Carol Ann Duffy Notes

The poesy closes with reminders of oppression, aver and confine ment. Possibility that was once limitless for the dolphins instanter has limits imposed upon it that willing become unrealizable to bear. The realisation will probably move the creatures death, patsy completelying that thither is as untold at stake from a psychological opinion as there is from the physical circumstances. curb of natural impulse and behaviour evoke have fatal consequences. The plastic toy is a further reminder of the indignity visited on this soaring creature of the ocean.The phrase until the whistle blows is potenti completelyy ambiguous. In champion level it evidently refers to the dateling device utilise by the keeper but on other the poet might be reminding us that this carve up of cruelty will continue until mortal exposes it for what it is. Duffy does effectively blow the whistle on much(prenominal) practices. The final verge, with its reference to our mind, neatly link up the plural possessive pronoun with the singular noun mind indicating a collective voice for a species.The stress change to we will draws attention to the contrast amongst what the dolphins had, what they have now and can deport in the future. As a result, the dolphins sweep up an almost mythic status in that they appeal to archetypal impulses in us and in nature they be non just the creatures who form part of it. The Dolphins whitethorn just as easily be read as a rime or so human disillusion, betrayal and going a delegacy of direction as it is around animals. As an interpreter of experience it offers us a new expression into which we would do wellspring to translate ourselves.Foreign Duffys preoccupation with language is dealt with here form the perspective of its ethnic significance as much as its ability to say anything. To the immigrant, the country to which he or she has locomote turn up of frugal necessity will always be foreign but the indigenous population will regard them as foreigners. The circumstance that vivacious in a foreign gloss is something that is non easy to get eccentricd to is emphasised in the opening line of the poem. disrespect living in a city for twenty years it remains strange.The immigrant is conscious(predicate) of his or her own foreign accent as it sounds to others. The strain of thinking in one language and having to translate into the vocabulary of a nonher(prenominal) cannot always be sustained and this is sensitively pointed out with the physical occurrence in the final stanza And in the delicatessen, from age to time, the coins / in your palm will not translate. The breakdown in communication in an e realday, exposed transactional situation is intensified through the words Inarticulate and point.Duffys empathic feeling for such(prenominal) people is further expressed in her presentation of other actions such as writing home, a way of maintaining inter-group communication with others of the equal culture. The local dialect in the immigrants head is conjugate with the memory of his or her mother singing. These ar details with which any sympathetic soulfulness might identify and throw into sharp relief the actual experience of visual perception racist graffiti sprayed in red (line 12). Duffys spend of the simile, Red like blood to describe the samara is effective because of its monosyllabic directness of observation.It overly resonates with a famous and terrible speech given by the Conservative politician Enoch Powell who, on 20th April 1968 warfarened that increased in-migration into Britain would result in a river of blood. in that respect is, then, a stark contrast in the midst of the uses of language as a sign system of cultural inclusion (stanza 2) and its conceive use as a tool of racial exclusion (stanza 3). The hate name of the racists is sprayed on a brick wall the harshness and unyielding nature of which is symbolic of the mentality of those who do such things.The unfamiliar, snowy weather and artificial neon lights create the tone for the immigrant that the country moved to is coming to bits. This image of fragmentation is, though, not entirely imaginary as he or she has a life splintered from all that is familiar and constantly experiences a finger of alienation. The italicised words at the close of the poem give voice to the immigrant but this sole(prenominal) gives away a difficulty with English. The barren verbs, Me not know and It like they only are drawn attention to by Duffy in order that the reader may consult what it would be like to face the same language problem.The final words of the poem, view that remind us of the opening and there is quite a clear impression that Duffy is adopting an undisguised didactic stance. As a skilled and empowered user of the English language herself she is drawing attention to the stagger of those who are marginalised because of their deficiency in its use. enquiry of English The poet is introduced to the class by the mastermind of English who has very fixed views about what poetry should be. As in Comprehensive, the shoal in question is a multiethnic institution.It is significant that the teacher should be dismissing the lively woman poet because she does not conform to the Keatsean prototype in the teachers mind. She is not dead and she is not male. How anyone with English second language is expected to relate to dead white English men is clearly a challenge fixed down in the poem. The five six-spot line stanzas are indicative of a controlled, contained environment, the institution and the teacher are reflected in this. Duffy does not choose to use poetry throughout (as the teacher predicted) but reserves some obvious rhymes for the teacher to use.This is a very subtle use of a poetic technique to satirise psyche who is complaining about its absence from fresh poetry. So, simultaneously, Duffy is using a poetic technique to show that the teache r is wrong about it being absent from modern verse whilst showing that the rhyme, being obvious, is the sort need by the teacher. The reference to Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) is significant for a number of reasons. His poems do rhyme very regularly, and a number of them are reverberative of British imperialism and nationalism in the straight-laced period.This is really grossly offensive in a multicultural context. Winds of change is a wittily ambiguous phrase since it refers to the words of Harold Macmillan, British Prime Minister 1957-63 speaking of governmental events such as the civil war in the Congo following the granting of freedom from Belgium. It also tells us that the teacher is referring to flatulence, as well as reinforcing her own fasten views. Duffy is ironically drawing attention to the fact that Calliope, the Muse and source of afflatus, breath of inspiration for poets is break up by an unwelcome allusion to noxious gases.The control possible in adopting a per sona in the dramatic monologue is clear. one word sentences, a hallmark of Duffys verse, give out very well in capturing the terse, unrefined attitude of the teacher. Still. (stanza 2) Right. (stanza 4) and Well. Really. (stanza 5) show that she is singularly unaffected by what she has heard. Here, it is what is implied by Duffys economical use of language that is so effective in building an impression of what this woman is like.The approximation of someone being in bourgeon of an English Department who cannot see that it is she who real has the outside view is worrying. The fact that she devotes a all lesson to assonance also indicates the deadly long-winded teaching methods she employs. She obviously teaches technique out of context in the same way that she cannot accept modern poetry as belonging to a literary tradition. same any poor English teacher she views tradition as something strictly to do with an unreachable past.It is striking that it is the silent blank b etween the fifth and sixth stanzas that the poet has been allowed to read. Despite having encouraged pupils to ask questions after all were paying forty pounds, the teachers response to the poets rendition is telling as she instructs the class to black market along. The reader wonders just what insight the teacher has actually gained. Also, her pupils are unlikely to derive much from her teaching. More worrying, though, are the entrenched attitudes of a person who should not be in charge of the most expansive of subjects study at school.