Duffy poems + quotes

Question 1

The title - ‘captain’

Answer 1

The noun ‘captain’ offers connotations of a leader, which symbolises intelligence. There could be an idea of natural selection here, suggesting that this narrator could be at the top of the hierarchy, which is further emphasised by them being the captain of the form team.

Question 2

“Do wah Diddy Diddy, Baby Love, Oh Pretty Woman were in the Top Ten that month”

Answer 2

Speaker makes references to pop-culture of the 90s establishes the era he is talking about. Remembers insignificant things in great detail, implying that this part of his life is most memorable. Central theme nostalgia.

Question 3

” I lived in a kind of fizzing hope”

Answer 3

Idealised childhood compared to his now bitter present life. The speaker now knows that his youth was fleeting and temporary.

Question 4

‘I pulled my hair forward with a steel comb […] like Mick’

Answer 4

The speaker here tries to become more superior with his intelligence and looks. The Beatles’ cut hairstyle was popular during the 1960s, something the speaker is very admirable of and take pride of their hair-do. Duffy’s use of the exophoric reference to ‘Mick [Jagger]’ here suggests the speaker treats this singer as a close friend by calling him by his first name. However, this could also be interpreted as something the readers will already know of, since the use of the holophrastic word of ‘Mick’ suggests the readers from the 1960s will most likely know of his name; Jagger was the lead singer of the Rolling Stones, a popular band.

Question 5

“In class, the white sleeve of my shirt saluted again and again”

Answer 5

Personification-portraying an imagery of speaker continually putting his hand up as he knows all the answers

Question 6

“I sped down Dyke Hill, no hands”

Answer 6

Care-free childhood contrasting to his adult life

Question 7

“Try me. Come on.”

Answer 7

Challenges the reader to test his knowledge, a sense that the speaker is desperately clinging on to the past

Question 8

“I look so brainy you’d think I’d just had a bath” “The blazer. The badge.”

Answer 8

Random mix of imagery, a jumble of memories shows the confusion in the man’s mind

Question 9

“I want it back”

Answer 9

Tonal shift to a more bitter and angry tone- Volta.
His adult life is not living upon to his expectations and he wants to go back to his country.

Question 10

“I smiled as wide as a child who went missing on the way home from school”

Answer 10

A frightening reference . The clever confident boy has long gone

Question 11

“Stale wife” “I say to my boss A pint!” “My thick kids wince”

Answer 11

This life is an echo of the earlier stanzas. The persona is no longer at the peak of his life despite his cleverness he has to seek approval from his boss

Question 12

“My country”x2

Answer 12

Repetition suggests that he yearns for his past where he dominated

Question 13

“the soundtrack was then a litany”

Answer 13

There is juxtaposition between ‘soundtrack’ and ‘litany’. When you think of ‘soundtrack’, you think of freedom and enjoyment, whereas with ‘litany’, it’s usually quite long and restricted. This suggests that the child speaker is conflicting the adult world with the women. The women are wanting to be the soundtrack, which is super trendy and wonderful, when in reality, they are the litany - same and boring. Duffy could be commenting on the fact that we should have freedom and that it’s OK to be rebellious at times to challenge the corrupt societal conventions.

Question 14

‘red smiles’

Answer 14

Perhaps Duffy could be commenting on the women’s makeup, since they are following the social expectations in order to boast themselves to everyone, so in a way, Duffy could be thinking that it isn’t pretty or attractive. I imagine a devilish smile, which could be seen as quite frightening. ‘Red’ has connotations of fear, anger and loathing, so perhaps Duffy is intentionally making the women seem inferior, which is ironic since the women see the speaker as an embarrassment, linking to ‘An embarrassing word, broken’.

Question 15

‘A tiny ladder ran up Mrs Barr’s American Tan leg’

Answer 15

Imagery of tights, since they get ladders when they rip. This can usually be irreversible, and it can continue to rip until it’s no longer usable. This is similar to ‘like a rumour’, since rumours can spread like wildfire - once it’s out there, it’s there forever. Perhaps the speaker (who we believe to be a child) can see through the women who are destroying each other to bits, and that the child can see through the adult’s vulnerability.

