poem consists of two eight-line regular stanzas and two seven line stanzas. Again the poet chooses not to rhyme the poem with words but with metaphors and alliteration.
The poet is basically giving the reader an example of her schooldays and the stresses of early adolescence. School is full of interesting colours and objects, and is in many ways more exciting than home.
In the first stanza the poet tries to remind the reader of school life with a type of Geography lesson, where Miss Tilcher is teaching the children cities, towns and rivers over the continent Africa. Following the lesson each person gets a skittle of milk. Thus referring to break time where the warm milk is handed out, but the children are to excited to know it is warm. In line six the poet talks about the black board and as the writing is rubbed away the bell is rung for ‘playtime’.
Basically this first stanza is recalling the reality of Miss Tilscher’s room. For instance we get the blackboard, skittle of milk, the bell rung to signalize ‘playtime’, a long pole to open the tall, slender windows and the children studying their maps. Here the scene is set for that of primary school and is recalled from when the poet and reader were both younger.
Carol Ann Duffy uses short abrupt statements, often single words balanced against longer sentences in a very individualistic style. For instance:
and the chalky pyramids rubbed into dust.
A window opened with a long pole.
The laugh of a bell swung by a running child.
The first stanza did not really contain poetic structure, just the occasional metaphor.
Thus setting the scene for the next stanza maybe?
The following stanza develops by notifying that School was better than home, as it had enthralling books and the classroom glowed like a sweet shop. This giving the reader detail on the walls and decoration that was within the classroom. For instance the sugar paper that all the work was mounted upon, the coloured paper that was covering the walls. The poet tries to show that children could stand there all day, just amazed at the colours etc.
These sentences let the reader read them singularly, stop then think about what it means before carrying on.
The poet also states in line three to four: ‘…Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint uneasy smudge of a mistake…’
This gives the reader the idea that the child did not pay any attention to the news. However if they did hear it then they would not really be troubled by it, in effect they would rub it out as they would a smudge on a piece of paper. (Rub it out as if it does not matter to the child)
The following line contains the first piece of alliteration used so far. Although only two words structured within the sentence were used for Alliteration they poetically rhymed in the manner that Carol Ann Duffy uses constantly throughout the poem Stealing.
More alliteration is used on the next few lines to close the Stanza. The poem quotes: ‘the scent of a pencil, slowly carefully shaved. A xylophones nonsense heard from another form.’ The main letters used here are S and N. Also very slight assonance is used here to sound the ‘o’ noise towards the end of the second Stanza.
You can really feel the child’s world, which is encapsulated throughout this regular stanza.
The following Stanza is again about growing up. The tadpoles changing from commas into exclamation marks. The children growing up, life is a disappointment, as it seems more important but less exciting. The child is becoming a member of society.
Alliteration and metaphors are constantly used throughout this third Stanza. ‘Freed by a dunce, followed by a line of kids. The letter used mainly here is F, this giving a wearied taste to the sentence.
UN-restful images become more and more clear as the two final Stanzas progress. The poet becomes more aware of adolescence as the frogs are freed and they escape. Also a rough boy tells the child ‘how they were born.’ The child does not believe him but stands there appalled at their parents when they arrived home. Suggested crudity? Growing up is again notified within the third Stanza.
The final Stanza we become more and more aware of the restless unease of the once young children. The age seems to be about twelve to thirteen and the mood has changed between the children.
No real metaphors are used here. However over the final Stanza, Alliteration repeats the letter S quite frequently. Also Assonance is used with the sound ‘shh’ repeated in every other word. The sound ‘I’ is repeated quite a bit also.
The feverish July, the air tasted of electricity…always hot, untidy under the heavy, sexy sky…asked her…Miss Tilscher smiled and turned away…Reports were handed out…You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown, as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.
The child is at the foothold of growing up and Adolescence. Miss Tilscher tells you the less important things; the child in the poem asks Miss Tilscher how they were born. She smiles and turns away. This implying that a new teacher is ready to take the class over. Miss Tilscher tells the children what they need to know. The next year will bring the answers form the next teacher.
The Sky splits open into a thunderstorm, more examples of adolescence.
The poem as a whole is about growing up. The first two Stanzas are about younger life and the next two are about young teenage life.
Throughout the poem you get a real sense of the classroom, and it becomes clearer as the poem accelerates. The classroom becomes more tactile as the poem moves on and feels very real. All senses are felt here including the smell of milk in the classroom. Sight as the colours on the wall are seen. Touch as the pencils are sharpened and blackboard chalk is also felt, taste as the milk that is generally warm is drunk. Image after image adds to the sensory exploration of the room.
The poem as a whole is very conversational, just like the other poem Stealing was. Both poems start as if in the middle of a conversation and this is the way that Carol Ann Duffy chooses to write the poems.
She often explores her memories of the past in her poetry. The poem In Miss Tilscher’s class is no exception. Obviously the past plays a massive part in her life. Childhood is just one section of it. Poetry seems the most obvious way that she expresses her self throughout her own life.