STAFFORD AFTERNOONS BY SAM MCCOY AND JACK SAUNDERS

STAFFORD AFTERNOONS BY SAM MCCOY AND JACK SAUNDERS (PAGE 50)

STAFFORD AFTERNOONS Present themes • • • Imagination of childhood Endless space Feeling of being alone Separation Exploring and finding yourself

FIRST STANZA Only there, the afternoons could suddenly pause and when I looked up from lacing my shoe a long road held no one, the gardens were empty, an ice-cream van chimed and dwindled away. The first stanza opens with ‘only there’; meaning there is a reference to a specific location or memory. It then follows with the exaggeration of ‘suddenly pause’ which is later reinforced with the third line- ‘a long road held no one, the gardens were empty’. This indicates no life, the feeling of being alone and the separation from the real world. The personification of the roads indicates they have the ability to ‘hold’ life, yet this sudden pause has deprived them of that. The enjambment in this stanza allows the free flowing read to the main point being expressed (loneliness). On the last line it adds more to the idea of everything vanishing, when it says the ‘ice-cream van chimed and dwindled away’.

SECOND STANZA On the motorway bridge, I waved at windscreens, oddly hurt by the blurred waves back, the speed. So I let a horse in the noisy field sponge at my palm and invented, in colour, a vivid lie for us both. In the second stanza, it revisits the typical childhood game of waving at cars on the road as they drove past. Duffy gets the message across to the reader ‘the speed’ of the motorway bridge and troubling feelings of rejection from other cars. This feels extremely true as the reader can relate to this; we start to wonder if Duffy was used to being rejected by other people and that this game has a stronger meaning than intended. We do relate to moments when we were children and we remember moments when the world seemed to be a lot smaller and when we thought the world used to be ours and it collapsed as we grew older and then the feeling of rejection kicked in as we started adulthood. She waves at the windscreens suggesting no life is present, relating back to the lack of life in the gardens in stanza 1. However this is contrasted in the last part of the stanza when it mentions ‘a vivid lie for us both’ this shows another person is present, or within the thoughts of the writer.

THIRD STANZA In a cul-de-sac, a strange boy threw a stone. I crawled through a hedge into long grass at the edge of a small wood, lonely and thrilled. The green silence gulped once and swallowed me whole. Its fitting that the first mention of specific life happens within the ‘cul-de-sac’ as it is often linked with the lively community atmosphere. ‘A strange boy threw a stone’ this is the first specific mention of life, however, it appears the ‘boy’ is unknown to the writer. Throwing of stones is your stereotypical action of a young boy, however, it is given no context leaving it merely a statement within the stanza. Even with this mention of life, the writer still relates back to the feeling of loneliness as they crawled into the woods. Although, there are mentions of positive feelings leaving the writer feeling ‘thrilled’. The writer uses personification to describe her current surroundings, ‘the green silence gulped once and swallowed me whole’. This personification aims to increase theme of being thrilled with its instantaneous swallowing of the writer.

FOURTH STANZA I knew it was dangerous. The way the trees drew sly faces from light and shade, the wood let out its sticky breath on the back of my neck, and flowering nettles gathered spit in their throats. Within the first line the writer knows of the danger present, however, the feeling of being thrilled drives their curiosity. Again the writer uses the personification of nature to describe her environment, ‘the trees drew sly faces from light and shade’. This gives the feeling of hostility but reinforces theme of the imagination of a child. Again the writer uses personification by saying, ‘the wood let out its sticky breath on the back of my neck’. This increases the tension of the scene by adding to the hostility of the environment.

FIFTH STANZA: QUERY THIS SLIDE! Too late. Touch, said the long-haired man who stood, legs apart, by a silver birch with a living, purple root in his hand. The sight made sound rush back; birds, a distant lawnmower, The fifth stanza opens up with a new reference to life, a kind of snap back to reality. This new person only says ‘touch’ to the main person in the poem. This can be seen as push towards exploring and finding ones self in this new environment. This relates back to theme of finding yourself as the main person is being encouraged to experience new things. This new character is then described to be holding ‘a silver birch with a living, purple root in his hand’. With silver connoting to things seen to be precious and then the mention of purple which is often seen as the royal colour. This adds to the value this new experience brings. This experience is described using the senses and a triplet. However it is interesting how the writer has made one sense have quite a strong effect on another indicating the power of these new surroundings.

SIXTH STANZA his hoarse, frightful endearments as I backed away then ran all the way home; into a game where children scattered and shrieked and time fell from the sky like a red ball. The last stanza opens by describing the man himself. There is enjambment between this and the previous stanza. This indicates that whilst it is the same topic as the previous stanza it takes a different approach. It appears that the main character, or this new experience, has scared the main character which is a young child. As the main character leaves and runs home they appear to run through a game. The game and it’s players are described as ‘shrieking’, this ‘shrieking’ often makes people uncomfortable which then adds to the scared feeling that the main character appears to be feeling. The use of the simile in the last line describes how this encounter feels. It is quick, and possibly violent in progression as a ball can fall in different ways.