stanza 1

• "You"

  • The personal pronoun creates a chatty tone and engages the reader.
• "could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger, tracing the route"

  • Metaphor: compares the children's journey growing up with an adventure along the Nile.
• "chanted"

  • Word choice suggests the happy, singing voice of Mrs Tilscher and reminds us of the chant/chant back mode of teaching at primary.
• "Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswan."

  • The list of one word sentences mimics the patient way that Mrs Tilscher pauses after saying things in class. Duffy can still remember all of these places, showing how good the teacher was.
• "That for an hour"

  • The stanza follows the routine of the morning, as the children learn geography for 'an hour'
• "then a skittle of milk"

  • The metaphor suggests that the bottles of milk in their crate look like skittles. The comparison of milk bottles to bowling pins suggests the fun and excitement in Mrs Tilscher's class.
• "the chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust."

  • Mrs Tilscher has rubbed off a drawing of the pyramid from the chalkboard. This metaphorically suggests that these ancient and exotic structures can be created and destroyed by Mrs Tilscher, which shows her power. Everything can be controlled.
• "The laugh of a bell"

  • Transferred epithet: highlights the interruption to the routine. The bell, rung by a child, is described as a 'laugh,' which injects playfulness into the poem & captures their childlike wonder and exuberance.
• "swung by a running child"

  • The eighth line almost chimes with the assonance of 'swung' and 'running,' and shows that there is an energy present even at the end of a lesson.