Background to In Mrs Tilscher

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Background to In Mrs Tilschers Class

• The Moors Murders

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• The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady
  and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October
  1965, in and around what is now Greater
  Manchester, England. The victims were five
  children aged between 10 and 17Pauline Reade,
  John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey
  and Edward Evansat least four of whom
  were sexually assaulted. The murders are so named
  because two of the victims were discovered in
  graves dug on Saddleworth Moor a third grave was
  discovered on the moor in 1987, more than
  20 years after Brady and Hindley's trial in 1966.
  The body of a fourth victim, Keith Bennett, is
  also suspected to be buried there, but despite
  repeated searches it remains undiscovered.

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In Mrs Tilschers Class

• Carol Ann Duffy

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• In Mrs Tilscher's Class You could travel up the
  Blue Nilewith your finger, tracing the
  routewhile Mrs Tilscher chanted the
  scenery.Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.That
  for an hour, then a skittle of milkand the
  chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust.A window opened
  with a long pole.The laugh of a bell swung by a
  running child.

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• This was better than home. Enthralling
  books.The classroom glowed like a sweet
  shop.Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. Brady and
  Hindleyfaded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of
  a mistake.Mrs Tilscher loved you. Some mornings,
  you foundshe'd left a good gold star by your
  name.The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully,
  shaved.A xylophone's nonsense heard from another
  form.
• 
  

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• Over the Easter term, the inky tadpoles
  changedfrom commas into exclamation marks. Three
  frogshopped in the playground, freed by a
  dunce,followed by a line of kids, jumping and
  croakingaway from the lunch queue. A rough
  boytold you how you were born. You kicked him,
  but staredat your parents, appalled, when you
  got back home.

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

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In Mrs Tilscher's ClassroomAnalysis

• FIRST STANZA
• It is appropriate that the first line of this
  poem is 'You could travel up the Blue Nile',
  because this is really a poem about a journey
  that every child makes from childhood into those
  first years of adolescence, when you are passing
  from innocence to teenage years.

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In Mrs Tilscher's ClassroomAnalysis

• FIRST STANZA
• This poem is about the process of growing up and
  the way in which 'real life' enters a child's
  world. It is unusual because it is written in the
  second person it speaks of 'you' rather than 'I'
  (first person) or 'she/he' (third person).
• The first stanza is magical and exciting,
  reflecting the enjoyment of being young in
  school. Some of the details seem insignificant
  but are very evocative 'A window opened with a
  long pole' (line 7). It is the memory of the
  little things that is important.

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First Stanza

• You could anything seems possible, addresses
  reader directly, puts us in the place of the
  naïve child
• Chalky pyramids rubbed into dust persona seems
  to think Mrs T is magical and wonderful
  naïve/innocent
• The laugh of a bell - personification reflecting
  the personas happiness,

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• SECOND STANZA
• The second stanza is almost as positive and
  magical as the first. School is spoken of as the
  place every child longs to be
• The classroom glowed like a sweetshop.
• Sugar paper. Coloured shapes. (lines 10-11)
• Even the paper the children work on has a name
  which fits in with this idea. This stanza does
  include a reference to the outside world creeping
  in and spoiling this time
• Brady and Hindley
• faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a
  mistake. (lines 11-12)
• Here a simile is used to describe the effect of
  the child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley. It
  is a simile based on the work of a child in the
  school. We sense, as the speaker says, 'faded,
  like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake
  something that the speaker of the poem actually
  wants to keep on the edges of awareness. The
  speaker wants to stay within the safe confines of
  childhood.

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Stanza 2

• Classroom glowed like a sweetshop - simile, the
  child sees the classroom like treasure
• Like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake
  simile, the child feels scared of Brady and
  Hindley, and after Mrs T has tried to make them
  forget it she cannot completely
• Mrs Tilscher loved you. - statement, - the
  persona sees it as a fact

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• THIRD STANZA
• This idea is returned to at the start of the
  third stanza with the metaphor of learning
  punctuation used to represent the development of
  tadpoles.
• The great line about the 'inky tadpoles' changing
  from commas into exclamation marks suggests the
  surprise and joy of growing up. But an
  exclamation mark might follow a scream of shock
  and alarm.
• The tadpoles are changing the frogs are
  unleashed into the playground this is indicative
  of the changes happening in the speaker of the
  poem..
• The origin and growth of life is a theme of this
  stanza, and the danger of 'real life' spoiling
  childhood illusions.
• A rough boy
• told you how you were born. You kicked him, but
  stared
• at your parents, appalled, when you got back
  home. (lines 21-23)
• Sexuality and growing up are important ideas in
  this poem.

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Stanza 3

• Over the Easter one part of their life has
  finished, the structure suggests change, E
  suggests rebirth. Turning point
• Inky tadpoles changed from commas into
  exclamation marks change, growing up,
  metaphor/symbol, comma continuation,
  exclamation marks extreme emotion
• Appalled - disappointed, disgusted by sex,
  persona is not ready for adolescence

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• FOURTH STANZA
• The fourth stanza has a metaphor for the move
  from childhood into adolescence. The poem speaks
  of thunder and storm clouds
• That feverish July, the air tasted of
  electricity.
• A tangible alarm made you always untidy, hot,
• fractious under the heavy, sexy sky. (lines
  24-26)
• The weather isn't the only source for these
  feelings new hormones, ideas, feelings are all
  entering the child's world, bringing adulthood.
  Mrs Tilscher 'turned away' when asked about sex
  because she belongs to childhood when children
  ask such things it is time for them to leave her,
  and primary school. The poem follows a school
  year, and as the poem ends it is July. The final
  image is of a thunderstorm and the leaving of
  school. This image links to the teenage future,
  which will be filled with electricity and power.

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Stanza 4

• That feverish July/feverish untidy,hot,fractious
  the persona is uncomfortable physically and
  also uncomfortable emotionally with growing up
• Then turned away. - she cant help, she cant
  guide the persona, persona needs to be
  independent
• Ran through the gates impatient to be grown now
  they are ready to grow up and face the world,
  they have left Mrs Tilschers class to go into
  the real world