Stafford Afternoons

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Overview

Written from a child's persona

The child is outside by themselves going through town.

They enter the woods even though they know it is dangerous.

They meet a paedophile and run back home.

The language used in the 4th stanza makes the woods seem scary.

Regular, controlled structure gives the poem a rehearsed feel - like a police statement or an account given to a therapist.

Duffy lived in Stafford.

Locations described suggest an urban, modern setting

Read the poem.

Summary

expression of how a child can be affected by sexual abuse

uses persona to express emotions, told like a dramatic monologue

passive, readers can choose to take notice or not

melancholy, helpless tone shows child's vulnerability

gradually builds up sense of peace, then destroys it

'time fell from the sky like a red ball' - shows how children can be forever affected by sexual abuse

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Imagery

'swallowed me whole'

affects child completely ('whole')

child is small in comparison to the wood; shows vulnerability

easy for child to be abused; 'swallowed whole' shows ease

'swallowed' relates to food - child is 'devoured' by experience, 'eat up inside'

'time fell from the sky like a red ball'

links to children's game, reminds reader that the persona is still a child

time seems to stop; signs of trauma, shock of the incident

red could symbolise blood; injury from abuse

readers relive experience with the persona

'sight made sound rush back'

sight is so terrible, even the sounds retreat from it

shows effects of trauma on child; all traces of safety (i.e. lawnmower and the ice cream van) have faded away

speeds up time again, shows impact of the incident

'let out its sticky breath on the back of my neck'

foreshadowing what the paedophile will do

creates uncomfortable atmosphere

can feel fear on the back of the neck - hair standing up on end

'into a game where children scattered and shrieked'

not a game at all, but the persona is joining the other victims of the paedophile's abuse; disguising it all as a game to entice them to trust him

'game' of trying to get paedophile caught; statement giving and court hearings etc.

Personification

The woods is personified in the 4th stanza, to make the surroundings seem evil, as if they could have warned the child of what is to come, but instead allowed them to enter.

The sense of danger is built up before a paedophile was even mentioned - changes atmosphere of the poem

Child feels scared, and so do the readers.

'flowering nettles gathered spit in their throats'

even though the nettles have flowers, which should be inviting, they are personified as being unkind to the child

this a parallel to the paedophile, as he says 'endearments' but is not loving by nature

insects lay eggs on the underside of leaves, looks like spit

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Tone

The persona (a child who has been sexually abused/assaulted) is using direct voice, describing events with no particular focus on emotion.

This reflects that the child is perhaps giving the police an account of what happened, trying to stay detached from their emotions, keeping it together.

The use of long sentences helps to give a reflective tone to the poem, taking time to describe things. e.g. 'I knew it was dangerous' = evaluative and reflective.

Implies that the child is traumatised; 'time fell from the sky,' 'I backed away.

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Structure

6 stanzas with 4 lines each - rehearsed and regular, like a well-prepared police statement

1st stanza - emptiness and loneliness of Stafford

2nd stanza - sees people and feels lonely and abandoned, only company is horse

3rd stanza - exploring, and entering the wood

4th stanza - describes the scariness of the woods

5th stanza - description of paedophile

6th stanza - return to normality, no longer able to fit in

chronological order; trying to order thoughts in police statement

strict structure - clear, only important information included, little emotion, perhaps trying to remain composed?

Sound and rhythm

emphasis on 'touch' - almost makes reader jump, out of nowhere, only italicised word in entire poem, almost out of place

feet per line - ranges from 10-12, regular and rehearsed, even when describing disturbing experiences, perhaps signifies that the rest of the world carried on, as if this is a normal occurrence in Stafford

alliteration - 'waved at windscreens' - 'w' sound similar to sound of rushing wind going past cars on a motorway

sibilance - repetition of 's' sounds mimics snakelike sounds, and snakes are associated with deception

