In Mrs Tilscher's Class Flashcards
“You”
Personal pronoun creates a chatty tone and engages the reader
“Travel up the Blue Nile”
Metaphor compares children’s journey growing up with an adventure along the Nile. Long sentence mirrors the long journey the children take through childhood
“Chanted”
Word choice happy, singing voice of Mrs T
“Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan.”
List of one word sentences mimic the patient way that Mrs T pauses after saying things in class
“That for an hour”
Chatty tone. Also shows day is broken down
“Skittle of milk”
Metaphor compares milk bottles to bowling pins, suggests fun and excitement of time spent in Mrs’s T’s class
“chalky pyramids rubbed into dust”
Suggests magical, passing of time, something ending and being lost
“A window opened with a long pole”
Word choice brings the world of the imagination is followed by practicalities. The long pole to open windows will be remembered by readers of Duffy’s age.
“The laugh of a bell”
Personification projecting the child’s laughter onto it, which creates a happy atmosphere, establish an uplifting and carefree world, where children are free to grow and find themselves within a nurturing setting.
“This was better than home”
Short sentence suggests safety happiness informal tone
“Enthralling books”
Word choice suggests interested and absorbed by the learning and literature. Short sentence emphasises the strength of their feeling
“The classroom glowed like a sweetshop”
Simile temptation wonder and delight trigger interest and imagination
“Sugar paper. Coloured shapes”
Short sentence list describe setting transport to magical world”
“Brady and Hindley faded, like a faint uneasy smudge of a mistake”
Juxtaposition of security and danger of the moors murderers. Simile power of loving environment removes fear
“good gold star”
Word choice suggests positive atmosphere sense of magic, link to setting
“The scent of a pencil, slowly, carefully, shaved.”
List of adverbs prolong the line, mimicking the slow acts of sharpening a pencil, a universal memory of childhood
“xylophone’s nonsense”
Personification implies that it hasn’t been mastered yet but sounds fun and appealing
“Over the Easter term”
Word choice a time of growth and regeneration signals a turning point in the poem and the speakers growth
“inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks”
Metaphor represents children growing up punctuation links to growing up and links to setting of learning
“hopped”
Word choice games and enjoyment
“dunce”
Word choice stupid person, old fashioned
“Jumping and croaking”
Word choice link to boys voices breaking through comparison to frogs
“A rough boy told you how you were born”
Word choice suggests sheltered background, snobbish behaviour, immature, lack of knowledge of world. Links to growing up and gaining knowledge of sex
“You kicked him”
Short sentence evokes her disbelief and perhaps her fear of the unknown word choice suggests violence, childish reaction, unable to deal with feelings effectively at this stage in the speakers development
