Mrs Tilscher's Class by Carol Ann Duffy

















You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan.
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 sweetshop.
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 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.



What is the poem about?

In this poem, Carol Ann Duffy affectionately remembers a year during primary school, in particular the class of Mrs Tilscher. School, and especially Mrs Tilscher's class, was a place of security and adventure. The poem is also about growing up and the confusion and excitement that this can bring. This is a poem that nearly everybody can relate to. Mrs. Tilscher is a real person, who taught Carol Ann Duffy in her last year at junior school. This is an autobiographical poem.

The poem celebrates childhood and a wonderful, imaginative, loving teacher. Everything in the first two stanzas is magical, warm, colourful and exciting. The first line gives the impression that they felt like they really were travelling up the Blue Nile. Even the books are 'Enthralling'! The second half of the poem introduces more complex feelings, although mixed still with comedy and Mrs Tilscher's warmth. The final line suggests excitement, opportunity, fresh horizons, 'split open' and perhaps some emotional turmoil. After all the summer holidays are about to start!

What is the tone of the poem?


The tone of the poem is one of warmth, affection, and of love which communicates the excitement of being young. The tone changes in the final stanza and becomes slightly more troubled, but there is still the sense of wonder and enthusiasm for life.

What techniques are used?

Duffy uses lots of sensual imagery to bring the scene to life. Word choice, such as the milk, the gold star, and the pole for opening the window help to establish the time (the past) as well as the place. The imagery that Duffy uses, all relate to the world and perspective of a child.

Throughout the poem Duffy refers to "you". She means herself as she was in Mrs. Tilscher's class in the 1960s. But by writing in the second person she invites us to share her experience. Most readers will have had experiences like those Carol Ann Duffy depicts in this poem.

Analysis: I've included some quotes that you all seem to have trouble explaining in relation to the poem

"You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route"


The reader travels up the 'Blue Nile', along with the class. The poem appears to open in the middle of a lesson and it is this seeming 'naturalness' that makes the world of school come back to life. We too can take part in this magical journey where the rivers are everlastingly blue.

"chanted the scenery"

The reader is almost physically there, transported back, listening to Mrs Tilscher deliver her wonderful lesson.

"a skittle of milk"

Again, the reader (I know you are young 'uns, but some people remember free milk!), is transported to the past. It establishes the scene is a positive memory.


"You asked her how you were born and Mrs Tilscher smiled"


Mrs Tilscher is acknowledging that it is time for the child to move away from primary school and to enter adolescence.

That feverish July, the air tasted of electricity.
A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,
fractious under the heavy, sexy sky

It is the hormonal child, not the month, who is feverish, in July. The electrical storm, about to break, is felt as "a tangible alarm" ("tangible" means felt by touch). It makes the child feel uncomfortable and irritable ("fractious"). When the "reports were handed out" it is as if these are reports on childhood which has officially ended. The breaking thunderstorm is a metaphor for adolescence - overwhelmed with feelings, hormones and changed attitudes.