Background to In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

•The Moors Murders

The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least four of whom were sexually assaulted. The murders are so named because two of the victims were discovered in graves dug on Saddleworth Moor; a third grave was discovered on the moor in 1987, more than 20 years after Brady and Hindley's trial in 1966. The body of a fourth victim, Keith Bennett, is also suspected to be buried there, but despite repeated searches it remains undiscovered.

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class

Carol Ann Duffy

• In Mrs Tilscher's Class

You could travel up the Blue Nile

with your finger, tracing the route

while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.

Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.

That for an hour, then a skittle of milk

and the chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust.

A window opened with a long pole.

The laugh of a bell swung by a running

child.

This was better than home. Enthralling books.

The classroom glowed like a sweet shop.

Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and Hindley*

faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.

Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings, you found

she'd left a good gold star by your name.

The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved.

A xylophone's nonsense heard from another form.

Over the Easter term, the inky tadpoles changed

from commas into exclamation marks. Three frogs

hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce,

followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking

away from the lunch queue. A rough boy

told you how you were born. You kicked him, but

stared

at your parents, appalled, when you got back

home.

That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.

A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,

fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. You asked her

how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled,

then turned away. Reports were handed out.

You ran through the gates, impatient to be grown,

as the sky split open into a thunderstorm.

In Mrs Tilscher's ClassroomAnalysis

FIRST STANZA

It is appropriate that the first line of this poem is 'You could travel up the Blue Nile', because this is really a poem about a journey that every child makes from childhood into those first years of adolescence, when you are passing from innocence to teenage years.

In Mrs Tilscher's ClassroomAnalysis

FIRST STANZA

This poem is about the process of growing up and the way in

which 'real life' enters a child's world. It is unusual because it is

written in the second person: it speaks of 'you' rather than 'I' (first

person) or 'she/he' (third person).

The first stanza is magical and exciting, reflecting the enjoyment

of being young in school. Some of the details seem insignificant

but are very evocative: 'A window opened with a long pole' (line

7). It is the memory of the little things that is important.

First Stanza• You could – anything seems possible,

addresses reader directly, puts us in the place of the naïve child

• Chalky pyramids rubbed into dust – persona seems to think Mrs T is magical and wonderful: naïve/innocent

• The laugh of a bell - personification reflecting the persona’s happiness,

• SECOND STANZA

• The second stanza is almost as positive and magical as the first. School is spoken of as the place every child longs to be:

The classroom glowed like a sweetshop.Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. (lines 10-11)

• Even the paper the children work on has a name which fits in with this idea. This stanza does include a reference to the outside world creeping in and spoiling this time:

Brady and Hindleyfaded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake. (lines 11-12)

• Here a simile is used to describe the effect of the child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. It is a simile based on the work of a child in the school. We sense, as the speaker says, 'faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake‘ something that the speaker of the poem actually wants to keep on the edges of awareness. The speaker wants to stay within the safe confines of childhood.

Stanza 2

• Classroom glowed like a sweetshop - simile, the child sees the classroom like treasure

• Like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake – simile, the child feels scared of Brady and Hindley, and after Mrs T has tried to make them forget it she cannot completely

• Mrs Tilscher loved you. - statement, - the persona sees it as a fact

THIRD STANZA

• This idea is returned to at the start of the third stanza with the metaphor of learning punctuation used to represent the development of tadpoles.

• The great line about the 'inky tadpoles' changing from commas into exclamation marks suggests the surprise and joy of growing up. But an exclamation mark might follow a scream of shock and alarm.

• The tadpoles are changing; the frogs are unleashed into the playground: this is indicative of the changes happening in the speaker of the poem..

• The origin and growth of life is a theme of this stanza, and the danger of 'real life' spoiling childhood illusions.

A rough boytold you how you were born. You kicked him, but staredat your parents, appalled, when you got back home. (lines 21-23)

• Sexuality and growing up are important ideas in this poem.

Stanza 3

• Over the Easter – one part of their life has finished, the structure suggests change, E suggests rebirth. Turning point

• Inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks – change, growing up, metaphor/symbol, comma – continuation, exclamation marks – extreme emotion

• Appalled - disappointed, disgusted by sex, persona is not ready for adolescence

FOURTH STANZA

• The fourth stanza has a metaphor for the move from childhood into adolescence. The poem speaks of thunder and storm clouds:

That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. (lines 24-26)

• The weather isn't the only source for these feelings; new hormones, ideas, feelings are all entering the child's world, bringing adulthood. Mrs Tilscher 'turned away' when asked about sex because she belongs to childhood; when children ask such things it is time for them to leave her, and primary school.

The poem follows a school year, and as the poem ends it is July. The final image is of a thunderstorm and the leaving of school. This image links to the teenage future, which will be filled with electricity and power.

Stanza 4• That feverish July/feverish …untidy,hot,fractious

– the persona is uncomfortable physically and also uncomfortable emotionally with growing up

• Then turned away. - she can’t help, she can’t guide the persona, persona needs to be independent

• Ran through the gates impatient to be grown – now they are ready to grow up and face the world, they have left ‘Mrs Tilscher’s’ class to go into the real world