Summary
The speaker, in the second person, recalls various memories from the classroom of a teacher named Mrs. Tilscher. They describe Mrs. Tilscher's way of displaying a map and vividly describing African cities to her students. The lesson would end, and you would then drink milk and watch various classroom chores: the erasing of the chalkboard, the opening of a window, and the ringing of a bell. You preferred school to home, since the classroom was packed with exciting objects and events, like books and art supplies. Frightening events like the famous Moors murders became irrelevant beside Mrs. Tilscher's love. Mrs. Tilscher might leave a gold star beside your name. The speaker lists a few other memories: the smell of pencil shavings and the sound of a music lesson nearby.
Analysis
Part of what makes this poem a convincing and unsentimental portrayal of childhood, despite its nostalgic tone, is the way that Duffy evokes the attention span of a young child. For the speaker, every object and event is equally fascinating and, therefore, equally forgettable. Abstractions, fantasies, and concrete items all have an equal claim to the speaker's attention. Duffy moves swiftly from one description to the next, mixing together concrete sensory experiences with more abstract ones in order to demonstrate this ever-shifting attention. Thus the poem begins with a set of objects—a map and a finger. The speaker's rapt attention causes a total focus on this zoomed-in image. However, Mrs. Tilscher's skillful use of the map as a teaching tool causes that concrete object to give way to a more imaginative, emotional experience. Duffy lists a series of locations, quoting the teacher directly, to show how she vividly evokes these faraway places for her students. In the fast-moving poem, the time given to the words "Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân" imbues them with a near-magical power. However, even these evocative lessons are forgotten: Duffy pivots abruptly and lists a series of images pertaining to a range of different senses—taste in the form of milk, sound in the form of a ringing bell, and sight in the form of a blackboard being erased. The metaphors at play are evocative in themselves. The poem compares milk to skittles—props similar to bowling pins—used in a popular schoolyard game. The ringing bell is compared to laughter, suggesting implicitly that students are carefree and laughing within the classroom.
In the second stanza, Duffy continues to conjure a variety of different sensory images, this time largely through metaphorical language concerning taste. Thus, the classroom is compared to a sweet shop—and while the simile is explicitly visual, relating to the room's colorful glow, it also evokes indulgent experiences of taste. The metaphor continues with the term "sugar paper"—a type of (inedible) paper that nevertheless calls to mind sweetness and sensation. Other memories, such as the smell of pencil shavings, are not as obviously thrilling. However, in the context of the poem, and following the very direct statement "Mrs. Tilscher loved you," it is clear that these seemingly minor moments are valued because of their association with the teacher's love and care.
Only one truly negative moment occurs in the poem's first half. Because of this, the mention of "Brady and Hindley," famous murderers from 1960s England, is especially surprising and memorable. Duffy mentions these figures only to discount their impact, noting that the children in Mrs. Tilscher's class aren't concerned about them. Yet by mentioning them, Duffy deliberately calls these infamous figures to mind and places a great deal of focus on them. This is a strange, fascinating decision, because it takes readers out of the mindset of the children, though Duffy has just spent the beginning of the poem painstakingly demonstrating that mindset and placing readers entirely in a child's point of view. The mention of the murders constitutes a small but impactful shift in point of view, letting us know that the poem's events are being remembered by someone older and less innocent. The poem is written in the second person, and the "you" mentioned throughout (evidently the speaker's childhood self) cares little about threatening events in the world. However, the adult speaker is well aware of such things.
