the laughter of stafford girls’ high
DESCRIPTION
The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High. Carol Ann Duffy. A poem written in the form of an epic tale. . The longest poem in the anthology, its sardonic satirical view of “girl’s school” education as twee and restrictive is hilarious. . - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
![Page 1: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High
Carol Ann Duffy
![Page 2: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
A poem written in the form of an epic tale.
The longest poem in the anthology, its sardonic satirical view of “girl’s school”
education as twee and restrictive is hilarious.
![Page 3: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/3.jpg)
The poem tells a story of laughter breaking out at the school and infectiously spreading
throughout the school.
This eventually causes the end of the school and even seems to inspire the
repressed teachers to follow their own desires.
![Page 4: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/4.jpg)
The atmospheric description of the school with every girl’s name fitting into four syllables seems to represent an
education system designed to churn out girls like a factory line.
![Page 5: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/5.jpg)
The atmospheric description of the school with every girl’s name fitting into four syllables seems to represent an
education system designed to churn out girls like a factory line.
This is emphasised by the lists used every time a teacher is quoted teaching, showing that the education was purely factual and
never encouraging thought.
![Page 6: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/6.jpg)
The infectious laughter (often described with natural imagery) seems to be an extended metaphor for freedom of speech, and possibly feminist rebellion against such an education system.
![Page 7: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/7.jpg)
The infectious laughter (often described with natural imagery) seems to be an extended metaphor for freedom of speech, and possibly feminist rebellion against such an education system.
The infectious pleasure found through rebellion is juxtaposed by the female
teachers. Each is shown to be shocked by the student rebellion, but equally is
presented as repressed by society in their own lives.
![Page 8: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/8.jpg)
The poem is a celebration of rebellion against repressive regimes, and the simplicity of laughter as the catalyst for change is a powerful metaphor which shows that such rebellion is often natural
and harmless.
![Page 9: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/9.jpg)
Duffy went to a school called “Stafford Girls” which could suggest the poem also presents her views on her own schooling.
![Page 10: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/10.jpg)
Every time the teaching of students is mentioned, the delivery is in the form of lists
![Page 11: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/11.jpg)
Every time the teaching of students is mentioned, the delivery is in the form of lists
“Egbert, Ethelwulf,Edgar”
![Page 12: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/12.jpg)
Every time the teaching of students is mentioned, the delivery is in the form of lists
“Egbert, Ethelwulf,Edgar” “Brathay, Coquet, Crake, Allen, Clough, Dudden,Skirfare, Troutbeck, Wash”
![Page 13: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/13.jpg)
Every time the teaching of students is mentioned, the delivery is in the form of lists
“Egbert, Ethelwulf,Edgar” “Brathay, Coquet, Crake, Allen, Clough, Dudden,Skirfare, Troutbeck, Wash”
This shows to suppression of thought in 1960s girl schools and reflects Duffy’s view that women used to be taught to supress their aspiration.
![Page 14: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/14.jpg)
The suppression of free will is further demonstrated in the description of Ms Dunn who returns home to
![Page 15: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/15.jpg)
The suppression of free will is further demonstrated in the description of Ms Dunn who returns home to
“her small terraced house”
![Page 16: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/16.jpg)
The suppression of free will is further demonstrated in the description of Ms Dunn who returns home to
“her small terraced house”
“She roused iteach evening, kisses of light on its cheeksfrom her lamps, the small talk of cutlery, potsand pans as she cooked, sweet silver steam
caressing”
![Page 17: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/17.jpg)
The suppression of free will is further demonstrated in the description of Ms Dunn who returns home to
“her small terraced house”
“She roused iteach evening, kisses of light on its cheeksfrom her lamps, the small talk of cutlery, potsand pans as she cooked, sweet silver steam
caressing”
The sexual language “kisses of light”, “small talk” and “caressing”, coupled with the sibilant “sweet silver steam”, all serve to highlight her tragic loneliness and desperation for a sexual partner while also emphasising the social alienation of single professional women.
![Page 18: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/18.jpg)
Whenever the laughter is mentioned, natural imagery is used.
![Page 19: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/19.jpg)
Whenever the laughter is mentioned, natural imagery is used.
“a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble,a babble, a gargle, a plash, a splash of a laughthe sudden jackpot leap of a silver fishin the purse of a pool”
![Page 20: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/20.jpg)
Whenever the laughter is mentioned, natural imagery is used.
“sparkled and fizzed”
“a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble,a babble, a gargle, a plash, a splash of a laughthe sudden jackpot leap of a silver fishin the purse of a pool”
![Page 21: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/21.jpg)
Whenever the laughter is mentioned, natural imagery is used.
“sparkled and fizzed”
“a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble,a babble, a gargle, a plash, a splash of a laughthe sudden jackpot leap of a silver fishin the purse of a pool”
“a small human shower of rain”
![Page 22: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/22.jpg)
Whenever the laughter is mentioned, natural imagery is used.
“sparkled and fizzed”
“a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble,a babble, a gargle, a plash, a splash of a laughthe sudden jackpot leap of a silver fishin the purse of a pool”
The often onomatopoeic metaphors present the rebellion of the girls as positive and natural – something to celebrate - and therefore the suppression of their voices wholly unnatural.
“a small human shower of rain”
![Page 23: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/23.jpg)
We are presented laughter as an extended metaphor of the natural human urge to overthrow any tyrannical rule, and
that the human spirit cannot be contained.
![Page 24: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/24.jpg)
The poem is written as a Mock-epic poem which is effective in delivering its message.
![Page 25: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/25.jpg)
Like Milton’s Paradise Lost which details Satan’s rebellion against God, this hilarious satirical poem seems to enjoy its
fast-paced description of women throwing off the repression of their conformist education. Similar to Satan in
Milton’s work, the girls are heroic, rallying against the education system’s mind-control and repressing their
ambitions, and their rebellion is both natural and inspiring.
![Page 26: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/26.jpg)
Lacking a rhythm or rhyme scheme, the poem almost sounds like a narrative. This is particularly effective as it
satirises the children’s stories of schooldays (like those by Angela Brazil).
![Page 27: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/27.jpg)
The poem’s narrative is structured around the infectious laughter that builds into full scale rebellion against the
teachers, closes the school and forces the teachers involved to search out their own dreams that they too have always
repressed.
![Page 28: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/28.jpg)
At the start of the poem, the teachers are seen as strict and without character.
By the end, the rebellion of the girls seems to inspire them as they accept who they are and investigate the parts of their character that they have supressed for years.
![Page 29: The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High](https://reader033.vdocuments.mx/reader033/viewer/2022061316/568166c3550346895ddacfeb/html5/thumbnails/29.jpg)
Whenever the laughter is mentioned, natural imagery is used.
“sparkled and fizzed”
“a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble,a babble, a gargle, a plash, a splash of a laughthe sudden jackpot leap of a silver fishin the purse of a pool”
The often onomatopoeic metaphors present the rebellion of the girls as positive and natural – something to celebrate - and therefore the suppression of their voices wholly unnatural.
“a small human shower of rain”