In Mrs Tilscher's Class Essay

The poems ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class’ and ‘Death of a naturalist,’ written by two incredibly talented poets, Carol Anne Duffy and Seamus Heaney. Mrs Tilscher’s Class and Death of a naturalist are two completely different poems with some similar concepts or themes, which helps to construct the idea of coming of age. Both these poems unconventionally touch on this through the themes; how a students view their teacher, how nature and weather are used to create a picture of coming of age and the movement a child takes from what they know into adolescence. Both poets use these themes and different techniques to create and explain an idea or view of ‘coming of age.’

The way a child or student views or even how they associate a teacher can reflex their age, naivety and attitude, both Carol Anne Duffy and Seamus Heaney use this to their advantage by creating an image around the teachers during the begging of both the plays, and how that view changes as a child moves forwards into adolescence. As a child the way you picture both school and your teachers is a lot different from how you se it as a teen or adolescent; where you have more to worry about and the naivety you held when you were younger had been tarnished by the world. That’s why when one hears or reads the line from Duffy’s poem, ‘In Mrs Tilscher’s Class,’ “You could travel up the Blue Nile with your finger, tracing the route while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.” Which has much the same effect that, “Miss Walls would tell us how

As well as seeing the similar and different techniques and ideas both poets used to create these brilliant poems it becomes easy for an audience to interpret and see the poet's views on ‘coming of