Education for Leisure

1
Education for Leisure

• By Carol Ann Duffy

2
Education for Leisure

• Today I am going to kill something. Anything.
• I have had enough of being ignored and today
• I am going to play God. It is an ordinary day,
• a sort of grey with boredom stirring in the
  streets.

What is the feeling of the character and how do
you know?
How does the rhyming structure affect the tone of
the poem and highlight the mental state of the
character?
What is the impact of the first line on the
reader?
3
Education for Leisure

• I squash a fly against the window with my thumb.
• We did that at school. Shakespeare. It was in
• another language and now the fly is in another
  language.
• I breathe out talent on the glass to write my
  name.

What is the significance of the last line? What
does it tell us about the character and their
actions?
Why is Shakespeare used as a one word sentence?
What does the character believe school has taught
them?
4
Education for Leisure

• I am a genius. I could be anything at all, with
  half
• the chance. But today I am going to change the
  world.
• Somethings world. The cat avoids me. The cat
• knows I am a genius, and has hidden itself.

Why does the character repeat the word cat?
Does the repetition suggest an emotional state or
feeling?
Why does the character repeat the word genius
and what else could it mean?
What is the significance of the use of short
sentences?
5
Education for Leisure

• I pour the goldfish down the bog, I pull the
  chain.
• I see that it is good. The budgie is panicking.
• Once a fortnight. I walk the two miles into town
• for signing on. They dont appreciate my
  autograph.

How should the reader be responding to the
character? What feelings do we have and how does
the character want us to respond?
Who are they?
Why is the character targeting small creatures?
6
Education for Leisure

• There is nothing left to kill. I dial the radio
• and tell the man hes talking to a superstar.
• He cuts me off. I get our bread-knife and go
  out.
• The pavements glitter suddenly. I touch your
  arm.

Why do the pavements glitter suddenly?
How is the reader drawn into the poem in the last
line?
Why is the character cut off when on the radio?