'scattered and shrieked' - 'sh' sounds sound like a person telling the child not to tell others what happened in the woods

lack of assonance - shows imbalance, hidden irregularity; things are not as they should be

onomatopoeia - 'sight made sound rush back', 's' sound sounds like rushing

lack of rhyme - shows poem is not ideal (most people expect poetry to rhyme), and by extension, neither is its content - story is unsettling, not what the reader expects from the title

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Form

disclosure poem - persona was abused by someone they met as a child that exposed himself to them; personal poem

time-specific; child was by themselves, moving through the landscape, sees a man in an isolated location who improperly suggests something inappropriate

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Language

The Title

informs reader where poem is set; basis for historical research - relates to news stories

'Afternoons' suggests normality; casual, laid back term. Plural; suggests that this is a normal occurrence in Stafford; children meeting paedophiles is regular occurrence

The use of 'Stafford Afternoons' as a phrase further reinforces this idea

Assonance; 'Stafford Afternoons'

Uses formal language - mimicking a police statement

simple and easy language to understand; words are childlike and innocent

'dwindled'

become smaller or lose substance - human contact vanishes

gradually decreasing until nothing remains - safety getting further and further away

'blurred'

indistinct or hazy outline - hard to see people

unclear in form or expression - might not be waving back

'vivid'

evoking lifelike images within the mind - links to imagination

having clarity and freshness of immediate experience - 'lie' is all planned out; can see everything clearly

having striking colour - colourful, interesting; everyday life is grey and boring

having the highest saturation - saturated with excitement

'gulped'

a large and hurried swallow - woods is personified as wanting something to happen to the child and quickly swallows them before they change their mind

a spasmodic reflex of the throat made as if its swallowing - 'relfex' perhaps shows that perhaps the woods could not help letting the child enter it or what happens to the child

utter or make a noise as when swallowing too quickly - 'too quickly' suggests that the child was not ready to see this e.g. uses 'living, purple root' as they have no word for it yet

'thrilled'

feeling intense, pleasurable excitement - most interesting place to explore, thrilled child wants to explore it

'sly'

marked by skill in deception - even the trees seem to be hiding something, as if they know what is about to happen

'endearment'

act of showing affection - strange word to describe man's actions

'scattered'

occurring or distributed over widely spaced and irregular intervals in time or space - persona is separate from other children, watches them over the rest of childhood, rather than being a part of it

lacking order continuing - childhood then lacks logical order

'shrieked'

uttered in a shrill scream of pain or terror - hears pain and terror in happy screams; deeply affected by trauma

'Stafford'

region in the West Midlands - specific

'the ice cream van chimed and dwindled away'

The ice cream van could represent familiarity, as it contains a supervising adult that might offer the child a sort of safety. Its departure represents the absence of safety, as even the ice cream server is not around for the child to run to.

peripheral characters play a role in this poem; 'a strange boy threw a stone'

persona is bored, so starts to wander around, time is going really slowly; 'time seemed to pause'

'I knew it was dangerous' - not supposed to be out by themselves?

warning in 4th stanza; knew of danger; 'too late'

'purple root' describes the paedophile's genitals; childlike description, as they don't have a word for it yet

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Themes and Comparisons

Loss/grief - loss of innocence; 'the sight made sound rush back'

Direct address - like dramatic monologue or police statement

Construction of self - 'time fell from the sky' shows that persona feels that growing up isn't important anymore

Representation of reality - personified woods, how child would see surroundings; with scary faces, 'time fell from the sky' is not literal but how child sees time as a result of trauma

The Cliche Kid

Both talk about the past and unsettling memories. Both narrators have been deeply affected by their pasts. 'The Cliche Kid' summarises multiple things that have affected them, whereas 'Stafford Afternoons' talks about a single event.

Both poems use language to describe what the senses would perceive. 'Stafford Afternoons' uses words such as 'dwindled,' blurred', and 'vivid' which all refer to sight. 'The Cliche Kid' uses the word 'rustle' and later the word 'pine' which create a sense of crunchy autumn leaves; both visual and auditory stimuli.

