These stanzas of The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High explore the lives of the teachers, first focusing on Miss Dunn. She arrives home, ‘her small terraced house’ being oddly tragic. Yet, she loves her home, Duffy uses erotic language to depict her life. She writes, ‘kisses of light’, the connection with light-bearing connotations of positivity and happiness. Yet, the blunt final lines of stanza eleven leave the scene melancholic and uncertain. The life of Miss Dunn is lonely, signalled by ‘lived alone.’, combined with a preceding caesura and harsh end stop. These structural techniques lead to a depressing quality to the line, the meter sharply interrupted, reflecting Dunn’s solitary life. She applied to the University of Liverpool to be near him, and began a philosophy degree there in 1974. She had two plays performed at the Liverpool Playhouse, wrote a pamphlet, Fifth Last Song, and received an honours degree in philosophy in 1977. [3] She won the National Poetry Competition in 1983. She worked as poetry critic for The Guardian from 1988 to 1989, and was editor of the poetry magazine, Ambit. In 1996, she was appointed as a lecturer in poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University, and later became creative director of its Writing School. [6]

Either about the rebirth of a friend, or the woman being reborn could be seen as the voice of feminism Miss Batt and Miss Fife have a similar new beginning, the ‘small room’ they share bathed in ‘new light’. The use of light is promising, Duffy symbolizing the happy future they have started together. Miss Batt moves down Miss Fife’s body, caressing her ‘down to the triangle’. The happy union of the women is mirrored by the beauty of the ‘brightest stars’, the galaxy looking at their sexual unification. One of the key themes within Beautiful is Duffy’s exploration of women in history. History is a major theme that Duffy discusses within ‘Feminine Gospels’. This poem uses history to suggest that women have been exploited since the beginning of time, both in fantasy and real life. Duffy exposes the horrors of this exploitation, discussing how it often leads to pain and death. Women are oppressed at the hands of men, both individuals and making up larger forms of society. Duffy suggests that women are brought up to nurture, transforming into teachers that carry the legacy of the past. The ‘safe vessels’ which will continue the passing on of knowledge seem like an important role. Yet, the attached ‘sensible’ seems boring and tasteless. Duffy could be suggesting that this form of learning numbs both teacher and student equally.It is hard not to find that assumption of freedom heady. Even if, in this particular poem, the character is hardly given Duffy's approval, that readiness to move on is intoxicating. It teaches an odd, contemporary post-feminist courage; and perhaps that is the source of Duffy's huge popularity. The stories of the women are told by a third person narrator. The tone is ironic and bleakly humorous. The pace is fast, relying particularly on lists that carry their own significance to the reader. Though nothing is known of Helen’s death, the other three — significantly — died gruesomely; Cleopatra used a poisenous snake to bite and kill her; Marilyn Munroe committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping tablets, and Diana died in a car crash pursued by the press seeking photographs. Asyndeton is once again used across the end of the fourth stanza, Duffy linking together names for Helen. The large number of names people call Helen could further link to her name, her notorious beauty calling the attention of every man.

New Year Honours List" (PDF). Gov.uk. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 January 2015 . Retrieved 17 July 2016. Yet, Cleopatra is able to leverage her beauty to get what she wants, Duffy presents the woman’s power. The fact she reduces ‘Caesar’ to ‘gibbering’ displays the control she has. We know this is a sexual power by the location, ‘in bed’. Duffy suggests that Cleopatra gains power by accepting her beauty and using it to manipulate and control men. Structure: trisects unequal length lines. This is ironic as Duffy uses a structured form of dramatic monologue Duffy’s themes include language and the representation of reality; the construction of the self; gender issues; contemporary culture; and many different forms of alienation, oppression and social inequality. She writes in everyday, conversational language, making her poems appear deceptively simple. With this demotic style she creates contemporary versions of traditional poetic forms - she makes frequent use of the dramatic monologue in her exploration of different voices and different identities, and she also uses the sonnet form. Duffy is both serious and humorous, often writing in a mischievous, playful style - in particular, she plays with words as she explores the way in which meaning and reality are constructed through language. In this, her work has been linked to postmodernism and poststructuralism, but this is a thematic influence rather than a stylistic one: consequently, there is an interesting contrast between the postmodern content and the conservative forms.These stanzas feature the teachers deciding to change their lives. They rebel against convention, going after what they want in life. The budding relationship between Miss Batt and Miss Fife is also explored in this section of The Laughter of Stafford Girls’ High. The balance of ‘Music and maths’ reflects the teachers, both complimenting each other in unexpected ways. There is a comforting atmosphere evoked between the two, ‘Miss Batt’s small piano’ filling the scene with joyous music. Although unexplored, there is a certain affection between them, suggested by ‘woman’s silently virtuous love’. The use of ‘silently’ suggests they have not yet told each other their mutual feelings. Within the fourth stanza, Duffy makes reference to ‘Dr Faustus’, ‘A thousand ships’ echoing the description of ‘A face that launched a thousand ships’. This confirms to the reader that Duffy is focusing on Helen of Troy, who features in Christopher Marlowe’s play.