Laughter of Stratford's girl high

• ‘The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High’ by Carol Ann Duffy explores freedom, women’s voices, and education through a laughter pandemic.
• Form


   Epic poetry (long-form narrative poem)  supernatural characters or heroes. Yet, a mock epic uses the same long narrative form structure but discusses something slightly more normal. commentary on women’s voices and the community, which leads to second-wave feminism.
• Stanza 1


  Each girl referenced four syllables,how they are more interested in pumping out identical students. use of asyndeton, at first, creates a seemingly never-ending list that must be memorized. This is then followed by an ellipsis, ‘Wharfe…’, signalling that the list continues on and on. original ’note’ that made Emily Jane laugh came from ‘King James Bible’ could be a form of rebellion, symbolize the rejection of patriarchal control.
• stanza 2

  ‘liquid one, a gurgle, a ripple, a dribble, a babble… ‘purse of a pool’. The expansive list of water semantics demonstrates the freedom of laughter, flowing freely like water.
• stanza 3/4

  teacher’s italics Upholding the repressive regime of the patriarchy, the teachers try and control the students, shouting ‘Girls!’. The repetition of the exclamative ‘Girls!’

  sense of community ‘kicked’ ‘across to Jennifer Kay’ who then ‘toed it to Marjorie May’, which in turn ‘heeled it backwards/ to Jessica Kate’. The use of enjambment across these lines is emblematic of the freedom that the girls are gaining.
• stanza 5,6,7

  Geraldine Ruth is described as ‘yodelled/a laugh with the full, open, blooming rose’. The use of enjambment across these lines is again used to increase the metrical speed, reflecting the moment of explosive laughter. reference to ‘rose’ could link to femininity,women’s liberation.

  Stephaine began to laugh which lead to ‘Angela Joy’ and so on. The italics of the teachers are no match for the girls, each passing their laughter to another.
• stanza 8,9,10

  The internal rhyme across ‘door. Uproar’, continues this flow, the rhymes  connecting laughter.

  Mrs. Mackay looks up to ‘the moon’ identifying with the feminine symbol, increasing the solemnity of this silent moment.
• stanza 11,12

  Miss Dunn, ‘her small terraced house’ being oddly tragic. erotic language ‘kisses of light’, the connection with light-bearing connotations of positivity and happiness. Yet, the blunt final lines of stanza eleven ‘lived alone.’,

  relationship between Miss Batt and Miss Fife balance of ‘Music and maths’ complimenting in unexpected ways.
• stanza 13


  Mrs. Mackay marriage is described as ’twenty-five grinding, childless years’. stereotypical obligation placed upon women.
• stanza 14

  The ‘safe vessels’ which will continue the passing on numbs both teacher and student equally. link HT

  sterile asyndetic list, ‘numerals, Greek alphabets, French verbs’ is contrasted against the enjambment of Miss Dunn’s dream. She dreams of ‘freezing white terrain/where slowly moving elephants were made of ice’. The spectral beauty of the scene directly rallies against the sterility of learning, This echoing dream is picked up by ‘Miss Batt’ who ‘dreamed of Miss Fife.’, her importance is solidified through the dream.
• stanza 15,16,17

  second day of the poem, ‘the First and Second and Third and Fourth’, combined through polysyndeton, begin to laugh.

   sibilance to describe ‘Señora Devizes’, ’sartorial, strict, slim, severe, teacher of Spanish’ furthers the qualities it names. The constant /s/ carried across these words create a whisper-like quality, reflecting the quiet anger cannot control the ‘young lungs flowering’. The use of floral imagery relates to classical femininity, the use of ‘flowering’ suggesting that the girls are blossoming due to their combined laughter.
• 18-20

  head girl, Josephine June, is stripped of her ‘Head Girl’s badge’.blunt use of assonance, ‘Assembly’s abysmal affair’, punished. Duffy could be commenting on the prejudiced nature of society, always finding one person to blame. The young girls reject this, their screams of ‘All for one!’ echoing across the stanza. The use of italics for this phrase represents how they have taken over the power structure of the school. Where once it was oppressive teachings occupying the italics, now the girls have reclaimed this style.
• stanza 21,22

   simile of ‘like girls on the moon’ is polysemous. On one hand, ‘moon’ connects with classic feminine imagery, demonstrating that they have reclaimed power Moreover, ‘Moon’ also suggests remoteness, they have escaped society and fled to the safety of the ‘moon’. Being away from society, they have finally been able to escape. repetition, ‘kissing her, kissing her, kissing her.’ of Miss Batt and Fife represents a moment of climax. They get over their inhibitions, their lesbian kiss symbolizing total liberation.
• 23,25

  Doctor Dream tries to rally the children, stopping their laughter. She begins a religious ‘vow’, The capitalization of ‘SILENCE!’ reflects the stern attitude of the headteacher. The frequent caesura similarly emulates the stunted laughter, ‘news. The bell rang. Nobody/moved. Nobly made a sound’. Duffy presents a moment of silence in the poem, the girls ‘stared in shame at their shoes’.

  Miss Batt double repetition of ‘laughed’. The girls, and teachers too, are free from the oppressive environment.
• 26-31

  Mrs. Mackay power in their relationship ‘She eyed him’, ‘She spied him’, ‘She clenched’, the constant syntactical placement of ‘she’ before ‘him’ suggesting her regaining of power. . Mrs. Mackay aligns herself with the feminine symbol of ‘the moon’, leaving her husband. The repetition of ‘walked’ Duffy’s reference to Cleopatra linking to Beautiful.

  asyndetic list to describe their laughter, ‘giggling, sniggering, gurgling, snickering’, demonstrates their gaining of freedom. Whereas asyndeton was before used to display rote memorization, it is now claimed by verbs of laughter.
• 33-35

  Duffy uses hyperbole to demonstrate the incredible impacts of the laughter, ‘bursts of hysteria’ and ‘exposed again’ describing the laughter. From the Head’s perspective, laughter is something to fight against, Duffy uses the semantics of war. Indeed, ‘Cackles, like gunfire, crackled’ and a ‘cheer boomed through the Gym’, the head raging against the liberated girls.
• 42,43

  Doctor Bream angrily ‘banged through the double doors, crunched down the gravel drive’ and was gone in ‘her car’. The aggressive ‘banged’ and ‘crunched’ signal the head’s frustration, the girls winning the laughter war.
• 44-46

  Duffy employs the semantics of death, ‘small coffins’, girls won the war by laughing, destroying the practice of rote memorization, and leading to personal liberation.
• A03


  Duffy centres The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High around the location of Stafford Girls’ High. Duffy attended this school between 1970-1974, spending her formative years here. Duffy’s location for the mock epic coincides with her own experiences, immortalizing her school days in the poem.