They both used language to help the reader to understand the emotions of the poems. 'Stafford Afternoons' uses words such as 'gulped,' 'thrilled' and 'sly' which reveals three emotional dimensions; fear and anxiety, excitement and evilness of knowing deception. 'The Cliche Kid' uses the words 'distraught', and 'faint,' to give the poem emotional depth. The character is exasperated with her situation, yet is powerless to change it (hence the term 'faint').

'Stafford Afternoons' and 'The Cliche Kid' both seem to be talking to professionals, however the child in 'Stafford Afternoons' is likely to be talking to a police inspector, whereas the woman in 'The Cliche Kid' is talking to a therapist. The incident described in 'Stafford Afternoons' is likely to be quite recent because of the vividness of the memory recall, and there is clearly a person at fault. In 'The Cliche Kid,' the events described are perhaps nobody's direct fault and they happened quite a long time ago, scattered over the persona's whole life.

Both titles suggest a normality, and build an expectation of average-ness as if the poems themselves make little impact on the reader. This could represent how the personas feel. The child in 'Stafford Afternoons' and the woman in 'The Cliche Kid' both feel powerless to change their situations. Both titles also tell us the subject of both poems. However, the subject of 'The Cliche Kid' is easily identified, more so than that of 'Stafford Afternoons.' This fits with the nature of these poems; 'The Cliche Kid' is more obvious (hence 'cliche' being in the title) and 'Stafford Afternoons' has a more evasive quality, like the paedophile who is avoiding conviction by the law.

Both personas are affected by events from the past, and both are describing these events. Because event that happened to the child in 'Stafford Afternoons' happened more recently that some of the events in 'The Cliche Kid,' the child is more evasive towards their own emotions. This evasion could also be because the child is speaking to someone they are unfamiliar with e.g. a police investigator, whereas the woman in 'The Cliche Kid' is talking to her therapist, who she is more comfortable with, therefore he talks about his emotions more openly. Moreover, a police investigation is likely to want a more or less objective account of the events that took place, whereas a therapy session is focused around the client's emotions, with an attempt to understand and deal with them, hence the difference in tone of the poems.

Both poems are structured chronologically, inside a strict structure plan. This reveals that both personas are trying to remain composed and brief, but for different reasons. The child in 'Stafford Afternoons' is trying not to have an emotional outburst in front of a police inspector, whilst the woman in 'The Cliche Kid' is trying not to go off topic when summarising her life for their therapist.

The emphasis in 'Stafford Afternoons' on the word 'touch' shocks the reader as the text is suddenly italicised. It also shows what the child is most focused on; their trauma. The emphasis used in 'The Cliche Kid' shows inflections used in speech, and what the narrator is focusing on.

The feet per line is very similar, as both poem present a sense of rehearsal; because of their regularity.

Both poems use alliteration in an auditory manner. The sounds created in alliteration create a soundscape, which adds to the atmosphere of the poem.

Both poems lack assonance, which reveals a hidden irregularity in the poems. 'The Cliche Kid' also lacks onomatopoeia, whereas 'Stafford Afternoons' uses it to contribute to its already existing soundscape.

'Stafford Afternoon' has no rhyme, but 'The Cliche Kid' features lots of different rhyme types. 'Stafford Afternoons' describes a singular event affecting the child, whereas 'The Cliche Kid' is a summary of events that have affected the persona. This means 'The Cliche Kid' features a wider range of emotions; meaning that it uses different types of rhyme to set the tone throughout.

'Stafford Afternoons' features a lot more imagery, symbolism and connotative meanings than 'The Cliche Kid'. This could be because the child in 'Stafford Afternoons' is not ready to openly talk about how they feel about what happened to them, so they speak in figurative language more so than literal language. 'The Cliche Kid' is possibly addressed to a therapist, so the persona's intention is to give details about the events affecting their life, therefore less figurative language is used, as they are more open about expressing their emotions.