Question 16

‘terrible marriages’

Answer 16

This oxymoron could be used to deliberately condemn marriages in Duffy’s view. You would usually expect weddings to be fun and harmonious, but with the use of the conflicting words, Duffy could be commenting on how marriage is seen as a commodity, which links to ‘engagement rings’, suggesting that we are contributing to the materialistic aspect of marriage when we should be focusing on love rather than bragging.

Question 17

‘An embarrassing word, broken’

Answer 17

Enjambment is used to cut the sentence off into the next stanza, which could’ve deliberately been used to emphasise the shame the speaker has for her actions. It’s almost as if she has been physically cut off from everyone else, since the speaker does not live up to their expectations - the speaker is an inferior. Perhaps here, Duffy could be commenting on how broken societal expectations were during the 60’s (Duffy’s childhood era).

Question 18

‘no one had cancer, or sex, or debts, and certainly not leukaemia’

Answer 18

These are quite taboo subjects, which no one would necessarily discuss. Perhaps the mother of the speaker deliberately making her child naïve to the harsh realities of the mature world. This suggests that the mother has repressed her child from the world, meaning Duffy could be criticising her mother ways since ‘no one could spell’ it

Question 19

‘mass grave of wasps bobbed in a jam-jar; a butterfly stammered itself in my curious hands’

Answer 19

The metaphor of the “mass grave of wasps” relates to the women’s essential harmlessness. Their frailty is like the wasps which have lost their sting, but are nonetheless trapped.

The curious child, however, holds a butterfly and feels its wings like a metaphorical “stammer”. Its beating movement is representative of the effort of the child to understand realities, to escape the stifling society of the women. The “stammer” is the equivalent of her attempt to speak out, to say openly the shocking words the adults are avoiding. And she does spectacularly in stanza four.

Question 20

‘I’m sorry, Mrs Barr, Mrs Hunt, Mrs Emery, sorry, Mrs Raine.’ (in italics in the poem)

Answer 20

The fact that this quote is in italics suggests that the speaker could be an invasive presence to the adults, since in Duffy’s childhood era, children were to be seen, not heard. The asyndetic list now contains commas, which is dissimilar from ‘three piece suite display cabinet’ (in italics in the poem) which suggests that back then the child has remembered all of the possessions in order to boast about her mother; now, it’s almost as if she is seen as an embarrassment to the adults. With the use of the polite, negative supporting act ‘sorry’ being said first, it suggests that her mother has upbrought her to have an automatic, first, polite response.

Question 21

‘My mother’s mute shame.’

Answer 21

Perhaps here, Duffy is criticising the mother’s lack of support towards her child, since she would rather be embarrassed than defend her own child. This presents the mother as quite rude, because you would expect a mother to always be side with their children, which makes it seem as if the mother would rather stand with conventional, societal standards rather than being with her child.

Question 22

‘The taste of soap’

Answer 22

Monosyllabic- the fact that this is placed last suggests that the child has realised her mistakes, and it’s almost as if she is expecting the soap. The noun ‘soap’ is quite toxic, which shows that this could be a symbol of reformation for the child since she has to conform to societal standards. Back in the 60’s, soap in the mouth was a form of physical punishment for children to stop the behaviour that they did. Perhaps Duffy here is criticising how absurd these punishments are, because of the damage they create.

Question 23

the structure of the poem ‘Pluto’

Answer 23

The structure of the poem reinforces the sense of confusion through the use of indentation throughout - the non-indented lines are typically the past and the indented lines are the present , however this structure breaks down towards the end perhaps showing the breakdown of the persona’s mind.

Question 24

Context of Pluto

Answer 24

Discovered and named in 1930, renamed a dwarf planet in 1992. It is isolated, remote and distant

Question 25

“When I awoke a brand new planet had been given a name”

Answer 25

The enjambment in the first stanza creates a tone of excitement that links to the persona’s youth in this first section. The “brand new planet” is Pluto which was discovered in the man’s youth and serves as an extended metaphor for the persona throughout the poem.

Question 26

“this Home…it has the same soap suddenly”

Answer 26

the capitalisation of “Home” suggests the importance of the word, implying that they are in an old people’s home – alternatively it could suggest the importance the persona places on the feeling of home and the memories of it that he’s struggling to hold onto. Sibilance- soothing sound as the soap brings him pleasant memories of the past. Synaesthesia is also used with “soap” as a sort of memory trigger for the persona – to show that he is too weak to recall these memories on his own