In Mrs Tilscher Class

Question 1

Travel up the blue Nile

Answer 1

Metaphor which compares the journey of growing up with the long adventure travelling along the Nile - shows ability of teacher to take pupils on a journey in the classroom through her ability as a teacher.

Question 2

Inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks

Answer 2

Metaphor: Ink and commas are both things familiar in the classroom. Duffy is also referring to metamorphoses from childhood to adolescence. Links to the idea of change and growth.

Question 3

Feverish July

Answer 3

Word choice suggests emerging sexuality, passage of time clear through the poem and now the poet is on the cusp of adolescence.

Question 4

Impatient to be grown

Answer 4

Parenthesis provides additional information explaining the writer’s emotions as they run from school - they are desperate for adulthood, and are running away from the comfort and safety of the classroom and childhood.

Question 5

Sky split open into a thunderstorm

Answer 5

Pathetic fallacy reflects the idea of breaking away from childhood in the way the sky seems to break into a thunderstorm. Just as lightning breaks across the sky and clouds burst with rain so too are the young people breaking away from the classroom and childhood, bursting into adulthood and puberty.

Question 6

The air tasted of electricity

Answer 6

Use of sensual imagery: end of school year is approaching, imminent storm conveys dual sense of excitement and danger associated with self discovery and the emerging adolescence