Summary
Summary the laughter of staffordshire poem analysis
- Module
- Feminine Gospels
- Institution
- AQA
the laughter of staffordshire high girls
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The opening stanza establishesStuden the school culture; girls bored by
ts mechanical learning and
unstimulating teaching. The
The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High asyndetic list of rivers in England
in alphebetical order
demonstrates the lack of
imagination in lesson design.
It was a girl in the Third Form, Carolann Clare
Who, bored with the lesson, the rivers of England – The list of rivers begins a theme
Brathay, Coquet, Crake, Dee, Don, Goyt that is carried on throughout the
Rothay, Tyne, Swale, Tees, Wear, Wharfe poem, that of flowing water. It
Had passed, a note, which has never been found suggests movement and change,
To the classmate in front, Emily Jane, a girl something that humans can’t
Who adored the teacher, Miss V. Dunn MA control, just as the girls' rebellion
Steadily squeaking her chalk on the board – — the advent of feminism — is
impossible to stem.
Allen, Clough, Duddon, Feugh, Greta, Hindburn
Irwell, Kent, Leven, Lowther, Lune, Sprint The first girl to be named,
But who furtively opened the folded note Carolann Clare, has a rhythmic,
Torn from the back of the King James Bible, read four-syllable, alliterative name,
What was scribbled there and laughed out loud as do the other girls in the poem,
reinforcing the sense of unity of
the pupils.
That the note has never been
found may be significant. A
momentous rebellion is about to
occur, prompted by a small
beginning, a schoolgirl’s scribble.
Yet it suggests that the desire to
rebel had long been stirring and
only needed the smallest of
prompts to spring into life.
The emotional life of a school is
hinted in line six, with the crush
of a pupil on a teacher.
Understated humorous touches
occur throughout the poem.
Here, it is the preciseness and
formality of Miss Dunn’s name,
together with her qualificaiton,
that may raise a smile.
Each of the girls referenced in The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High, such
as Carolann Clare, has four syllables. Duffy could be using this to comment
on the education system of England, how they are more interested in pumping
out identical students. This is furthered with the introduction of the rote
memorization technique. Duffy presents the list of ‘rivers of England’ in a long
asyndetic list. The use of asyndeton, at first, creates a seemingly never-ending list that must be memorized.
This is then followed by an ellipsis, ‘Wharfe…’, signaling that the list continues on and on. The slight metrical
pause caused by the caesura between each river name further slows down the poem. Duffy is presenting the
task of memorization as arduous and boring. This is a technique that repeats throughout the early poem.
The fact that the original ’note’ that made Emily Jane laugh came from ‘King James Bible’ could be a form of
rebellion. This destruction of the bible, especially considering it is a ‘King James Bible’, could symbolize the
rejection of patriarchal control. This first act of rejecting the patriarchy receives the first laugh, the rest
expanding out like a ripple.
Studen
ts
, Studen
ts
It was a miserable, lowering winter’s day. The girls
Had been kept indoors at break – Wet Play
In the Hall – the windows tall and thin
Sad with rain like a song list of watery names –
Rawthey, Roeburn, Skirfare, Troutbeck, Wash
Likewise, the sound of the laugh of Emily Jane
Was a liquid one, a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble
A babble, a gargle, a plash, a splash of a laugh
Like the sudden jackpot leap of a silver fish
In the purse of a pool. No fool, Emily Jane
Clamped her turquoise hand – her fountain pen leaked –
To her mouth; but the laugh was out, was at large
Was heard by the pupil twinned to her double desk –
Rosemary Beth – the brace on whose jiggly teeth
Couldn’t restrain the gulping giggle she gave
Which caused Miss Dunn to spin round. Perhaps
She said, We can all share the joke? But Emily Jane
Had scrunched and dropped the note with the joke
To the floor and kicked it across to Jennifer Kay
Who snorted and toed it across to Marjorie May
Who spluttered and heeled it backwards
To Jessica Kate. Girls! By now, every girl in the form
Had started to snigger or snicker or titter or chuckle
Or chortle till the classroom came to the boil
With a brothy mirth. Girls! Miss Dunn’s shrill voice
Scraped Top G and only made matters worse
Five minutes passed in a cauldron of noise
No one could seem to stop. Each tried holding
Her breath or thinking of death or pinching
Her thigh, only to catch the eye of a pal
A crimson, shaking, silent girl, and explode
Through the noise in a cackling sneeze. Thank you!
Please! Screeched Miss Dunn, clapping her hands
As though she applauded the choir they’d become
A percussion of trills and whoops filling the room
Like birds in a cage. But then came a triple rap
At the door and in stalked Miss Fife, Head of Maths
Whose cold equations of eyes scanned the desks
For a suitable scapegoat. Stand up, Geraldine Ruth
Geraldine Ruth got to her feet, a pale girl, a girl
Who looked, in the stale classroom light, like a sketch
For a girl, a first draft to be crumpled and crunched
And tossed away like a note. She cleared her throat
Raising her eyes, water and sky, to look at Miss Fife
The girls who were there that day never forgot
How invisible crayons seemed to colour in
Geraldine Ruth, white face to puce, mousey hair
Suddenly gifted with health and youth, and how –
As Miss Fife demanded what was the meaning of this –
Her lips split from the closed bud of a kiss
To the daisy chain of a grin and how then she yodelled
A laugh with the full, open, blooming rose of her throat
Studen
ts
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