Choose a poem that reflects on the idea of change. Show how the poet explores the subject and explain to what extent your appreciation of the subject deepens.

        In the poem Duffy is exploring the changes that take place between childhood and adolescence. The language that Duffy uses reflects the happy trusting relationship between teacher and students in early years and then highlights the difficult transition to become a teenager. Duffy makes use of a lot of figurative language (imagery: similes, metaphors and personification). She uses these things to help the reader of the poem see clearly what she herself remembers. In the first two stanzas these images are mainly positive “the laugh of a bell swung by the running child”, here Duffy personifies the bell so that we get a clear sense of the children’s laughter and sense of excitement. The way that Mrs Tilscher “chant(s)” the lesson adds a bright “sing-song” feel to the poem which is continued with images of “enthralling books”, classrooms that “glowed like a sweet shop”, “sugar paper, coloured shapes” and “gold stars”. In the first half of the poem there is no sense of time passing. This comes in the second half when Duffy highlights the changes taking place. Everything is growing and moving in the last two stanzas, even the seasons and weather, “over the Easter term”, “that feverous July”.

        She uses a punctuation metaphor to indicate the growth of the tadpoles; this is highly effective because Duffy is linking the change to the things that the children will learn at school. “The inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks”. Duffy extends this metaphor later in the stanza when she compares the release of the frogs in the playground to the changes taking place in the growing children “jumping and croaking”. In the same way that the first two stanzas are full of colour, laughter and positive images the second two stanzas take up the language of discomfort and unrest. As the children grow into teenagers Duffy hints at the uncomfortable effects of hormones which make the children “feverish”, “untidy”, “hot”, “fractious”. The same children who once thought that Mrs Tilschers lessons were “better than home” are now “impatient to be grown” eager to be leaving school and moving on.

        This poem is written with regular stanzas but no obvious rhyme scheme. The stanzas help to add emphasis to the “snapshots” of childhood and adolescence that Duffy is presenting. The most noticeable thing about the structure of this poem is the change in stanza length. The first two stanzas have eight lines each and the last two have seven lines each. Duffy does this to reflect the changes, which are taking place in the poem. In the first stanza she uses aural imagery so we can hear what she means. Duffy tells us of Mrs Tilschers chanting in the lesson, the way that she writes the line with sentences made up of only one word that allows us to almost hear the teacher calling out the words.

        The tone is the way a speaker would say/read the poem. The tone can reveal a greats deal about the speaker’s attitude towards the subject, in this case the difference between the innocence of childhood and the troublesome years of adolescence. The tone is established through the language and structure following the pattern of the poem’s content. The last two stanza’s become uncertain and ominous as growing sexuality causes confusion and irritability “fractions under the heavy sexy sky”.

          This poem can be compared with other poems such as “Valentine” and “Stealing” due to them also using and creating snapshot images. This poem shows the major change and transformation from childhood to adolescence and brings back memories of previous experiences to myself and others who read it.